Glaceon

It looks like a creature covered in ice, but its body does more than withstand the cold: it produces and directs it. Glaceon controls its body temperature until it freezes the water particles in the air, creating gusts of powder snow. It can also freeze its own fur; when it does, the fur bristles and forms sharp spikes that it fires or uses to defend itself and attack its prey.

Its design combines traits of an arctic fox with details associated with dogs and cats. The species lives in cold environments and has a kind of winter-themed hat or scarf around its head. The result fits its classification as the Fresh Snow Pokémon without making it look slow or clumsy.

It is one of Eevee’s final evolutions, alongside Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon and Sylveon. Unlike the evolutions that adopt the Water, Electric, Fire, Psychic, Dark, Grass or Fairy types, it focuses all of Eevee’s adaptation on cold and ice.

Glaceon hits hard on the special side: it has 130 Special Attack, but its 65 Speed stops it from putting pressure on many opponents before taking damage. Its 110 Defense and 95 Special Defense give it some durability, although its 65 HP is not enough to turn it into a wall. Its Attack, at 60, barely matters in its usual sets.

The Ice type offers super-effective attacks against Grass, Ground, Flying and Dragon. Defensively, it is much less forgiving: it leaves Glaceon weak to Fire, Fighting, Rock and Steel, and barely gives it any resistance beyond Ice itself. That is why it needs to switch in carefully and take advantage of opposing switches rather than exposing itself to neutral physical hits without preparation.

Snow Cloak is its main Ability: it raises Evasion during a hailstorm. Ice Body, its Hidden Ability, restores some HP during hailstorms, but it does not solve Glaceon’s Speed or resistance problems by itself. Blizzard and Ice Beam are its most direct special Ice options; Freeze-Dry gives it a way to hit Water Pokémon super effectively, while Shadow Ball covers certain opponents that resist Ice.

Its competitive use is limited. It works best as a special attacker on teams that already make use of snow, or as a wallbreaker during the middle stages of a game, when its faster targets have been weakened. Without Speed support, the opponent will usually move first and exploit its weaknesses.

Glaceon belongs to the Field Egg Group. Its gender ratio is heavily skewed: 12.5% are female. Its Eggs require 35 cycles, equivalent to approximately 9180 steps using the usual hatching conversion. Its catch rate is 45, so catching one is not easy, and it is worth bringing Pokémon that can lower its HP and inflict status conditions without knocking it out.

In the games covered by this Pokédex, Eevee evolves into Glaceon when it levels up at Sinnoh’s Route 217, Twist Mountain, Frost Cavern, Shoal Cave or Mount Lanakila, and also when exposed to an Ice Stone. These conditions replace the requirement to be near an icy rock in the games that used that method. The Ice Stone is the practical option in the most recent titles.

Eevee’s evolutionary line lets you choose between several evolutions depending on the item, location, time of day, friendship or affection. To obtain Glaceon, you must avoid meeting the conditions for Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon or Sylveon first and apply one of the Ice-related conditions. Its experience growth rate is Medium and its colour is blue.