Appletun Grove
The Applin line finally got its full evolutionary tree in Pokémon GO, and unlike almost every other Pokémon in the game, you cannot just tap a button and dump some candy to complete it. Turning that shy little apple grub into the three-headed apple dragon Hydrapple is one of the most involved evolution chains GO has ever shipped — a mix of a rare event item, a heavy candy grind, and a buddy requirement that sends you out hunting dragons. Here is exactly what it takes, how to farm the pieces efficiently, and an honest answer to whether the whole project is worth your time.
The Short Version: Every Requirement at a Glance
Before the strategy, here are the hard numbers so you know what you are signing up for. Both of these have been confirmed by GameSpot's evolution guide and Niantic's own announcement.
Applin into Dipplin requires:- 200 Applin Candy
- 20 Syrupy Apples
- 400 Applin Candy
- Catch 7 Dragon-type Pokémon while Dipplin is your active buddy
Add it up and you are looking at 600 total Applin Candy to take a single Applin all the way to Hydrapple, plus 20 of a brand-new event-gated item and a dragon-catching side quest. This is not a casual evolution. It is a project.
One thing worth flagging up front, because a lot of early chatter got it wrong: the second evolution does not need Syrupy Apples. The 20 apples are only for the Applin-to-Dipplin step. The Dipplin-to-Hydrapple step swaps the apple requirement for the buddy-and-dragons condition instead. If you have been hoarding apples expecting to spend them twice, you can relax.
What Are Syrupy Apples and Where Do They Come From
Syrupy Apples are a map item introduced during the Harvest Festival event, joining the existing Sweet Apples and Tart Apples that fans of the line already know from evolving Applin into Appletun and Flapple. The catch is that Syrupy Apples do not just fall out of PokéStop spins or gifts. There is exactly one reliable way to get them.
You need a Mossy Lure Module. Set a Mossy Lure at a PokéStop, and while it is active, Syrupy Apples periodically spawn on the map around that stop for you to tap and collect. No Mossy Lure, no apples — it really is that binary.A few things make this much less painful than it sounds:
You do not have to place the lure yourself. If another player has already dropped a Mossy Lure at a stop, you benefit from the apple spawns too. In a busy park or a downtown cluster during an active apple event, you can often walk up to someone else's lure and start farming immediately without spending a single Mossy Lure of your own. Cluster stops multiply your rate. The best farming spot is a tight group of PokéStops within one walkable pocket. Drop a Mossy Lure on a central stop, stand where two or three stops overlap, and you collect apples far faster than at an isolated rural stop. Malls, university quads, and dense park paths are ideal. Events crank the spawn rate. During the Harvest Festival window, Niantic explicitly boosted the chance for apples to appear at Mossy-Lured stops. Whenever an apple-themed event is live, that is your moment to grind — the difference in apples-per-hour between event and non-event time is dramatic.If you want to farm on your own schedule instead of relying on strangers, keeping a small stock of Mossy Lure Modules on hand is the move. You can grab them in the in-game shop, and a portable → Shop phone battery pack on Amazon is honestly the more important purchase — apple farming means long stretches with your screen on and GPS running, and a dead phone ends the grind fast. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Step 1: Evolve Applin into Dipplin
Once you have your 200 candy and 20 Syrupy Apples banked, this step is straightforward. Open Applin, and the evolve button will show the Syrupy Apple requirement alongside the candy cost. Tap it and you have a Dipplin.
The real work here is the 200 candy, not the apples. Twenty apples is a couple of good lure sessions; 200 candy is where the grind lives. Which brings us to the single most important habit for this entire project.
Walk Applin as your buddy from day one. A buddy Pokémon earns candy per distance walked, and with 600 total candy to gather, every candy you passively rack up while doing something else is candy you do not have to catch for. Set Applin as your buddy the moment you start this project and just leave it there. A comfortable → Shop phone grip on Amazon makes those long buddy walks far less of a hand-cramp, especially if you are the type to play one-handed on a hike.If you are catching wild Applin during an event, use Pinap Berries on every one to double the catch candy. Between buddy walking, Pinap catches, and any research rewards on offer, the 200-candy wall comes down faster than the raw number suggests.
Step 2: Evolve Dipplin into Hydrapple
This is the step that trips people up, because it does not work like a normal evolution at all. There is no second apple item to find. Instead, GO asks for two things at once:
1. 400 Applin Candy in the bank, and 2. 7 Dragon-type Pokémon caught while Dipplin is your buddy.
That buddy condition is the key detail. The seven dragons only count if Dipplin is actively set as your buddy when you catch them — so the moment you evolve your Dipplin, swap it into the buddy slot and keep it there.
Where to find seven dragons. This is easier than it used to be. Dragon-types like Dratini, Bagon, Deino, Gible, Goomy, Dreepy, and their evolutions show up in the wild, in eggs, and constantly in raids. Dragon Spotlight Hours and any Dragon-themed event will let you knock out all seven catches in a single evening. If dragons feel scarce in your area, raid days and community events are your fastest path. The 400 candy is the bigger hurdle. Remember, this is on top of the 200 you already spent — the counter resets, so you need a fresh 400 after making Dipplin. Keep that Dipplin (or a spare Applin) walking as your buddy, keep Pinaping wild Applin, and treat any Applin-line research or event bonus as a candy windfall. Because Applin can be genuinely rare outside of events, patient buddy-walking is often the backbone of the whole grind rather than catching.If you are the sort of player who wants to grind hands-free while walking, a → Shop Pokémon GO Plus Plus on Amazon auto-catches and auto-spins as you move, which quietly stacks up candy and PokéStop items in the background — exactly the kind of passive progress a 600-candy line rewards.
Is Hydrapple Worth the Grind?
Here is the honest assessment, because 600 candy plus a rare item plus a dragon hunt is a real ask.
For collectors and Applin-line fans: absolutely. If you love this family, Hydrapple is the crown jewel — the apex the whole line has always been building toward, and completing the Pokédex entry the hard way is its own reward. There is a real sense of accomplishment in finishing a chain this demanding, and the three-headed apple dragon is a genuinely striking addition to your collection. For PvP and raid grinders: temper your expectations. Hydrapple is a Grass/Dragon-type with respectable bulk, but it is not a meta-defining monster in GO's PvP leagues the way it has quietly become in the trading card game. It fills a niche rather than dominating one. If you are chasing pure competitive value, there are cheaper, more impactful investments for your candy and lures. Evolve Hydrapple because you want Hydrapple, not because you expect it to carry your Great League team.If you are weighing this against building out the rest of the family instead, our Appletun competitive moveset breakdown is a useful companion read — Appletun is far cheaper to complete and has its own quirky place in battle. And if you are still deciding which branch of the line to chase first, the Appletun vs Flapple comparison lays out the trade-offs.
A Practical Grind Plan
Pulling it all together, here is the order of operations that wastes the least time:
Start walking Applin as your buddy immediately. This runs in the background for the entire project and shaves the most candy off the total. Farm Syrupy Apples during any apple event, at a cluster of stops, off other players' Mossy Lures when you can. Twenty apples is achievable in a session or two of focused lure farming. Evolve to Dipplin once you hit 200 candy and 20 apples, then immediately set Dipplin as your buddy. Bang out seven dragon catches during a Dragon event or raid day while Dipplin buddies along, and keep grinding candy toward the second 400 in parallel. Evolve to Hydrapple the moment the candy and dragon counters are both full.Done in that order, the two grinds overlap instead of stacking, which is the difference between a fun multi-week project and a frustrating slog.
The Bottom Line
Getting Hydrapple in Pokémon GO is one of the more demanding evolution chains in the game: 600 total Applin Candy, 20 event-only Syrupy Apples from Mossy Lures, and seven dragon catches with Dipplin as your buddy. None of it is hard individually — it is the combination and the candy volume that make it a commitment.
For fans of the line, that commitment is exactly the point. The little apple grub becoming a syrup-dripping dragon is one of the most satisfying evolutionary journeys in the whole dex, and earning it the long way makes the payoff hit that much sweeter. Set that buddy, find a lured stop, and start the grind — the apple dragon is waiting at the end of it.