Evolution Stage

Evolution Stage (進化段階 Shinka dankai; Dub: Level)—also referred to by various other names—is a classification that, broadly speaking, denotes how powerful a Digimon is. When a Digimon undergoes evolution, it typically becomes a Digimon of a higher Evolution Stage than its previous form, so Evolution Stages are also roughly analogous to phases in the Digimon life cycle.

=Overview= Each new Evolution Stage requires more and more data than the last in order to be evolved into, so evolution gets progressively more difficult as Evolution Stage increases. As a result of this, there are fewer and fewer Digimon of each subsequent Evolution Stage, and the majority of Digimon in the wild do not evolve any further than the Adult level.

Although Evolution Stage generally represent a linear progression in power, where Digimon of a given level are uniformly more powerful than those of the previous level, there are rare exceptions. For example, Lucemon: Falldown Mode is classified as Perfect, but it is significantly more powerful than many Ultimate Digimon, including the other Great Demon Lords (all of whom are Ultimate).

Not all Digimon species have an identified Evolution Stage, and some are classified as having no Evolution Stage at all.

In some media like the Digital Monster Card Game, Digimon which do not belong to a natural Evolution Stage are sometimes described instead in terms of class (級 Kyū). This classification rates their power on the scale of the power levels of the traditional Evolution Stages, for the sake of comparison with or equivalency to Digimon with natural Evolution Stage.

Evolution Stage is also the basis on which methods of attaining evolution by combining multiple Digimon together are typically, but not universally, distinguished from each other. As a general rule, if the Digimon that results from the combination of two or more Digimon is of a higher Evolution Stage than all of the constituent Digimon, it is considered Jogress Evolution. Otherwise, it is considered fusion.

Nomenclature
Evolution Stages are usually referred to by a specific name. They can also be referred to by a number, following a convention established by various trading card games (for example, the Child level is "Level III").

Other media sometimes call the concept of Evolution Stages by other terms, including:


 * Level (レベル Reberu; Dub: Level) The standard term, used in the vast majority of Digimon media, including Digimon Web and the Digimon Reference Book.
 * Generation (世代 sedai; Dub: Generation) Commonly used in role-playing video games like the Digimon World and Digimon Story series, to avoid confusion with  which also features in those games.

=List of Levels=

Natural Levels
The natural life cycle of a Digimon, without use of any artificial means of evolution, is comprised of six Evolution Stages.

Artificial Evolution Stages
There are two additional Evolution Stages that designate species of Digimon who evolved using certain external means, such as specific items. These Evolution Stages are outside the standard Digimon Evolution Stage hierarchy, and the strength of Digimon belonging to these Evolution Stages can vary considerably. For convenience, many adaptations just treat Digimon of these Evolution Stages as belonging to natural Evolution Stages.

Appmon Grades
Instead of traditional Evolution Stages, Appmon use an analogous concept called grades (グレード Gurēdo), which otherwise serves almost the exact same function. The only difference is that Appmon do not have traditional Digimon evolution and instead can only become higher-grade Appmon by undergoing AppGattai to fuse with another Appmon of the same grade.

=Additional Information=