Shiny Pokemon GO: The Latest, Best Times To Catch Em All

The rarity of shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO has been given a major update in the last few weeks – and the entire Pokemon universe has been given a jolt as a result. Pokemon GO has Shiny Pokemon available at rates far lower than they're in the wild in any other Pokemon game – save maybe Pokemon Quest. But now, here in 2020, as the world was plunged into global pandemic, Niantic changed a whole lot about how the Pokemon GO was played – and how easy it is to hunt.

The way Community Day works is different from the way it used to work. You needed to head to a park if you really, truly wanted to participate in the past. Now, you can stay at home! The amount of Shiny Pokemon that appear during a Community Day remains the same, BUT, since you do not need to leave your home to participate, you'll have a far easier time of trying a larger number of times than you'd otherwise have been able.

If a Shiny Pokemon is introduced to the game during a Community Day, the odds are far, far greater that you'll see it during the course of the event. We're talking 1/100 or better, here.

If you know the Raid Boss of a local Pokemon Gym has the potential to be Shiny, you'll want to enter your Raid with a Raid Party as large as possible. If you're able to run a Legendary Pokemon Raid Boss raid with 20 participants, you'll find what's likely the best-possible-rate at which a Shiny Legendary Pokemon will appear. The Shiny rate might not be calculated among the 20 – but research suggests the rates are highest for the biggest groups.

According to The Silph Road, users have a 1/19.4 chance of a Shiny Pokemon encounter during a Legendary Raid if they win. That's according to thousands of tests across all manner of Legendary Pokemon in Legendary Raid battles since Raid Battles were first introduced to the game.

Cresselia, Giratina (Altered), Groudon, Heatran, Ho-Oh, Kyogre, Latias, Latios, Lugia, Mewtwo, Rayquaza, Regice, Regirock, and Registeel all showed between 1 in 17.4 and 1 in 22.1 Shiny Encounter rates.

If Pokemon are in Raids or Pokemon Eggs exclusively, during special events, they'll have higher Shiny encounter rates than if they were also available in the wild. According to thousands of researchers (via The Silph Road), it would appear that Raid and Egg Exclusives have rates of between 1 in 46 and 1 in 58 Shiny.

If you find a Pokemon Encounter in a "three hour Limited Research" event, you'll find the best Shiny Encounter rate for any Pokemon at any point in the game, in Pokemon GO. This has only happened a cool THREE times in the history of the game, mind you. Clamperl and Minccino were available in Shiny rates better than 1 in 10, while Lotad appeared in Shiny form 1 in every 22.2 encounters.

If you're looking for a Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO in general, you'll find the Shiny encounter rate at around 1 in 450. It's still ALWAYS best to attempt to find a Shiny Pokemon during a special event that features said Pokemon. Those rates skyrocket, and the Shiny Pokemon hunt will be multiple times easier than it'll be at any other point in the game!