This Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask guide will tell trainers how to evolve Applin and get Dipplin, including some best competitive build options for the new Grass / Dragon - type evolution. Dipplin is one of the new additions to generation nine and can be found in the Kitakami region, however It can’t be currently caught in the wild. Trainers will need to grab a special item and evolve Applin to get Dipplin, so let’s break this down.

How To Get Applin¶

Trainer should head west from Mossui Town to get to Apple Hills. It’s a large Apple Orchard, which is the ideal location for Applin to blend in a live a peaceful life. They’ll be hopping around in the tall grass and can also fall from Apple trees, simply walk up to one and take a chance with a Quick Ball. If by some grand decision of Arceus this doesn’t work, just use a strong Pokémon with False Swipe and a status altering move like Thunder Wave to capture one.

View Full-size

1

2

3

4

(1 of 4) Trainers should head over to Apple Hills, west of Mossui Town and the Community Center.

How To Get Dripplin¶

With Applin safely in a trainer team, they then need to go to the south east corner of the map to the little farm building. There will be an honesty box shop at the side of it selling “Delicious Syrupy Apples” for $500 each. It looks like the cost of living crisis has kit Kitakami too. Trainers just need to purchase one and give it to Applin to evolve it into Dripplin, which has a brilliant animation of the Pokémon creeping out of the Syrupy Apple.

The Best Dripplin Competitive Build¶

Now Trainers know how to get their own Dripplin, let’s go over a couple of Dripplin competitive builds to make the most of it:

• Bulky Special Defense

Stat	Description
Level	100
Tera Type	Steel
Nature	Sassy
Ability	Sticky Hold
Held Item	Eviolite
Moveset	Dragon Breath, Giga Drain, Infestation and Recover
Base Stats	HP: 80, Attack: 80, Defense: 110, Sp. Atk: 95, Sp. Def. 80 and Speed: 40
EVs	HP: 252, Defense: 4 and Sp. Def 252
IVs	HP: 31, Attack: 0, Defense: 31, Sp. Atk: 31, Sp. Def. 31 and Speed: 31

This Dripplin competitive build focuses on Special Defense and covering it’s weaknesses with Steel Tera Typing. Whilst tanking hits it can spread paralysis (30% chance) with Dragon Breath, cause damage over five turns with Infestation, drain HP with Giga Drain and use recover when it’s in a tight spot. Eviolite raises Defense and Sp. Defense by 50%, with Dripplins Sassy nature raising it’s Sp. Defense at the expense of speed. Finally, there’s no need to worry about losing held items in battle thanks to the Sticky Hold ability. This ability also increases capture rates when fishing too!

• Withdraw Defender

Stat	Description
Level	100
Tera Type	Steel
Nature	Sassy
Ability	Sticky Hold
Held Item	Eviolite
Moveset	Gyro Ball, Infestation, Recover and Withdraw
Base Stats	HP: 80, Attack: 80, Defense: 110, Sp. Atk: 95, Sp. Def. 80 and Speed: 40
EVs	HP: 252, Defense: 252 and Sp. Def 4
IVs	HP: 31, Attack: 31, Defense: 31, Sp. Atk: 31, Sp. Def. 31 and Speed: 0

Changing Dripplin into a physical defender is also a brilliant strategy, with Eviolite boosting Defense by 50% alongside using Withdraw a couple of times to stone wall opponents. Gyro Ball also becomes more powerful the slower Dripplin is compared the the opponent, which is going to be the majority of the time. Infestation is going to be working in the background to knock opponents HP down gradually, with recover to get Dripplin back in front in a tight spot. Use with a Trick Room team to make Dripplin attack first in most cases thanks to its low speed stat.

We’ve got hundreds of Pokémon locations already on our Kitakami Region Map , but why not check out all of the New and Returning Pokémon for the DLC too and complete the Kitakami Pokédex?