Pokémon Sword & Shield trainers, the time has finally come. Until May 25th, you have a chance to catch the otherwise-unavailable Gigantamax Eevee as part of a special event. Here’s what you need to know to get out there and claim your personal kaiju kitty.

How to Get Gigantamax Eevee In Pokémon Sword and Shield

Before now, Gigantamax Eevee was only available in Sword & Shield to players who had save data on their Switch from 2018’s Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! If you do, you can get Gigantamax Eevee as a gift from an NPC in the train station in Sword & Shield’s Wild Area. (If you played Let’s Go, Pikachu! instead, you can cop a free Gigantamax Pikachu from the same NPCs in the same place.)

If you didn’t, you can now catch Gigantamax Eevee as part of an eponymous limited-time event in Sword & Shield. Until May 25th, you can find Raid Dens in the Wild Area marked by pillars of red or purple light. Inside, you’ve got a good if not guaranteed chance to find G-Max’d Eevees.

Like regular-sized Eevees, the Gigantamaxed version is a Normal-type Pokémon that’s totally immune to Ghost-type attacks. It’s vulnerable against Fighting, but has no other weaknesses, and knows the exclusive Normal-type move G-Max Cuddle. While Cuddle can dish out some pain, its real drawback is that any Pokémon on your team of the opposite gender from the G-Maxed Eevee will become Infatuated, which brings a 50% chance that they won’t be able to attack the Eevee at all.

Most Eevee tend to be male, so your best team for capturing a Gigantamax Eevee would involve some high-defense male Pokémon with Fighting-type moves. A properly leveled Machamp, Conkeldurr, Hitmonlee, or Hawlucha should be able to take on Eevee and win with minimal difficulty, particularly if you’ve reached or gotten past Sword & Shield’s endgame.

As a Pokémon in your collection, Gigantamax Eevees are missing the regular version’s strongest advantage, as they can’t evolve. They’re limited to their base form, albeit one with an extraordinarily fluffy mane, and that in turn limits Gigantamax Eevees’ role in a team. They’re still immune to Ghost-type attacks, though, so they can be very useful in certain situations.

Gigantamax Eevee will be available in Raid Dens in Sword & Shield until May 25th. At that point, Eevee bows out and is replaced by Gigantamax Meowth, which was previously only available as a bonus for players who bought Sword & Shield before January 15th, 2020.

Related: How to Get Espeon in Pokemon Sword and Shield

The Pokémon franchise is having a busy year, and we’re covering as much of it as we can. Check out our game hub for more information, including:

• Everything you need to know about the Hoenn Throwback Challenge, running this week in Pokemon Go
• Expand your storage in Galar with this handy guide
• Where is Squirtle, anyway?

Pokémon Sword & Shield is missing a few opportunities here. It seems like the real value of having a Gigantamax Eevee in your crew wouldn’t be using it in a fight, but instead, renting it out as an extremely cuddly mass transit vehicle, Who wouldn’t want to ride a giant fluffy not-cat across town? Share your own extremely good ideas for alternative Pokémon transport via our official Twitter, @PrimaGames.