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To evolve Gimmighoul in Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet, collect 999 Gimmighoul Coins, keep a Chest Form Gimmighoul in your party, and level it up once. The evolution is Gholdengo, a Steel/Ghost-type Pokémon. Chest Form Gimmighoul can be caught; Roaming Form Gimmighoul gives coins but cannot be caught.
You need a copy of Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet for Nintendo Switch to follow this guide.
What you need to do
- Find a Chest Form Gimmighoul in a red chest around Paldea.
- Battle and catch it.
- Collect Gimmighoul Coins from defeated Chest Form Gimmighoul and from Roaming Form encounters.
- Reach exactly or more than 999 coins in your inventory.
- Put the Chest Form Gimmighoul in your party and make it gain a level.
The level-up is the trigger. Having 999 coins alone does not evolve a Gimmighoul sitting in a box, and the coins are not spent like a normal held item. Once the requirement is met and the qualifying Gimmighoul levels up, it evolves into Gholdengo.
Gimmighoul’s two forms
Scarlet and Violet use two encounter types. Knowing which form you are looking at prevents the most common mistake: searching for a catchable Pokémon when the game is offering only a coin interaction.
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| Form | Where you encounter it | Can you catch it? | How it helps the evolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest Form | Red chests in ruins, on watchtowers, and at other points around Paldea | Yes. Interacting with the chest starts a battle. | After you defeat one, it awards 50 Gimmighoul Coins according to KeenGamer’s November 26, 2022 guide. You can also catch the Pokémon. |
| Roaming Form | Small roaming encounters heard and found while exploring | No. The encounter disappears after you interact with it. | It gives a coin from the interaction, supplementing the larger rewards from Chest Form battles. |
Both forms are Gimmighoul, but only a Chest Form specimen can become the Pokémon you raise toward Gholdengo. Roaming Form encounters are a collection source, not a second way to obtain a permanent Gimmighoul.
Step 1: Find a Chest Form Gimmighoul
Start with red chests
Search for the red treasure chests used by Chest Form Gimmighoul. They appear in ruins and on watchtowers across Paldea. When you interact with one, the chest opens into a Pokémon battle rather than a normal item pickup.
An early, clearly cited location is near the Poco Path Lighthouse. This makes the lighthouse area a practical starting point if you want to begin the quest soon after reaching the open map. As you travel, treat every ruin and watchtower as a possible stop rather than searching only one region.
Use watchtowers as repeatable checkpoints
Watchtowers are useful because they are conspicuous landmarks and provide recurring encounter points. A route that links several towers lets you check multiple chest locations without wandering randomly. Ruins can be added between towers, especially when you are already passing through them for other objectives.
Encounter availability can be inconsistent when you revisit a location, so do not assume that every tower will immediately provide another battle. If a familiar chest is absent, continue to another tower or ruin and return later instead of waiting indefinitely in one spot.
Recognize the battle interaction
- Approach a red chest.
- Interact with it to begin the Gimmighoul battle.
- Fight it as you would any wild Pokémon.
- Catch it if you want the Chest Form specimen for your party or boxes, or defeat it for its coin reward.
The important distinction is that the chest itself is the encounter. A Roaming Form Gimmighoul seen outside a chest is not an alternative catch opportunity.
Step 2: Catch the Chest Form you will evolve
After winning the chest battle, catch a Chest Form Gimmighoul. Keep track of this individual separately from the coins: the coins are an account-wide total in your bag, while the Pokémon must be present in your party when you perform the final level-up.
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You do not need to evolve the first Chest Form Gimmighoul you find. If you want to compare the Pokémon you catch, place candidates in your boxes and decide later. The evolution requirement is tied to reaching 999 Gimmighoul Coins and leveling the Chest Form Gimmighoul you have chosen.
If you defeat it accidentally
A defeated Chest Form encounter still supplies its coin reward, but you will not have that individual available to raise. Continue checking other chests until you catch one. The coin total and the act of catching a particular Gimmighoul are separate tasks, so an accidental defeat does not erase coins already collected.
Step 3: Earn the large coin rewards from Chest Form battles
KeenGamer’s November 26, 2022 guide states that defeating a Chest Form Gimmighoul awards 50 Gimmighoul Coins. Because the evolution threshold is 999 coins, battle drops alone require at least 20 Chest Form encounters: 19 defeats provide 950 coins, which is short of the requirement, while 20 provide 1,000 coins.
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| Defeated Chest Form Gimmighoul | Coins from 50-coin rewards | Position relative to 999 |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 500 | 499 short |
| 19 | 950 | 49 short |
| 20 | 1,000 | Reaches the requirement |
The 20-battle figure is a minimum for the stated 50-coin reward route. It does not mean you must ignore Roaming Form encounters. Any roaming coins you collect reduce the number of Chest Form battles needed to reach 999.
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If your immediate goal is the evolution, decide how many Chest Form Pokémon you want to keep before starting a route. Catching one specimen gives you the Pokémon needed for the final evolution; subsequent chests can be treated as coin-producing battles if you do not need additional captures. If you want several Gimmighoul, catching more will lengthen the coin run because those encounters are no longer being counted solely as defeats.
The key accounting rule is simple: count every coin actually added to your total, not just the number of chests visited. A chest used for a catch may not contribute the same battle reward as a chest you defeat, so check your inventory after a group of encounters.
Step 4: Collect the smaller rewards from Roaming Form Gimmighoul
While exploring, listen for the coin-like sound associated with Roaming Form Gimmighoul. Find the roaming Pokémon and interact with it. It gives you a coin, then disappears. KeenGamer’s 2022 guide emphasizes that these encounters cannot be caught.
How roaming encounters fit into the route
- Check around ruins and watchtowers while traveling between Chest Form locations.
- When you hear the sound, stop and look for the roaming Gimmighoul before moving on.
- Interact once to claim the coin; do not expect a battle or a capture screen.
- Return your attention to red chests for the substantial rewards needed to finish the total.
A roaming interaction is worth one coin, so it is a supplement rather than a replacement for Chest Form battles. For example, collecting 25 roaming coins leaves 974 coins to obtain from other sources; the exact number of battles then depends on how many 50-coin rewards you receive and whether any other coins are already in your total.
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Why you should not wait only for roaming Gimmighoul
Roaming Form encounters are valuable when you find them naturally, but one coin per interaction makes a roaming-only plan inefficient for a 999-coin requirement. Use exploration routes to collect them opportunistically, then rely on Chest Form encounters for the bulk of the total.
Build an efficient collection route
The most reliable approach combines the two encounter types instead of treating them as competing methods.
Route pattern
- Begin at a known Chest Form location, such as the area near Poco Path Lighthouse.
- Travel to a watchtower and check for its red chest.
- Search nearby ruins before moving to the next tower.
- Listen for the Roaming Form sound during every travel segment and collect any coin you find.
- Record your coin total after each cluster of encounters.
- Continue cycling through towers and ruins until the inventory total reaches at least 999.
Watchtower and ruin routes are practical because they concentrate the two useful activities: chest battles for 50-coin rewards and roaming checks for one-coin pickups. Respawn or reappearance timing at watchtowers may be inconsistent, so rotate through several locations rather than depending on a single chest to return immediately.
Choosing between a short and a broad route
| Approach | Best use | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Short route around one or two landmarks | Starting the quest or checking whether a nearby chest is available | Limited encounters and more dependence on inconsistent reappearance timing |
| Broad watchtower-and-ruin circuit | Collecting the majority of the 999 coins efficiently | Requires more travel and tracking, but combines chest rewards with roaming checks |
| Exploration-first roaming sweep | Picking up incidental coins while completing other objectives | One coin per interaction makes it too slow as the only method |
Step 5: Reach 999 coins and trigger the evolution
Check the requirement
Nintendo Life’s December 21, 2022 guide and KeenGamer’s November 26, 2022 guide identify 999 Gimmighoul Coins as the evolution requirement. The total can be higher than 999; you do not need to stop at an exact inventory value. What matters is reaching the threshold.
Put the correct Pokémon in your party
Place the Chest Form Gimmighoul you intend to evolve in your active party. A Gimmighoul left in a box cannot perform the level-up trigger, even if your coin total is already sufficient.
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Make it gain one level
- Confirm that your coin total is at least 999.
- Confirm that the chosen Chest Form Gimmighoul is in your party.
- Give it enough experience to gain a level through normal gameplay.
- Allow the evolution sequence to begin when the level-up completes.
The result is Gholdengo, whose typing is Steel/Ghost. The evolution is tied to the level-up after the coin requirement has been met; collecting coins does not cause an immediate transformation while the Pokémon remains idle.
Coin math and practical checkpoints
Use the following calculation to plan the final stretch:
Coins still needed = 999 − your current Gimmighoul Coin total
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If the result is zero or negative, stop farming and proceed to the party-and-level-up step. If it is positive, subtract one coin for every Roaming Form interaction and 50 coins for every defeated Chest Form Gimmighoul that has awarded its stated reward.
- At 0 coins, 20 qualifying Chest Form defeats provide 1,000 coins.
- At 500 coins, you need 499 more; ten additional 50-coin rewards provide 500.
- At 950 coins, one roaming coin is enough to cross the threshold, although a further Chest Form battle will also exceed it.
- At any total above 999, no additional coin collection is necessary for this evolution.
These examples use the 50-coin battle reward and one-coin roaming reward documented in the cited 2022 guides. Your useful checkpoint is the inventory total, not an assumed number of encounters.
Troubleshooting: why Gimmighoul did not evolve
You have fewer than 999 coins
Recheck the total in your bag. Nineteen 50-coin defeats produce 950 coins, so that apparently large number of battles is still 49 coins short. Continue with another chest encounter or roaming interactions.
The Pokémon is in a box
Move the Chest Form Gimmighoul into your party before it gains its next level. The requirement is not satisfied by merely owning a Gimmighoul somewhere in storage.
You are trying to evolve a Roaming Form encounter
Roaming Form Gimmighoul cannot be caught. It disappears after giving one coin, so there is no roaming Pokémon to place in your party. Catch a Chest Form Gimmighoul from a red chest instead.
You expected the coins to be consumed
The 999 coins function as an evolution requirement. The documented trigger is reaching the threshold and then leveling the Chest Form Gimmighoul; the process is not described as spending the coins from your inventory.
A watchtower chest is not present
Watchtower encounters may not reappear on a predictable schedule. Move to another watchtower or ruin, collect any available coins there, and check the original location again later rather than treating one missing chest as a completed route.
Quick Recap
Quick checklist
- Game: Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet on Nintendo Switch.
- Target Pokémon: a catchable Chest Form Gimmighoul.
- Coin requirement: 999 Gimmighoul Coins.
- Large reward: 50 coins for each defeated Chest Form Gimmighoul, as reported by KeenGamer in 2022.
- Battle-only minimum: 20 qualifying defeats.
- Supplement: one coin from each Roaming Form interaction.
- Final trigger: level up the Chest Form Gimmighoul while it is in your party.
- Evolution: Gholdengo, Steel/Ghost type.
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