You don’t need both forms of the little Gen 8 teacup dweller to complete your Gen 9 Pokédex, and the form doesn’t affect its stats, but if you want to truly catch ’em all, you’ll need both the Phony and Antique forms of Sinistea. We’ve explained Sinistea locations below, as well as where to find the Cracked Pots and Chipped Pots you need to evolve Sinistea into Polteageist in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. On this page: If you’d like to learn more about your Paldea adventure, visit our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet walkthrough.
Sinistea locations in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
As detailed in their Pokédex entry, you can find Sinistea around Zapapico in East Province (Area Three) and around Alfornada in South Province (Area Six). They like appearing among ruins and near towns and cities, and we’ve found that they appear much more frequently at night. Out of the two locations, we recommend looking for Sinistea around Zapapico at night at the start of your playthrough (especially if it’s just Sinistea Chips you’re after) as you only need to clear the Team Star Fire Crew base to get there. Sinistea can also be forced to spawn around the eastern Pokémon Center. If you’re farming for Sinistea Chips or an Antique Sinistea around Zapipico, then walk along that short path between the ruins and the eastern center at night, battle them, then return to the Pokémon center. When you go back to checking that path, there will now be new spawns, which can force Sinistea to the area. Repeat this until you’re done farming. You can also add checking the muddy area just south of Zapapico to your farming route, as we found a few Sinistea while looking for Antiques here as well. When you are able to make your way to Alfornada later on in the game, then the ruins above the town are very good for spawning Sinistea in large groups, and you might want to switch to farming for them here. Our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet walkthrough can take you through the entire game - including The First Day of School, Victory Road, Starfall Street, Path of Legends and when you’re ready, The Way Home and the final boss. Elsewhere, we can help with the Normal Gym test Secret Item menu, version differences, the best Scarlet and Violet starter, EXP farming, shiny Pokémon and learning how to fly, swim, climb and dash. When it comes to individual Pokémon, we can help with Gimmighoul, Ditto, Bellibolt, Pawmot, Scovillain, Frigibax, Sinistea, Brambleghast, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dudunsparce, Lycanrock forms, Armarouge and Ceruledge.
Phony Form and Antique Form Sinistea in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet explained
The majority of the Sinistea you encounter are actually forgeries or, to be accurate, the teacups they reside in are forgeries. These are the Phony Sinistea. An Antique Sinistea or Polteageist will have a small little blue authenticity stamp on the underside of its bottom ridge. The only time you can clearly see this authenticity stamp (or lack thereof) is when you use the Let’s Go auto battle feature to walk with Sinistea or Polteageist, then pan the camera to look at the bottom of the teacup. There is, thankfully, no stats or move difference between a Phony Sinistea or Polteageist and an Antique one, so don’t worry if you catch a forgery. You do have a real Sinsitea, it just happens to live in a knockoff teacup. If you do want an Antique Sinistea, however, be prepared to catch an awful lot of them, as they rarely appear in the wild. Using the Sinistea farming method detailed above can help speed things along though. There is a quicker way to check if you have an Antique or Phony Sinistea…
How to evolve Sinistea into Polteageist in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
To save a lot of time checking the bottoms of your Sinistea, the best way to tell if you have a Phony Form or not is to see whether you can evolve Sinistea with the Cracked Pot. This is because you need a Cracked Pot to evolve a Phony Sinistea or a Chipped Pot to evolve an Antique Sinistea. If you can’t evolve your Sinistea with a Cracked Pot, then congratulations! You’ve got the real deal on your hands. So to evolve your Sinistea into Polteageist, you’ll need one of the pots - most likely the Cracked Pot. Our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet walkthrough can take you through the entire game - including The First Day of School, Victory Road, Starfall Street, Path of Legends and when you’re ready, The Way Home and the final boss. Elsewhere, we can help with the Normal Gym test Secret Item menu, version differences, the best Scarlet and Violet starter, EXP farming, shiny Pokémon and learning how to fly, swim, climb and dash. When it comes to individual Pokémon, we can help with Gimmighoul, Ditto, Bellibolt, Pawmot, Scovillain, Frigibax, Sinistea, Brambleghast, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dudunsparce, Lycanrock forms, Armarouge and Ceruledge.
Where to get Cracked and Chipped Pots in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
To evolve a Sinistea, you need to use a Cracked or Chipped Pot on it. A Cracked Pot if it’s a Phony form, and a Chipped Pot if it’s an Antique Form. The most consistent way to get a Cracked or Chipped pot in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is to go to the auction house in Port Marinada. This is the western coastal town in Western Province (Area 2). The same place you have to return Kofu’s wallet to him as part of the Water Gym test. The middle three auctioneers change what they’re selling approximately every two in-game hours. So, you’ll just have to wait until one of them mentions they’re selling a Cracked or Chipped pot. Alternatively, you can go into your Switch’s settings and change the time manually yourself to force the auctions to change. Changing the time worked for us, but it could affect other parts of the game that we’ve yet to discover, so use this time trick with caution! The price of the pots may vary from auction to auction, but here’s how much a Cracked and Chipped Pot cost us at Port Marinada:
Cracked Pot - 18,500 Chipped Pot - 18,000
For more help in Paldea, we’ve got a walkthrough, including help with the Starfall Street, Victory Road, and Path of Legends stories.
