How to evolve Larvesta into Volcarona in Pokemon GO

Larvesta and Volcarona are finally making their way to Pokemon GO (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Pokemon GO's "An Instinctive Hero" event will begin on May 2, 2023, and will remain active until May 8, 2023. During this time, Larvesta, the Torch Pokemon, will finally make its debut in the mobile title alongside its evolution, Volcarona. The two Bug/Fire-type creatures have been popular in the main series of games for some time, and they're finally arriving in Niantic's mobile title for the first time.

Hailing from the Unova region, Larvesta and Volcarona were noticed in Pokemon GO data mines dating back to at least 2021. However, Niantic had been reticent to release the two species for some unspecified reason. Fortunately, as of May 2, trainers should now be able to obtain and evolve Larvesta into Volcarona.

Pokemon GO players have to depend on Buddy System and egg-hatching to evolve Larvesta into Volcarona

When Pokemon GO's "An Instinctive Hero" event kicks off, Larvesta will be hatchable from eggs. Specifically, it can be obtained from any 2km, 5km, and 10km eggs for the duration of the event. This will be vital to obtain a Larvesta with quality IV stats.

Trainers will also need to hatch additional Larvesta to accrue candies in order to evolve the creature into Volcarona. Larvesta requires a hefty 400 candies to evolve, putting it on par with Magikarp's candy cost to evolve into Gyarados.

Fortunately, there are other tactics to be used between egg hatches that should also help trainers net a few more Larvesta candies in Pokemon GO.

Here's how to obtain and evolve Larvesta in Pokemon GO:

Before anything else, be sure to collect plenty of 2km, 5km, and 10km eggs. This means spinning as many Pokestop photo discs as possible while ensuring your Adventure Sync function is active. If you manage to traverse 25km and 50km in a week with Adventure Sync active, you'll receive an additional 5km and 10km eggs, respectively.
Once you've got a few eggs, it's time to pop them into an incubator. Any incubator will do, but blue and Super Incubators will cut down on the distance you need to travel before the egg hatches.
When your first Larvesta hatches from one of your eggs, be sure to set it as your Buddy Pokemon. This will allow it to collect Larvesta candies for you as you travel. Afterward, simply keep incubating and hatching eggs as much as you can. The combined Buddy Pokemon income and egg-hatching candy bonus should provide you with 400 Larvesta candies, though it may take some time to do so.
With 400 Larvesta candies on hand, open your roster of Pokemon and select the Larvesta you wish to evolve. Scroll down its information page and tap the evolve button. You'll now have a new Volcarona to use as you see fit.

That's all there is to it! Hopefully in future updates, Niantic will make Larvesta and Volcarona obtainable through other gameplay methods. However, for the time being, trainers will have to rely on the Buddy System and plenty of egg-hatching to get the job done.