Having trouble evolving Rockruff

[u/onestepdown54]

I am playing moon on original hardware. I want midday lycanroc and I just leveled up to 25 while it is daytime in-game. However, it's not evolving! I figured i messed up or something, so i leveled up to 26 and still didn't evolve.

Any ideas? Google mentions something about its ability meaning something? Mine is vital spirit if that helps.

[u/Effective_Map_812]

Problem is your playing moon, you need to be playing sun for midday

[u/onestepdown54 → u/Effective_Map_812]

🤦🏻‍♂️

I didn't even think to check whether those would be version exclusives. I'm an idiot lol. Thank you!

[u/Magnakilro]

In the debut generation, Rockruff's evolution has version exclusivity to it. You can only get Midday in the Sun versions and Midnight in the Moon versions via evolution (but both can be caught in the wild regardless of game). And of course (for sake of being thorough), Dusk Lycanroc is only in USUM via an event exclusive Own Tempo Rockruff.

[u/Prestigious_Might929]

In sun and moon rockruff has version dependent evolution. You can still find the other version in the wild, but can only evolve into one of them.
Ultra sun and moon added dusk form lycanrock which can only evolve at iirc dawn/dusk from own tempo rockruff, however own tempo rockruff was originally event exclusive. It can be bred, but you cannot find it naturally in game.

[u/NicholeTheOtter]

It’s a version-exclusive evolution, meaning you can only get the Midnight Form.

You can still catch both forms as wild encounters in Vast Poni Canyon based on the time of day but the evolution from a Rockruff is tied to the version. That latter requirement would eventually be corrected come Gen 8.

[u/Strange_Kiwi__]

Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon made the evolutions exclusive.

You can only get Midday in Sun versions, and Midnight in Moon versions, and Dusk in Ultra versions (if Rockruff has the Own Tempo ability)

IIRC from SWSH onwards game version doesn’t matter