When players read the Glimwood Tangle in the game Pokemon Sword and Shield, they have a chance of encountering a ghost-type pokemon called Sinistea. This pokemon is a ghost that lives in a teacup. Most of these pokemon are considered to be Phony, while a few count as “antique.” This distinction applies to the type of tea cup the pokemon inhabits. Similarly to real tea cups, some of these are more valuable than others. The antique tea cups are very rare and it is a matter of chance. Read on to learn how to tell if Sinistea is antique.
Examine the Sinistea
One way to tell if your Sinistea is antique is by doing a visual inspection. You can’t actually tell until you catch the pokemon, so if you are looking for an antique pokemon, you need to keep catching them. Once you catch the pokemon, you can go to your pokedex. Look at the entry, go to “Motion/Cry,” and rotate your pokemon to look at its bottom.
If you have a Sinistea that is phony, you will only see the bottom of the cup. However, if this is a rare antique Sinistea, you will see a faint blue mark along the bottom inside rim of the cup. If you have evolved a Sinistea or caught one in a Max Raid Battle, you will have a Polteageist. The evolved version will have the same mark if it is an antique.
Look at the Way it Evolves
Another way to tell whether you have an antique is to look at how it evolves. When you want to evolve a Sinistea, you will need to obtain a Cracked teapot from a vendor. When you use this method, you can immediately evolve your Sinistea into a Polteageist. However, if you have an antique Sinistea, this method will not work.
The antique Sinistea can only evolve after it is exposed to a Chipped Teapot. You can get the Chipped Teapot through the same method but the vendor doesn’t sell them every day. You will have to continue checking back until he has one. This is the fastest way to determine whether you have an antique Sinistea.
Ask a Pokemon Group Online
If you are unable to tell whether you have an antique Sinistea using these methods, you can join an online group. There are groups on social media, Discord, and reddit. You can upload a picture and get people to assess the Sinistea for you.
This is a great way to learn about more than your Sinistea. Many pokemon fans are members of these online forums and they are happy to share information about details of the game. They also showcase their rare pokemon, including antique Sinistea. They can give you tips on how to catch one, how to evolve it, and more. Most importantly, they can easily look at a screenshot of your pokedex entry and tell you whether you have caught a rare antique pokemon or not.
Sinistea is found in the Glimwood Tangle by way of surprise encounters. You can also find Polteageists in the Max Raid Battles in the Wild Area. They have an equal chance of being phony or being antique. The benefit of the Polteageist is that you don’t have to try to get the Chipped Teapot to evolve it.
Hunting and catching rare pokemon such as the antique Sinistea is one of the best parts of playing Pokemon Sword and Shield. You just need to learn how to tell if your Sinistea is antique or phony. Once you learn how to find the faint blue mark or you try to evolve it, you will be able to tell. If you haven’t caught the rare antique form yet, you can keep hunting until you find it.