How to Evolve Honedge

Last Updated: November 12, 2022 References

New to Pokémon X and Y? The sixth generation of Pokémon games (X/Y and Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire) introduced Honedge, a new steel/ghost type Pokémon that takes the shape of a sword. Evolving Honedge to its second form, Doublade, is as simple as training it to level 35. Getting Doublade to its final stage, Aegislash, requires a Dusk Stone.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Evolving to Doublade

1
Find a Honedge in Route Six. If you don't already have a Honedge, don't worry — they're not especially hard to find in Pokémon X and Y. You'll want to look in Route Six, which is the area connecting Route Seven to the Parfum Palace.^{[1]
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Research source} Route Six is marked by two rows of shade trees along the sides of a central path. However, to find Honedge, you need to get to the tall grass behind the trees, which means entering the palace grounds and immediately exiting through one of the side paths.
- Note that Honedges appear approximately 15% of the time in the tall grass. You will probably have to fight a handful of Oddishes and Sentrets before you encounter a Honedge.^{[2]
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- It's also possible to get Honedge in Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby. However, this can only be done through trading. You can't catch Honedge in the wild in these games.
2
Catch the Honedge. There isn't a special strategy to catching the Honedges in Route Six. Once you get into a fight with one, get it down to a low HP level (without making it faint) and throw your best Pokéball at it. The Honedges you will encounter will be about level 11 or 12, so the fight shouldn't be too difficult. However, here are some things you may want to know:^{[3]
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- Honedges are extra-weak versus ghost, fire, ground, and dark type attacks.
- Honedges are immune to normal, fighting, and poison type attacks.
- Honedges take normal damage from water and electric type attacks.
- Honedges take reduced damage from every other type.
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3
Train the Honedge to Level 35. There's nothing out-of-the ordinary about the way you must level up your Honedge — just keep training it slowly and steadily. Since you'll catch your Honedge at about level 11 or 12, you have about 23 or 24 levels to gain until it will evolve. This can take some time, but it will be a little faster if you use experience-boosting items like:
- Exp. Share: This item gives experience to all the Pokémon in your party — not just the ones that participate in the battle. You can get the Exp. Share from Alexa in Santalune City after defeating Viola.^{[4]
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- Lucky Egg: The Pokémon that holds this item will receive 150% of the normal experience it would get from battle. You can find the Lucky Egg several places:^{[5]
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  You can show the girl in the girl in the Coumarine City hotel lobby a Pokémon with a high friendship level
  
  You can get it from beating Graffiti Eraser level two in the PokéMileage Club.f
  
  You can get it from wild Chanseys in the Friend Safari
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Allow it to evolve. Once you get your Honedge to level 35, it will start to evolve into Doublade. There aren't any time or item requirements to get it to evolve — evolution should happen automatically.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Evolving to Aegislash

1
Find a Dusk Stone in Terminus Cave. Evolving your new Doublade into its final form, Aegislash, can't be done through normal training. Instead, you must use a special evolutionary item called a "Dusk Stone" to get it to evolve. There are a few places in the game to get this stone. The most straightforward is to simply find it in Terminus Cave (accessible from Route 18).^{[6]
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- Note that you can't get to Route 18 until you defeat Team Flare and Lysandre at their HQ in Geosenge town, so you'll need to do this before you can get to the cave and find the Dusk Stone.
- Inside the cave, the Dusk Stone can be found on the second basement level to the far left of the map. It is to the left of an Iron item on a stalactite.^{[7]
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Alternatively, get the Dusk Stone from Secret Super Training. Another straightforward way to get a Dusk Stone is through the Secret Super Training minigame. The level you must beat is level six, "Watch Out! That's One Tricky Second Half!" Defeating the Aegislash balloon bot wins you an item as a prize — the Dusk Stone is one of five possible prizes for this level.^{[8]
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- You can access the training minigames at any time via the bottom screen of the 3DS.^{[9]
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  Research source} It is to the left of the Player Search System and to the right of Pokémon-Amie.
- Keep in mind that only fully-trained Pokémon are eligible for Secret Super Training.
- Beating the target time as quickly as possible gives you a better chance for a rare item like a Dusk Stone.
3
Use another option for getting a Dusk Stone. There are a few other ways to get a Dusk Stone in Pokémon X and Y. These aren't typically as convenient as the options above, but they are worth mentioning:
- You can get a Dusk Stone from beating Balloon Popping level three in the PokéMileage Club.
- You can get a Dusk Stone by beating the Psychic "Inver" trainer on Route 18 with a score of 7-9. In these battles, Pokémon type strengths and weaknesses are reversed. Your score is the number of "It's super effective" hits you make minus the number of "it's not very effective" hits. The Dusk Stone is one of ten possible prizes for scores of 7-9 (all are evolutionary stones).
- You can get a Dusk Stone by beating a Team Flare Grunt in Laverre City. However, this is only after beating the Elite Four.
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Use the Dusk Stone on Doublade. Once you have a Dusk Stone, evolving Doublade is easy. Just use the item on Doublade and the evolution sequence will begin. Congratulations — you now have an Aegislash!
- This will consume the Dusk Stone, so think carefully before you use this rare item.
- There is no level requirement to evolve Doublade this way, but you may want to hold off on evolving yours until it's learned all of the moves you want, as Douslash can learn moves through leveling up that Aegislash can't. Click here for a link to a page with all of Doublade's move possibilities.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I get Chesnaught if I pick Froakie?

Community Answer

You're going to have to use the GTS to search for Chespin, Quilladin, or a Chesnaught. You could also just hope that you get Chespin or one of its evolved forms on Wonder Trade.
Question

How do I level him up quickly?

Community Answer

To level up quickly, you can use rare candy (which can be obtained by spending 500 Pokémiles) or fight the Elite Four a couple of times.