Pokemon Sun & Moon Guide: How to obtain the fossil Pokemon Cranidos, Tirtouga, Archen and Shieldon
It's tradition to find a pair (or more) of fossils in a Pokemon game that you're tasked with bringing back to life. Usually though, you're forced to make a choice and pick one of the two fossils and then trade or otherwise run another playthrough for the other.
Pokemon Sun & Moon is a little different in that there is actually a unique pair of fossils for each version of the game. We're here to tell you where to find the fossils, how to bring them back to life, and which Pokemon can be made available in this way.
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After fossil help for Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon? Check out our page on Pokemon fossils in Ultra Sun & Moon instead.
How to get the fossils and turn them into Pokemon
Instead of traversing through a dungeon or mining in the underground, the fossils in Sun & Moon are obtained in a rather unorthodox way. You can simply find them for purchase inside the Stone Shop in KoniKoni City.
The old woman in the shop will warn you that each customer may only purchase one of each fossil, but that means you can buy one of each. In Sun, the Skull and Cover Fossils are available, in Moon it will be the Plume and Armor Fossils. So you'll need to know someone with the other version of the game (or own both yourself) if you want to eventually obtain all four.
In order to turn into actual Pokemon, you'll want to head to the Pokemon Center on Route 8, from there go up until you're able to turn right into a forest. You'll find a guy along with his van who will offer to revive your fossils for you. He's a seedy looking dude, but he does the job well enough.
So what do you get for each fossil?
Pokemon Sun Fossil Pokemon - Cranidos and Tirtouga
- The Skull Fossil turns into Cranidos, which evolves into Rampardos - a Rock type from Gen IV.
- The Cover Fossil becomes Tirtouga, which evolves into Carracosta - a Water/Rock type from Gen V.
Pokemon Moon Fossil Pokemon - Archen and Shieldon
- The Plume Fossil turns into Archen, which evolves into Archeops - a Rock/Flying type from Gen V.
- The Armor Fossil becomes Shieldon, which evolves into Bastiodon - a Rock/Steel type from Gen IV.
So there are no new fossil Pokemon unique to the Alola region, but at least in this way you can easily get up to four entries from previous gens in your Dex without having to load up those old saves. Catch Em All.
Want more Pokemon Sun & Moon help? Check out the rest of our guide pages via our guide hub.