Digimon Evolutions (or Digivolutions), Explained

The concept of Digivolution works as a fundamental component of the Digimon series, allowing the Digimon to transform into stronger creatures just like a Pokémon’s evolution allows it to tap into greater deposits of strength. Unlike a Pokémon’s evolution, however, Digimon can revert to previous forms if they lose enough power, dropping into a weaker class because of the change. Yet the rules of Digivolution don’t split only there from its distant Pokemon-cousins, with Digivolutions involving a more complex and layered understanding that’s spawned different digivolution types, effects and forms.

In a series that heavily features Digimon battling Digimon, the rules and understanding of Digivolutions can help viewers better navigate the vast world building of the Digimon series and the Digital World. From the basic concepts of Digivolution to the human element required in some Digivolution pathways, the labyrinth of Digivolutions can seem daunting without a roadmap to navigate through it.

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The Fundamentals of Digivolution Include the Digicore and the Digivolution Stages

All Digimon are Capable of Digivolving if They Collect Enough Data

To best understand Digivolutions, a basic understanding of what a Digimon actually is helps tremendously. Digimon are the creatures that spawned in the Digital World, a parallel universe that came into being from Earth’s own telecommunications network. While boasting a wide array of different types and species, a fundamental unifying force behind all Digimon is that they have a Digicore. This Digicore serves as a nucleus at the center of a Digimon’s body, in the same manner that a heart would for a human. A Digimon can suffer some damage to their body, but if their Digicore becomes injured, they risk potentially destabilizing and vanishing. The Digicore houses all the data a Digimon downloads and collects, also acting as their very soul and making them who they are, as it contains their memories, personalities and characteristics.

Digivolution involves a Digimon collecting enough data in their Digicore to trigger a change, one that often sees them jumping up to a higher stage. Just like a computer with more gigabytes can function faster, a Digimon with more data can increase its strength. While these changes sometimes follow an aesthetic common denominator (like Augumon continuing the orange dinosaur base in each subsequent Digivolution), it’s not necessarily a requirement as seen in some Digivolutions that make absolutely zero sense, with Patamon Digivolving into Angemon being a noticeable entry in that category. Digimon are divided up into different levels depending on how much data they have stored in their Digicores, with the higher the level translating into more stored data:

For the most part, Digimon who age naturally accumulate data in their Digicores over time, most commonly by defeating other Digimon and absorbing their errant data. The lower ranks, such as Digivolving from Baby to In-Training, take considerably less time and data than a Digimon moving from Champion to Ultimate naturally. If a Digimon progresses upward this way, they tend to retain their new form semi-permanently, only De-Digivolving when severely injured or if they somehow run out of energy. Partner Digimon can get a temporary increased boost in data and power thanks to their bond with their human, Digivolving for a short period of time thanks to the humans’ Digivice. After the battle concludes, the partner Digimon then De-Digivolves back down to their usual form, most commonly the Rookie level. Partner Digimon can sometimes jump up multiple levels through this method, drawing more energy from their human partner to achieve Ultimate or even Mega ranks if the situation demands it.

Special Digivolutions Riff on the Core Concepts of Digivolution

These Special Digivolutions — Such as Armor Digivolution, Warp Digivolution and Dark Digivolution — Add Creative Elements to the Basic Concept of Digivolution

As the franchise itself has continued to Digivolve, creative elements have been added to the concept of Digivolution, both to introduce a newness into subsequent iterations and as a way of keeping the franchise fresh and engaging for audiences. These special Digivolutions take the main idea of Digivolutions — a Digimon achieving a higher echelon of power and strength through the accumulation of data — and add more elements into it, whether that’s introducing armored Digi-Eggs, leap-frogging Rookies straight into Mega forms or by playing with the concept of corrupted data.

Armor Digivolution, as outlined in the series, is an ancient form of Digivolution that only a handful of Digimon partners are capable of. Using a Digivice and a Digi-Egg that bears a particular Crest — a trait that a Digidestined child embodies and draws willpower and strength from — a partnered Digimon can Armor Digivolve. This special type is at the same power level as a Champion, but as it’s an entirely different method of Digivolving, its process can bypass any restrictions placed on normal Digivolutions. The Digidestined in Digimon Adventures 02 used this unique method of Digivolving to bypass the Digimon Emperor’s black control spires and liberate the Digital World.

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Warp Digivolutions allow a lower level Digimon to leap-frog over other levels, essentially bypassing the middle levels to quickly get to a stronger level. For example, Agumon, a Rookie level Digimon, can Warp Digivolve straight into WarGreymon, a Mega level, to fight against opponents severely stronger than a Champion or Ultimate class. Warp DNA Digivolution takes this even further, merging together DNA and Warp Digivolution so that two rookies can digivolve straight into their Mega stage.

Dark Digivolution is a corrupted form of regular Digivolution, usually resulting in a darker, evil version of the evolved Digimon. This Digivolution usually happens to a partnered Digimon, when the human partner or tamer forces a Digimon to evolve with a clouded or dark intention. In this state, the Dark Digimon falls into a type of bloodlust, perceiving everything as a threat and attacking friends and foes indiscriminately. Notable examples of Dark Digivolution include Greymon Dark Digivolving into SkullGreymon, the virus version of MetalGreymon, thanks to Tai’s negative emotions at the time, or whenTakato forced WarGrowlmon to become Megidramon in a fit of rage over Leomon’s death.

Some Digivolutions Merge Together Two or More Digimon to Create a Stronger Unit

This Allows the Gestalt Digimon to Increase Their Strength by Combining Their Data Collectively

Still other riffs on the traditional concept of Digivolving involve two partner Digimon merging together to create a stronger, single unit, such as in DNA Digivolution and DigiFuse. DNA Digivolution did this during Digimon Adventures, when WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon DNA Digivolved into Omnimon to fight on equal footing with Diaboromon. The blending together of the two Digimon into one gave it a sharp increase in power and also seemingly blended together their consciousnesses to create a single entity. Digimon Adventure 02 elaborated on the concept of DNA Digivolution, with the six Digidestined pairing up, so that the six Digimon could create three extremely powerful DNA Digivolutions.

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DigiFuse took the concept of DNA Digivolutions further, by introducing a new subset of Digimon, called DigiXros Units, and allowing them to combine together into stronger forms. This type of Digivolution draws on elements of DNA Digivolutions and Mode Changing, with the two Digimon rearranging their data to produce a Digimon with the body-parts or weapons that best address the current threat. In the merged Digimon, the stronger Unit’s soul takes control, with the lead Unit capable of being swapped out if overpowered by the others.

Another Category of Digivolutions Involves the Digimon Making a Lateral Move Rather Than a Strictly Progressive One

These Digivolutions Include Concepts Such as Mode Change, Burst Evolution, Slide Evolution and X-Digivolution

As the franchise continued, Digivolutions took on a new aspect: namely, that not all Digivolutions involve a progressive change, where the Digimon increases in level. A lateral change, with the Digimon moving from side to side, could be the result of a Digivolution. Mode Changes, Slide Evolutions and X-Digivolutions all involve the core Digimon making a sideward change in power instead. This opened up avenues where Digimon could tap into powers and abilities that better addressed the problems they were facing without completely uping the power level they drew upon.

Mode Changes allow a Digimon to rewrite the data in their Digicore, permitting them to unlock different sets of abilities while fundamentally staying on the same level. An example from Digimon Tamers includes Gallantmon, who Mode Changed to Crimson Mode Gallantmon, where his distinctive white armor took on a red hue, and he sprouted wings that offered improved maneuverability on the battlefield. In subsequent series, Burst Evolution materialized, which allowed the Digimon to increase their power just like in a normal Digivolution yet to still include the lateral change of a Mode Change, granting them an upward diagonal shift rather than just a lateral or upward one.

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Yet some of these laterally-minded Digivolutions still resulted in changed species of Digimon. Slide Evolutions grants a Digimon the ability to completely change into a different kind of Digimon, which, once again, would grant them better tools and physicality to overcome obstacles standing in their way. Agunimon did this when he Slide Evolved to BurningGreymon, granting him a better grasp of combat.

X-Digivolution takes in an outside element, most notably the X Antibody (a vaccine that makes Digimon immune to the X-Program), into their Digicore, granting them a crucial resistance while also not fully altering them at the same time. While still technically counted as a Digivolution, X-Digivolution largely keeps the Digimon the same, just now with the immunity inherent in their Digicore. Death-X Evolution builds off X-Digivolution, with the Digimon rewriting their data after death to achieve an entirely new form.

Human-Based Digivolutions Combine a DigiDestined With Their Partner or Allow a Human to Become a Digimon

The Two Most Prominent Human-Based Digivolutions are Biomerge Digivolution and Spirit Evolution

Many of the Digimon series feature Digimon partnered with human children, or human children traveling to the Digital World to rescue it from harm. In the early series, these children largely took a spectator role in the combat, with the Digimon doing the actual fighting while the child supplied the energy needed for the Digimon to Digivolve. With Digivices, Crests and willpower, the children and the Digimon worked collectively to achieve their goals. Yet as the series continued to evolve, the children were granted more agency in the fights, namely through a merging of the children and the Digimon in a pattern similar to DNA Digivolving.

Biomerge Digivolution is a subset of Warp Digivolution and allows a human Tamer and their Rookie partner to merge together into one, jumping up to Mega level. Notable examples include Takato and Guilmon Biomerge Digivolving into Gallantmon or Rika and Renamon Biomerge Digivolving into Sakuyamon — a Digivolution that is arguably one of the most underrated in the series. Bio-Hybrid Digivolution took this concept further, with special humans capable of harnessing the power of Digimon data without a Digimon partner, transforming themselves into a Digimon, such as the human Kouki Bio-Hybrid Digivolving into BioThunderbirdmon.

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Spirit Evolution allowed a human to harness the spirit of a Digimon to Digivolve, once the human collected the spirit and stored it in their own fractal code. This particular Digivolution featured prominently in Digimon Frontiers, where the Digidestined lacked official partners and instead battled on their own. Fusion Evolution allowed the children to Digivolve with two spirits of the same elemental type. Building off of that, Unified Spirit Evolution allowed one human to merge with all twenty spirits at once, Digivolving into a transcendent form. Continuing down that pathway, the Ancient Spirit Evolution once again combines all twenty warrior spirits together to create the legendary Susanoomon, with Takuya and Koji as the only humans in his first appearance and then later with all the original five Digidestined in his second appearance.

Digimon

A group of young teens is unexpectedly sent to the mysterious Digital World and paired up with their own powerful, morphing monster called the Digimon. Together the entire group set out on an adventure to fight evil and save the world.

Created by

Akiyoshi Hongo

First Episode Air Date

March 7, 1999