Pokémon Sword and Shield Milcery evolution method: how to evolve Milcery into Alcremie, including Rainbow Swirl Alcremie explained
Milcrey and its second stage evolution, Alcremie, are both new Gen 8 that debuted in Pokémon Sword and Shield.
Depending on how you conduct Milcrey's evolution, Alcremie can take on a variety of different forms. This includes having different colour eyes, different cream decorations and even a completely different colour scheme.
Alongside Applin, Sinistea, Sirfetch'd, Toxel and Yamask, Milcery has brought a new evolution method into the Pokémon franchise.
On this page:
- Where to find Milcery in Pokémon Sword and Shield
- Where to find sweets in Pokémon Sword and Shield
- How to evolve Milcery into Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield
- Tips on evolving Milcery into Rainbow Swirl Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield
- How useful is Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield?
Where to find Milcery in Pokémon Sword and Shield
Milcery can be found on Route 4 and within several sections of the Wild Area - Bridge Field and Giant's Mirror.
Keep your eyes peeled when searching for Milcery, because it's a random encounter in the long grass.
Here are the section of the Wild Area Milcery appears in and what weather must be occurring there:
| Wild Area Location | Weather |
|---|---|
| Bridge Field | Heavy Fog |
| Giant's Mirror | Heavy Fog |
Where to find sweets in Pokémon Sword and Shield
Once you've caught a Milcery, it's time to track down a sweet, because, without one, you won't be able to evolve Milcery into Alcremie.
There are seven different types of sweets in total:
- Berry Sweet
- Clover Sweet
- Flower Sweet
- Love Sweet
- Ribbon Sweet
- Star Sweet
- Strawberry Sweet
The type of sweet you give your Milcery will determine both the eye colour and the decorations your Alcremie will have in its cream.
You can earn these sweets by winning battles at the Battle Cafes in either Motostoke, Hammerlocke and Wyndon.
There is no guarantee, however, that you'll receive a sweet after defeating the cafe owner. He has a variety of rewards to give you, so don't be surprised if you have to battle him on multiple days to get the sweet you want.
You'll know when you receive a Milcery sweet, because the description for the sweet will include, 'When a Milcery holds this, it will spin around happily.'
If you don't want to battle for a sweet though, you can find a Strawberry Sweet on the ground in Hammerlocke.
Head up the staircase left to the entrance of the train station. At the top of these stairs immediately turn to your left and pick up the item on the ground by the closed gate. This will be a Strawberry Sweet.
How to evolve Milcery into Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield
Now that you have both a Milcery and a sweet, you can finally get an Alcremie for your Pokédex.
First, however, you need to give your Milcery a sweet to hold.
Open your Bag from the X menu and then scroll across to the 'Other Items' section of your bag. Here you'll be able to find any sweet you've collected.
Select the sweet you want to use to evolve the Milcery, pick the option 'Give to a Pokémon' and then select your Milcery.
With this done, you need to spin your in-game avatar around and around, until they begin to spin on the spot.
This is achieved by rotating the left-control stick to make the avatar run in circles. At some point, the avatar will spin in a circle, only spotting when you stop rotating the control stick.
The Alcremie form your Milcery evolves into depends on which direction you spin in, the duration of your spinning and at what time of day you spin.
If you're having trouble figuring out what the time of day is in Pokémon Sword and Shield, then head to the Wild Area.
Unlike the routes and cities, the time in the Wild Area is tied to the internal clock in your Nintendo Switch. This means that if your Nintendo Switch clock is claiming its daytime, then it will also be daytime in the Wild Area.
It's also important to know that if you're evolving a shiny Milcery, then they will only ever evolve into one form of Alcremie, which is considering the shiny Alcremie form. This evolution can be conducted at any time of done, with no conditions spent on the direction or duration of your spinning.
Below you'll find the nine different forms your Alcremie can take on, including the direction you have to spin in, how long you need to spin for and at what time of day you have to spin at to unlock that form.
| Alcremie Form | Time of Day | Spin Direction | Spin Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caramel Swirl | Day | Clockwise | Over 5 seconds |  |
| Lemon Cream | Night | Clockwise | Over 5 seconds |  |
| Matcha Cream | Night | Clockwise | Under 5 seconds | |
| Mint Cream | Night | Anticlockwise | Over 5 seconds | |
| Rainbow Swirl | Dusk | Anticlockwise | Over 10 seconds |  |
| Ruby Cream | Day | Anticlockwise | Under 5 seconds |  |
| Ruby Swirl | Day | Anticlockwise | Over 5 seconds | |
| Salted Cream | Night | Anticlockwise | Under 5 seconds | |
| Vanilla Cream | Day | Clockwise | Under 5 seconds |  |
Tips on evolving Milcery into Rainbow Swirl Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield
Out of all the Alcremie forms, Rainbow Swirl Alcremie is by far the hardest to receive. This is because Milcery can only be evolved into this form during dusk, which is at 7pm / 19:00 in-game.
In Pokémon Sword and Shield, the clock in the towns and major routes is tied to where you in the story. This means that if your at a place in the story when it's set at night, then all of these areas will clocked into darkness.
The Wild Area, however, is tied to the internal clock of your Nintendo Switch, so whatever the time your Switch believes it to be, day or night, then that will be the time in the Wild Area.
This means that if you want a Rainbow Swirl Alcremie, you need to either wait until 7pm / 19:00 or mess with your Switch's internal clock.
To do this, enter the 'System Settings' on your Nintendo Switch and scroll down to 'System' at the bottom of the list.
Select this option and then scroll down again, until you reach 'Date and Time' and open this option.
Next, select 'Synchronise Clock via Internet' and switch to 'Off' if you haven't already done so.
Doing this will allow you to manually change the internal clock of your Switch to 7pm / 19:00.
Now that you've ensured its 7pm / 19:00 according to your Switch, start up Pokémon Sword or Shield.
Specifically head to the Meetup Spot in the Wild Area, which is directly outside the train station for the Wild Area.
This is the best place to evolve Milcery into Rainbow Swirl Alcremie, because its not affected by the different types of weather that flow through the Wild Area. Due to this, you'll easily be able to see the evening sky, allowing you to know that the Wild Area is set to the right time.
Now we can finally get down to the business of evolving Milcery.
Give Milcery the sweet you want it to hold and begin to spin in an anticlockwise direction.
To receive Rainbow Swirl Alcremie you need to spin for over 10 seconds.
Once you've down and got this very fancy Pokémon, you can head back into your Nintendo Switch System Settings and set the time back to normal.
With it finally in the wild, here's how to start the Crown Tundra DLC and our full Pokémon Crown Tundra walkthrough. Plus, here's how to catch Calyrex, Glastrier and Spectrier, the Regieleki and Regidrago puzzle solution and Regirock, Regice, Registeel locations, details on how to catch Legendary Birds Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres in the Crown Tundra, the Ultra Beasts and Necrozma adventure, Dynamax Adventures, including the legendries you can catch on these adventures, and the new Crown Tundra Pokédex and returning Pokémon explained. For Isle of Armor players, here's how to find the Slowpoke, where to find Max Mushroom locations, and how to get Kubfu, become best friends and evolve it, plus all Diglett locations too! For the base game, here's info on the ability to transfer Pokémon to Pokémon Home, the Wild Area, lists of all TM locations and TRs, all Galarian forms and finally our main Pokémon Sword and Shield walkthrough for the whole game.
How useful is Alcremie in Pokémon Sword and Shield?
Alcremie is a great Pokémon for taking out dragon-types, due to its own status as a fairy-type Pokémon making it immune to all dragon-type moves. This makes it a great choice for the final gym in Pokémon Sword and Shield, which is dragon-type themed.
It's also resistant to both fighting and dark-type moves, making it a good choice for the seventh gym, which is dark-type themed, and, if your playing Pokémon Sword, the fourth, fighting-type, gym.
Alcremie also has the ability to Gigantamax, changing its appearance once again and allowing it to become more powerful.
The issue with Alcremie, however, is that both Pokémon Sword and Shield contains a good selection of fairy-type Pokémon. Many of these Pokémon are dual-types too, making them a more interesting choice for team building.
This includes Hatterene, the final evolution of Hateena, which is a fairy and psychic-type Pokémon and also has a Gigantamax form.
If you're looking for more advice on the unique evolution methods for Gen 8 Pokémon, then check out our guides on evolving Applin, Sinistea, Sirfetch'd, Toxel and Yamask.
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