This Pokémon has been fooling us with its evolutions for three decades because of its place in the PokéDex

The Pokémon franchise has been active since 1996, when the Red and Green Editions were released in Japan, representing the first generation of games. And since then, one of these creatures has been fooling us all with its position in the PokéDex. It is number 83 on the National PokéDex: Farfetch’d. Considering that it comes right before Doduo and Dodrio, one might assume it is part of the same evolutionary lineage, but that is not the case.

No, Farfetch’d Pokémon do not evolve into Doduo or Dodrio, despite their place in the PokéDex

If you took the arduous task of completing the PokéDex in any of the first two Generations games seriously, you may have hit a wall when you reached Farfetch’d. We may have tried to advance it by leveling it over and over again until we gave up and looked up information online. And that is how we found out that this Pokémon has been cheating us since 1996: Farfetch’d does not evolve into Doduo.

But how is this possible? The clues are there, and everything seems to point in that direction. Farfetch’d is a Normal/Flying Type Pokémon whose number in the PokéDex is 83. Doduo is a Normal/Flying Type Pokémon whose number is 84. And Dodrio is... you guessed it, another Normal/Flying Type Pokémon whose number is 85.

This is one of the most common Pokémon mistakes, although to be fair, Farfetch’d’s number in the PokéDex is misleading. Since Doduo is a Bird Pokémon with two heads, and evolves into Dodrio, another Bird Pokémon with three heads, it seems reasonable to think that Farfetch’d is the base form of this evolutionary line, right?

Well, no, because they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Farfetch’d was a non-evolving Pokémon until 2019 (more on that below), while Doduo and Dodrio are part of the same evolutionary line, which consists of only these two creatures.

With Pokémon Sword & Shield came the evolution of Farfetch’d

The Sword & Shield editions of Pokémon, released on Nintendo Switch in November 2019, marked the beginning of the eighth generation of games. Sirfetch’d arrived as part of the new creatures available, and it was the evolution of Farfetch’d... albeit with a gimmick.

Regional forms of Pokémon were introduced in the Sun and Moon Editions during the Seventh Generation. This means that the same Pokémon can have a different appearance, and even different types and unique evolutions, depending on the region it inhabits. This was the case with the Galarian Farfetch’d, which is a Fighting Type that evolves into Sirfetch’d when we get three critical hits in a single battle.

Considering that the Galar region is based in the United Kingdom, Sirfetch’d’s appearance (and name) are quite appropriate: In becoming Sirfetch’d, Farfetch’d has gone from using a giant leek as a club to using a sharp leek as a spear and the hardened blades of the spear as a shield, resembling his appearance and pose to that of a medieval knight.

The Lost Evolution of Farfetch’d in Pokémon: It Was Madāmu/Madame

On the other hand, we have to go back in time to see what evolution this Pokémon might have had. The playable demo of Pokémon Gold and Silver from Nintendo’s Space World event in 1997 featured an evolution that Farfetch had never seen before: Madāmu. This Pokémon never made it into the final versions of the games, and Farfetch’d remained unevolved, so this creature never received an official English name.

The original idea was for Farfetch’d to evolve into Madamu when he reached level 24. While Farfetch’d is based on a duck, this evolution’s black mask-like plumage and long neck suggest that its design was based on the appearance of a swan.

As mentioned above, after this creature was discarded, Farfetch’d remained unevolved until the release of Nintendo Switch’s Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield in 2019, with the arrival of Sirfetch’d, the Galarian Farfetch’d evolution.