Thunderstone Pokémon X: Route 10, Hidden Route 11, and How to Farm More

The first Thunder Stone in Pokémon X is a Poké Ball on Route 10, in the northwest corner of the middle field of standing stones. Route 10 is the road north from Cyllage City, so you can grab it right after Grant’s Gym. A second one is hidden in the small crystal at the far east end of Route 11, past Reflection Cave. No shop in Kalos sells Thunder Stones. The Stone Emporium in Lumiose City only has Fire, Water and Leaf Stones. Use the stone from the Bag (don’t give it to hold) to turn Pikachu into Raichu or Eevee into Jolteon. For more, farm the Follow Those Fleeing Goals! Secret Super Training regimen or Psychic Inver’s daily battle on Route 18. Pokémon Y has the same spots.

This page covers Pokémon X and Pokémon Y on Nintendo 3DS and 2DS, updated to version 1.5. Older games spelled it “Thunderstone” as one word. From X and Y on, the Bag calls it the Thunder Stone, but it’s the same item. Pokémon Sun, Moon and Legends: Z-A have their own shops and pickups, so their answers don’t apply here.

Every way to get a Thunder Stone in Pokémon X and Y

So two stones are fixed pickups, and the rest come from the three repeatable methods. No wild Pokémon in X and Y holds a Thunder Stone, and Pickup can’t find one. If you end up with a spare, any shop buys it for $1,050.

Where the Thunder Stone is in Pokémon X

Both field stones are on the trip north from Cyllage City to Shalour City, so you’ll walk past them anyway. One is easy to see. The other is invisible until you press A on the right crystal.

Route 10: the first guaranteed ball

Route 10 is also called the Menhir Trail. It runs north from Cyllage City to Geosenge Town, and it opens once you beat Grant, the second Gym Leader. The road is split into fields of big standing stones, each with a low stone fence around it. The Thunder Stone is a normal, visible Poké Ball, so you don’t need the Dowsing Machine. You don’t need Strength for it either; Strength only matters for the TM73 and the hidden Revive further south.

1. Leave Cyllage City by the north exit and follow the path up into the first field of standing stones (the southern field). Its northwest corner has a Poké Ball too, but that one is an X Accuracy.
2. Walk through the gap in the stone fence into the middle field.
3. Psychic Sayid is also in this field, which tells you you’re in the right one. Beat him or walk around him.
4. Keep going north to the back fence. The Poké Ball in the northwest corner is the Thunder Stone.

One warning: later in the story, while Team Flare’s ultimate weapon is up in Geosenge Town, Route 10 is closed off and a Team Flare member blocks the way. If you skipped the stone the first time, come back after you deal with Team Flare. Route 10 is also where wild Eevee live. They show up in the yellow flowers 20% of the time, at levels 19 to 20, so one trip can get you an Eevee and the stone for Jolteon. The other wild Pokémon here differ between versions: Houndour in X and Electrike in Y.

Route 11: the hidden crystal people walk past

Route 11, Miroir Way, runs east from Geosenge Town toward Reflection Cave, and on to Shalour City after the cave. The second Thunder Stone is a hidden item, so there’s no Poké Ball to see. It’s inside the small crystal pillar at the very east end of the route. Serebii describes it as the rock near the Sky Trainer, which helps as a second landmark. You don’t need Cut or any other field move to reach it. Cut only matters for the TM on this route.

1. Walk east from Geosenge Town toward the Reflection Cave entrance.
2. Go down the big set of stairs southeast of the cave. There’s a Hyper Potion in a Poké Ball at the bottom.
3. Keep heading east to the end of the route.
4. Climb the stairs at the end to the dead-end ledge. Face the small crystal there and press A.

This one is easy to miss for two reasons. First, the route has another hidden item in a crystal: a Super Potion in the crystal pillar at the top of the westernmost stairs. It’s easy to find that one and think you’ve got the stone. Second, the stone is at the end of a dead end that looks like scenery. If you have the Dowsing Machine (a Swimmer on Route 8 gives it to you after Glittering Cave), turn it on at the top of the stairs. When you face the stone, the rods cross and turn red.

Why the Stone Emporium doesn’t sell one

This is where most people get stuck. You walk into the Stone Emporium on Vernal Avenue with a Pikachu or Eevee in your party, and there’s no Thunder Stone on the list. That’s not a bug or something that unlocks later. In Pokémon X and Y, the cashier sells exactly three stones for the whole game: the Fire Stone, Water Stone and Leaf Stone, at $2,100 each. No other shop in Kalos sells the Thunder Stone either.

The list doesn’t grow later in the game, not even after the Hall of Fame. The two field stones above and the farms below are the only ways to get one.

Pokémon X vs. Legends: Z-A (same name, different shop)

If a guide told you to “buy a Thunder Stone at the Stone Emporium,” it was probably written for Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Nintendo Switch. That game is also set in Lumiose City and also has a Stone Emporium. Its shop sells the Thunder Stone for $3,000. That’s a different game, and its shop doesn’t exist in your 3DS cartridge.

How to use a Thunder Stone (and why “giving” it fails)

You use a Thunder Stone once, from the Bag, and then it’s gone. Holding it does nothing.

1. Open the Bag and go to the Items pocket.
2. Pick the Thunder Stone and choose USE. Don’t choose GIVE. That only makes Pikachu hold it, and a held stone never triggers evolution.
3. The game asks “Use on which Pokémon?” Pokémon that can take the stone show ABLE! and the rest show UNABLE!.
4. Pick an ABLE! Pokémon. The evolution starts right away. You can’t cancel it with B, and the stone is used up.

If the game says “It won’t have any effect,” that Pokémon doesn’t evolve with a Thunder Stone (see the next section). If Pikachu or Eevee is holding an Everstone, take it off first, because an Everstone blocks stone evolution too. Light Ball Pikachu is fine. Just note that Raichu gets nothing from a Light Ball, so move it to another Pikachu.

What it evolves in X and Y, and what it doesn’t

In Pokémon X and Y, the Thunder Stone works on exactly three Pokémon:

Raichu in X and Y is always the regular Kanto form. Alolan Raichu only exists from Pokémon Sun and Moon on. If that’s what you’re after, our Alolan Raichu page for Sun and Moon covers it.

Pokémon a Thunder Stone won’t work on in X and Y

• Pichu. Raise its friendship until it evolves into Pikachu when it levels up. Then use the stone on Pikachu.
• Magneton and Nosepass. In later games a Thunder Stone evolves them, but not here. In X and Y, they evolve into Magnezone and Probopass when they level up on Route 13, the Lumiose Badlands near the Kalos Power Plant. Put the stone away and level them up there.
• Helioptile. It looks like an Electric-type stone user, but Heliolisk needs a Sun Stone.
• Tynamo. It reaches Eelektrik at level 39. Only Eelektrik can take the stone.
• Eevee you wanted to be Espeon or Umbreon. A Thunder Stone always makes Jolteon. If you want Espeon or Umbreon, keep the stone in the Bag and use a different Eevee.

Should you evolve Pikachu or Eevee?

That’s up to you. Raichu has better stats than Pikachu, but it learns almost nothing new by level after evolving, so teach Pikachu the moves you want first. Jolteon is one of the fastest Pokémon in Kalos, and Eevee gets a strong Electric attacker early if you use the Route 10 stone right away. If you want both Raichu and Jolteon, you can: the two field stones cover one each.

Already used both? How to get more

The two field stones are gone once you use them. Three methods can give more, and you can repeat all three.

Secret Super Training: Follow Those Fleeing Goals!

Super Training is on the Touch Screen from the start of the game. Its secret regimens open once one of your Pokémon is Fully Trained, which means it has the maximum 510 effort points. The secret regimens open one at a time, in this order:

1. The Troubles Keep on Coming?! (Aurorus and Tyrantrum)
2. The Leaf Stone Cup Begins! (Venusaur)
3. The Fire Stone Cup Begins! (Charizard)
4. The Water Stone Cup Begins! (Blastoise)
5. Follow Those Fleeing Goals! (Stunfisk, the Thunder Stone regimen)
6. Watch Out! That’s One Tricky Second Half! (Aegislash, the Dusk Stone regimen)

When you beat a secret regimen inside its target time, you get a training bag and one random item. Follow Those Fleeing Goals! has five possible prizes: Pretty Wing, Soda Pop, Stardust, Hard Stone and the Thunder Stone. The more you beat the target time by, the better your chance of a rarer prize like the stone. The game doesn’t show the exact odds, so treat every clear as a roll of the dice.

Expect a pile of Pretty Wings, Soda Pop and Stardust before a stone turns up, and aim to beat the target time by as much as you can. As the name says, the goals on the Stunfisk Balloon Bot keep moving away, so a Pokémon with fast Energy Shots helps a lot. You can run it as many times as you want, and it works before Route 10 if you already have a Fully Trained Pokémon. Lowering a Pokémon’s training with a Reset Bag doesn’t lock it out of the secret regimens again.

The Battle for the Best: Version X and Version Y

The last secret regimen has a Thunder Stone in its prize list too. In Pokémon X it’s The Battle for the Best: Version X!, where you face Larvitar, Pupitar, Tyranitar and Mega Tyranitar in a row. Pokémon Y has Version Y! with Aron, Lairon, Aggron and Mega Aggron. Its prize list also includes the Fire, Water and Leaf Stones, Moomoo Milk, PP Up and PP Max, and you have to clear every secret regimen before it, so for a Thunder Stone the Stunfisk regimen is the easier one to repeat.

Psychic Inver on Route 18

The Inverse House is on Route 18, between Anistar City and Couriway Town. Route 18 opens after you beat Team Flare at their base in Geosenge Town. Psychic Inver battles you once a day with the type chart flipped: super-effective moves become not very effective, and immunities become weaknesses. He uses three of his Pokémon, at level 55 before the Hall of Fame and level 65 after. After the battle he scores you on your hits: super-effective hits raise the score and not-very-effective hits lower it. The prize depends on your final score:

If none of your Pokémon faint, he hands over three of the prize instead of one. The Thunder Stone is only one of the ten possible prizes, and the game doesn’t show how likely each one is, so it can take a few days. Don’t change your 3DS clock to battle him again. The game notices clock changes and holds back daily events like this one for 24 hours.

Spiky rocks: the real “Route 13” method

Some battle backgrounds in Kalos have spiky rocks behind the Pokémon. If you use Hyper Voice or Rock Slide in a battle there, the move can knock an item loose from the rock, and that item can be a Fire, Thunder, Water or Leaf Stone. These rocks can turn up in battles on the clifftop part of Route 8, Route 9, Route 13, and the east sides of Routes 18 and 19. They appear at random in the battle backgrounds there, not in every battle. Even with a rock on screen, the item it drops is random, so a Thunder Stone is never guaranteed. It costs nothing if a Pokémon on your team already knows one of the moves. This is what the old “Thunder Stone on Route 13” listings actually meant.

Which method to use

Why you can’t find one on Route 13, with Pickup, or in the grass

Some item lists name Route 13 and Route 18 as Thunder Stone spots. Those are the battle methods above, not items on the ground. Route 13, the Lumiose Badlands, has no Thunder Stone in a Poké Ball. Its hidden stone is a Fire Stone. If you dug around the desert and came up with a Fire Stone, that’s why. On Route 18, the Thunder Stone comes from Psychic Inver and from spiky rocks, not from a pickup.

• Pickup. The X and Y Pickup list can turn up a Sun Stone or Moon Stone at high levels, but never a Thunder Stone.
• Wild held items. No wild Pokémon in X and Y holds a Thunder Stone, so Thief and Covet won’t help.
• Friend Safari. The Electric-type safari has Pikachu, and some safari Pokémon hold items, but none of them hold a Thunder Stone, so you can’t get one there.
• Poké Marts and the Lumiose boutiques. None of them sell a Thunder Stone.

Troubleshooting

• I gave Pikachu the stone and nothing happened. Take it back, then choose USE from the Bag instead of GIVE.
• Pikachu shows UNABLE! Check that it isn’t a Pichu, and take off any Everstone.
• Route 10 is blocked by Team Flare. The route closes while the ultimate weapon is active in Geosenge Town. It reopens after that part of the story.
• I pressed A on a Route 11 crystal and got a Super Potion. Wrong crystal. The stone is in the small crystal pillar at the far east end of the route.
• Super Training won’t show the Stunfisk regimen. The secret regimens open one at a time. Clear the four before it first, with a Fully Trained Pokémon.
• I beat Follow Those Fleeing Goals! and got Stardust. That’s normal. The prize is random and the stone is one of five. Beat the target time by more and run it again.
• Inver keeps giving me Berries. Aim for a score in the 7 to 9 range with the flipped type chart. Remember that Electric moves hit Ground types under Inverse rules.
• I used the stone on Eevee and wanted Espeon. Evolution can’t be undone. Catch another Eevee on Route 10.

Pokémon Y, later games, and trading after 2024

Pokémon Y is the same as Pokémon X here: the Route 10 ball, the Route 11 crystal, the Stone Emporium list, Inver and the spiky rocks. For Thunder Stones, the only difference is the last Super Training regimen, which is Version Y! with the Aron line instead of Version X! with the Larvitar line. Both can give a Thunder Stone.

Sun and Moon are very different. There, the Konikoni City stone shop sells Thunder Stones, and the first one is on Route 8 in Alola, not Kalos. See our Sun and Moon evolution stone page. Legends: Z-A sells them at its own Stone Emporium, as covered above.

Nintendo Network shut down for 3DS games on April 8, 2024, so the GTS, Wonder Trade and online trades in X and Y no longer work. Pokémon Global Link events are gone too. Everything else on this page still works offline. To pass a spare stone to a friend, have a Pokémon hold it and trade by local wireless with someone in the same room. For Eelektross, the simplest route is a Tynamo caught in a Mirage Cave in Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire, then traded to X or Y by local wireless. You can also bring one up from a Generation V game through Poké Transporter and Pokémon Bank if you already have both apps installed, but Pokémon Bank ends service on February 25, 2027.

Tools and resources

Quick source picker

• You’re early in the game: Route 10 right after Grant, then Route 11 after Geosenge Town.
• You used both: Secret Super Training, Follow Those Fleeing Goals!, as often as you like.
• You play a little every day: one Inver battle a day after Route 18 opens, aiming for 7 to 9 points.

Kalos map and the other stone pages

You can see Route 10, Route 11 and Route 13 in 3D on the interactive Kalos map, and look up Pikachu, Raichu and Jolteon in the Kalos Pokédex. The same Super Training and Inver farms give other stones too: see where to find a Dusk Stone and the Shiny Stone. For a Pikachu from another Trainer’s game, the Friend Safari page lists every Electric-type safari.

FAQ

Where is the Thunder Stone in Pokémon X?

The first is a Poké Ball in the northwest corner of the middle field of standing stones on Route 10, north of Cyllage City. The second is hidden in the small crystal at the east end of Route 11.

Does the Lumiose Stone Emporium sell Thunder Stones?

No. In X and Y it only sells Fire, Water and Leaf Stones, at $2,100 each. The Stone Emporium that sells Thunder Stones is in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

How do you evolve Pikachu or Eevee with a Thunder Stone?

Open the Bag, pick the Thunder Stone, choose USE, then pick Pikachu or Eevee. Giving it to them to hold does nothing.

How do you get a second Thunder Stone in X and Y?

Pick up the hidden one on Route 11, then farm the Follow Those Fleeing Goals! Secret Super Training regimen, battle Psychic Inver on Route 18 once a day and aim for a score of 7 to 9, or use Hyper Voice or Rock Slide in battles with spiky rocks.

Is there a Thunder Stone on Route 13?

Not on the ground. The hidden stone on Route 13 is a Fire Stone. Thunder Stones there only come from spiky rocks during battles.

Does a Thunder Stone evolve Magneton in Pokémon X?

No. In X and Y, Magneton evolves into Magnezone when it levels up on Route 13. The Thunder Stone method for Magneton started in later games.

Is the Thunder Stone in a different place in Pokémon Y?

No. Route 10, Route 11, Super Training, Inver and the spiky rocks are the same in both versions.

Can I still trade for a Thunder Stone after Nintendo Network shut down?

Only by local wireless. Online trading ended on April 8, 2024. Have a Pokémon hold the stone and trade it with a player nearby.