Among the many different items you will earn while playing Pokémon GO are four types of lure – devices that will increase Pokémon activity around a selected Pokéstop. As you can imagine, they’re useful for catching lots of Pokémon quickly – but did you know that the special lures also exclusively unlock evolutions that stand in the way of catching them all? We reveal all in this guide to Pokémon GO’s lures.
On this page: Glacial Lures, Magnetic Lures, Mossy Lures in Pokémon GO (And Their Exclusive Evolutions)
How do Pokémon GO’s lures work, and how can I use them?
Pokémon GO’s lures can be placed on Pokéstops to increase spawning rates – and everyone playing benefits when you’re using them. Furthermore, the addition of special glacial, magnetic and mossy lures in May 2019 allowed players to get specific about which kinds of Pokémon they wanted to attract.
- The different lures attract different types of Pokémon:
- Glacial lures attract Water and Ice-type Pokémon
- Magnetic lures attract Electric, Steel and Rock Pokémon
- Mossy lures attract Bug, Grass and Poison Pokémon
- Basic lures attract Pokémon of all types
- All lures increase spawn rates. Combine with a lucky egg to earn plenty of experience!
- All lures last for 30 minutes (duration is sometimes extended during promotional events)
- Active lures benefit all players
- The glacial, magnetic and mossy lures all enable exclusive evolutions (see below)
To use a lure on a Pokéstop:
- Walk near the Pokéstop that you want to use and tap it
- Between the name of the stop and the photo disc depicting it, look for a white space with rounded edges (circled above). Tap this and select your lure.
Magnetic Lures: How to evolve Nosepass into Probopass / How to evolve Magneton into Magnezone
A couple of conditions conspire to make Magnezone (Pokédex #462) and Probopass (Pokédex #476) two of the easiest to miss Pokémon in Pokémon GO. Firstly, they do not appear in sequence with their pre-evolutions in the Pokédex. Secondly, they are unique in that if you look at a Magneton or Nosepass Pokémon page, there’s no button hinting that they can evolve.
In fact, this evolution button will only appear when you stand near a Pokéstop with an active Magnetic Lure. Before you rush out and drop a magnetic lure, it’s also worth knowing that you will need 100 Magnemite and 50 Nosepass candies for each evolution – we recommend saving up for both before you drop the lure.
Glacial and Mossy Lures: How to obtain the exclusive Eevee evolutions
The same principle applies for getting the Eevee evolutions Glaceon and Leafeon, just with different lures:
- Eevees evolved within the influence of a glacial lure will evolve into Glaceon
- Eevees evolved within the influence of a mossy lure will evolve into Leafeon
Check the silhouette of the Pokémon on the evolve button, tap it and you should be the happy new owner of a new Eeveeloution. For more information, check out our full guide to Eevee in Pokémon GO.
How to get a Glacial Lure, Magnetic Lure or Mossy Lure
Lures are available from the in-game shop for 200 Pokécoins each. Pokécoins are the game’s premium currency, though you don’t necessarily have to hand over real world money to earn them: you can earn up to 50 coins a day by having your Pokémon defend local Gyms.
You can also get one of each of the lures by participating in the Jirachi special research task ‘A Thousand-Year Slumber’ – they are the reward for completing the relatively easy tasks in step 1/7. Keep a look out for free lures in future tasks too!
The premium nature of these lures means that they are far more rarely spotted in the wild – however, keep an eye out for the tale-tale ‘confetti’ around a Pokéstop using a lure and you may be able to reap the benefits for free:
- Active Glacial Lures will have snowflake shapes falling around them
- Active Magnetic Lures are surrounded by small grey rectangles (as in the example above)
- Active Mossy Lures are symbolised by a shower of green leaves
Be a good Pokémon GO player – let your friends and other players know when you’re planning on dropping a lure so they can benefit too!
How to get standard lure modules
Basic lure modules – those that increase wild Pokémon spawning rates in general, casting pink confetti around a Pokéstop when active – can be purchased for 100 Pokécoins from the in-game shop, or in a pack of 8 for 680 coins.
The game also hands out modules:
- When you reach player levels 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40
- When you complete special research task steps – for example, you receive three lure modules on step one and step four of the Mew task, ‘A Mythical Discovery’
This article is part of our Pokémon GO walkthrough and guide series. We have articles that take you through the basics, covering How To Catch Pokémon: Throwing Tips, Poké Balls, & Capture Rates, How To Redeem Pokémon GO Promo Codes, How To Check A Pokémon's IVs Using An IV Calculator, How Trading Works, How To Track Pokémon Using Maps And Trackers, What Star Pieces And Stardust Do And How To Get Them, How Player Vs. Player Trainer Battles Work, and How To Complete Field Research And Research Breakthroughs And All Rewards.
We cover regular weekly and monthly Pokémon GO events, such as Spotlight Hour Times And Bonus Hour Times, and Community Days. We also have charts, including a Type Chart With Effectiveness And Weakness For All Types, an Egg Chart Explaining 2km, 5km, 7km, & 10km Eggs, and a Buddy Chart Explaining How To Earn Candy.
Elsewhere we cover Friend Code And Sharing Them For Easy XP and Which Pokémon GO 'Auto Catch' Companion Device Is The Best, plus more advanced tactics and info such as All Fast Moves And Charge Moves, How To Get TMs, And How It All Works, Shiny Pokémon And How To Catch Them, Glacial Lures, Magnetic Lures, Mossy Lures in Pokémon GO (And Their Exclusive Evolutions), How To Get Lots Of Candy Fast, How Lucky Pokémon Work & How To Catch Them, How To Catch All 27 Regional Pokémon, the Best Attackers And Best Defenders, All Raid Bosses And Best Counters Listed By Tier, What EX Raids Are And How To Get EX Raid Passes, What A Super Incubators Does And How To Get One, and How Get Mega Energy.
Pocket Monster-wise, we have specific guides for How To Get Pangoro, Sylveon, Glaceon, Aromatisse, Slurpuff, Sirfetch’d, Galarian Cofagrigus And More, How To Get Sylveon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Umbreon, Espeon, Vaporeon, Jolteon And Flareon, How To Evolve Wurmple Into Silcoon Or Cascoon, How To Get Tyrogue, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan And Hitmontop, How To Use The Weather To Get Each Castform Form, How To Catch And Evolve Into Galarian Slowbro, How To Catch Smeargle, How To Find And Evolve Burmy, How To Catch Spinda, Where To Find Unown, How To Catch Ditto, and The Rarest Pokémon Including Wild, Shiny, Mythical And Regional Catches.
We also cover timed research and special events, including Mew's 'A Mythical Discovery', Jirachi's 'A Thousand-Year Slumber', Celebi's 'A Ripple In Time', and Regigigas' 'A Colossal Discovery'. Other (past) event guides include Twitch Codes List - Pokémon World Championship 2022, How To Battle A Challenger (World Championships 2022), How To Battle Fashion Challengers, 'A Spooky Message' Spiritomb Quest, Kanto Event FAQ, and the Summer Tour 2018 Chicago GO Fest And Dortmund And Yokosuka Safari Zones.
Finally, there's our WIP Pokémon GO Pokédex, which currently goes up to 400 Pokémon: #1-50 | #51-100 | #101-150 | #151-200 | #201-250 | #251-300 | #301-350 | #351-400.
Comments 6
interesting
Very interesting how the article mentions using Lucky Eggs to boost experience from Lures but fails to mention Star Pieces that increase Stardust gain from catching pokémon... arguably much more useful for those of us over Level 40.
Oh! And Mossy Lures are also one of the best ways of getting Cherubi, a pretty rare pokémon that can only be hatched or caught from Mossy Lures. Personally had one from hatching, four through Mossy Lures.
@DanteSolablood "Oh! And Mossy Lures are also one of the best ways of getting Cherubi, a pretty rare pokémon that can only be hatched or caught from Mossy Lures. Personally had one from hatching, four through Mossy Lures."
That's news to me, I found a few normally without a Mossy Lure. Serebii lists it as "Available in the wild as standard".
Edit: Wait, I was thinking of Cherrim. I don't have any Cherubi... that explains a lot.
Little late to the party with this guide, aren't you guys? I mean this feature has been out for weeks!
That said, still useful info.
I'm totally stalled in the Jirachi quest. I haven't seen a Whismur in the wild in literally months and we need catch three. I've caught more shiny legendary Pokemon in the time since I last saw one.
@Heavyarms55 Better late than never! We're trying to improve our provision for GO content in general as well as updating some of the lapsed guides.
I feel like Whismur spawns are an unfortunate casualty of the recent special events. Hopefully they'll be back to normal when the regional hatching event ends in a few hours = though of course, Gen 5 will be in the mix too!
@kupocake Very nice work overall, while other sites sometimes have more info, NintendoLife has the nicest layout. Maybe you guys should try to partner up with GoHub like you sometimes work with Serebii.
I spent the weekend in Osaka and I finally caught 3 Whismur! Enough, just barely. I caught more Deoxys than Whismur and that's honestly just silly! lol
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