Rare Candy can make leveling a Pokémon much easier, and fortunately for players, they can be found throughout Pokémon BDSP's Sinnoh region.

Rare Candy is a classic item throughout the Pokémon franchise, and trainers can find this powerful treat all across the Sinnoh Region in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. Feeding a Pokémon a Rare Candy will instantly raise its level by 1, and it will also slightly increase their friendship, making it one of the best treats a trainer can give their Pokémon while trying to level up. Rare Candy not only speeds up the leveling process, but it can also help trainers boost their Pokémon’s stats, learn specific moves, and evolve when used at the right time.

Trainers can feed a Rare Candy to their Pokémon from the Other Items Pocket in their Bag. It’s best to use it when a Pokémon has recently leveled up and still has a low amount of XP for their level as the Rare Candy will only give them the amount of XP necessary to reach the next level, but it can be used on any Pokémon so they’ll instantly level up. If a Pokémon was ready to evolve when it leveled up, it will evolve when it is fed the Rare Candy, though the evolution can still be canceled. Even Pokémon that are level 100 and can’t gain another level will evolve when fed the Rare Candy if their evolution conditions are met, so trainers who wait to evolve their Pokémon until it learns certain moves won’t miss their chance when their Pokémon’s level maxes out.

In addition to their locations throughout Sinnoh, Rare Candy can also be obtained from a Pokémon with the Pickup ability, such as Pachirisu, Munchlax, Aipom, and Ambipom. Rare Candy can also be exchanged for 20 Battle Points at the Battle Park’s Exchange Service Corner, giving players the option to collect Rare Candy by battling rather than exploring. However, there are plenty of Rare Candy locations in the overworld, though some are tougher to get to than others. Many are hidden items that don’t appear in a Poké Ball, so players will have to use the Dowsing app on their Pokétch to find them.

Every Rare Candy Location In Pokémon BDSP

Route 214

• A Rare Candy can be found on Route 214 by surfing across the pond just to the right of the Route’s northern entrance just below Veilstone City.

Route 218

Route 224

• By surfing east of the maze of trees just north of the Route 224 entrance, players will find the Rare Candy just beside the cliff next to the berry patch.

Route 225

• There are three trainers beneath three bridges just beyond the Route 225 entrance. Behind the two trees that can be cut, a Rare Candy is waiting beneath the bridge to the right.

Route 230

• Players can grab the Rare Candy on Route 230 by surfing to the large island in the middle of the river and smashing the rock on the east side. The Rare Candy will be just around the corner.

Eterna City

• At the entrance to route 206, players can speak with Dawn’s father, the scientist, and he will give them a Rare Candy after asking how many Pokémon they’ve added to their PokéDex. He’ll hand out his reward regardless of the answer, so players don’t have to worry about seeing a certain amount of Pokémon before they’re able to claim it.

Wayward Cave

• The Wayward Cave is beneath the northernmost end of the bike route on 206, and trainers will need to bring a Pokémon who knows the move Flash to be able to navigate it. The Rare Candy can be found in the northwestern corner of the cave just past two kid trainers.

Solaceon Ruins

• A Rare Candy is one of the many treasures hidden in the final room on the lowest floor of the Solaceon Ruins. This room can be found by taking the top right staircase in the room by the entrance, followed by the bottom left staircase, then the top right staircase past the Ruin Maniac, then the top left staircases of the next two rooms, and finally the bottom left staircase, at which point the Ruins’ six treasures can be claimed.

Mt. Coronet

• Just north of the Mt. Coronet entrance past the Route 211 sign leaving Celestic Town, there’s a boulder that requires Strength. After smashing two rocks on the path to the left with Rock Smash, players will find a Rare Candy at the end.

Victory Road

• There’s a pair of Ace Trainers circling a cliff in the southeastern corner of the cave with three large bodies of water. Players can surf on the water south of the Ace Trainers and go up the flight of stairs to the west to find the Rare Candy.

Stark Mountain

• From the entrance of Stark Mountain’s main chamber just past the trainer’s rival, there are two Ace Trainers that can be seen down below standing around a small staircase. There’s a Rare Candy at the end of the narrow path that staircase leads to.

Grand Underground

• In addition to the overworld locations, players can find two Rare Candies in the Pokémon Hideaways of Sinnoh’s Grand Underground. The first is in front of a boulder in the top right corner of the Spacious Cave found to the southeast of where players drop into the Grand Underground from the entrance of the Iron Islands. The second is in the Spacious Cave north of where players drop in from the entrance to Ramanas Park behind another large boulder in the top right corner.

How To Find Hidden Rare Candy In Pokémon BDSP

While some Rare Candies can be found in Poké Balls that are easy to spot, many of them are hidden and require players to interact with a seemingly empty space in order to pick them up. Finding them is much easier with the Dowsing Machine app in the Pokétch, which allows trainers to check for hidden items on a radar by tapping the screen of the Pokétch. Hidden items will ping with a small dot that indicates where the item is in relation to the player so players can easily track them down. The Dowsing Machine app can be obtained from Dawn or Lucas when the player meets them south of Mt. Coronet after beating Eterna Gym and obtaining the Explorer Kit.

Route 207

• Just past the bike hill, there’s a narrow path leading south beside a hill with a hiker, and the Rare Candy is hidden on the outcropping just west of him.

Route 212

• There’s a Rare Candy near the treeline in the northwest corner of the swamp area directly north of the Route 212 sign west of Pastoria City.

Route 225

• Below the house with a blue roof in the middle of Route 225, there’s a Rare Candy hidden right above the patch of tall grass.

Route 228

• Route 228 is connected to Route 226 at its northern end, and there’s a Rare Candy just below the Route 228 sign posted where these roads meet.

Galactic Veilstone Building

• Up the stairs past the room with the beds and down the hall past the double battle against two Galactic Grunts, there are three warp pads. The one in the middle will lead to a room with two cargo crates in the bottom left corner where a hidden Rare Candy can be found.

Great Marsh

• A Rare Candy is hidden in the northwestern corner of Area 1 in the Great Marsh.

Valor Lakefront

• Just south of the Seven Stars Restaurant in the Grand Lake Hotel area of the Valor Lakefront on Route 214, there are three small cliffs that can be scaled with Rock Climb. The Rare Candy is hidden on the top cliff.

Mt. Coronet

• From the Celestic Town entrance to Route 211, there’s a staircase leading down in the passage to the north that descends into a foggy room that must be cleared with Defog. Following that path the whole way north will lead to two small boulders behind a smashable rock, and the Rare Candy is hidden between them.

Victory Road

• There are two Rare Candies that can be found hidden on Victory Road. The first can be found hidden under a boulder in the third of three Strength puzzles that players must solve to progress through Victory Road’s second room. After moving the final boulder out of the way, players can interact with the empty space to find a Rare Candy.
• The second can be found by taking the staircase east of the Dragon Tamer in the final room before the Pokémon League and following the road down into a misty room that players must Defog. By taking the northern path and pushing several boulders out of the way with Strength, players will reach a small lake past two Veteran Trainers that they can surf across to reach four boulders at the east side. The Rare Candy is hidden in the water in front of these boulders.

Players who want to see all of Pokémon BDSP's Rare Candy locations for themselves can do so by viewing the YouTube video below from Pokémon Archives:

Next: Pokémon BDSP: How To Evolve Eevee Into Glaceon

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl are available on Nintendo Switch.