As players progress further into Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl, they'll have opportunities to catch Pokemon with less-common typing, such as Ice or Steel-type. Ice-types are sought out because of their advantage over the powerful Dragon-type Pokemon. Common Ice-type Pokemon trainers can catch in the wild is the Dark/Ice-type Sneasel, but players can get Swinub if they want the Ice/Ground-typing instead.
Swinub and its evolution Piloswine made their debut in Pokemon Gold/Silver, but they weren't given their third and final evolution, Mamoswine, until Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. To get Mamoswine in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, players must first catch Swinub and evolve it into Pilowsine.
Where to Catch and Evolve Swinub
Swinub appears as a Swarm Pokemon on Route 217. During Swarms, it has a 40% chance of appearing. Swarm Pokemon change daily and can be checked by inspecting working TVs around the Sinnoh region. Another way of getting Swinub is by going into the Grand Underground.
Swinub will only appear in the upper left (Snowpoint City) and bottom right (Sunyshore City) sections of the Grand Underground map. This means it won't be available until players have most of their gym badges. It is a rare encounter in the following habitats:
- Bogsunk Cavern
- Glacial Cavern
- Icy Cave
- Swampy Cave
- Whiteout Cave
Bogsunk Cavern and Swampy Cave can be found in Sunyshore City's Grand Underground. In contrast, Icy Cave, Glacial Cavern, and Whiteout Cave are in Snowpoint City's Grand Underground. If Swinub doesn't appear, exit the room and re-enter until it appears.
To evolve Swinub, it needs to reach level 33. Then, once it's a Pilowsine, it needs to know the move Ancient Power and level up one more time to get Mamoswine. It's very likely that Swinub will be over level 33 when encountered. If Swinub doesn't know Ancient Power when it evolves, then players will need to take it to the Move Reminder in Pastoria City. The price for remembering a move is one Heart Scale.
More Information About Mamoswine
Mamoswine is a bulky, Ice/Ground-type Pokemon with high base attack and HP. It has a base stat total of 530.
Stat | No. |
|---|---|
HP | 110 |
Attack | 130 |
Defense | 80 |
Special Attack | 70 |
Special Defense | 60 |
Speed | 80 |
As an Ice/Ground-type, Mamoswine is weak to Fire, Fighting, Steel, Water, Grass, and Rock-type moves. However, it has an immunity to Electric attacks and can learn moves that give it coverage against Fire-types thanks to its Ground-typing. With the right moves, Mamoswine can have coverage against three of its weaknesses (Fire, Steel, Grass).
Since its movepool is built of mostly Physical moves, the best Nature for Mamoswine to have is Adamant (+Attk, -Sp. Attk). Another option is for Mamoswine to have a Jolly (+Spd, -Sp.Attk) Nature to make up for its poor speed.
Some recommended moves for Mamoswine are Ice Shard, Earthquake, and Icicle Crash. However, Icicle Crash is an Egg Move that can only be passed down to Swinub via breeding the Parent Mamoswine with certain species of Pokemon (ex. Beartic, Alolan Sandslash).
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Shining Pearl are available now on Nintendo Switch.
