Whether you’re a fan of Battle League or battling in raids, this is going to be an exciting Spotlight Hour as its two final evolutions, Gardevoir and Gallade, are both pretty useful in Pokémon Go. So, if you’re still missing the a shiny or the 4* perfect Pokémon, this is your chance to try to find one, while also grinding the Candy and Candy XL you’ll need to max out your Pokémon. This week’s Spotlight Hour also comes with a double catch XP bonus that runs alongside the event, so make sure you catch as many Pokémon as possible! On this page:
Ralts 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
This week’s Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Ralts with perfect IV stats. ‘Perfect’ means two things in Pokémon Go, depending on how you plan to use a given Pokémon. First, there’s the maxed out, 100% IV version, which is the 15/15/15 you’re looking for for your 4* Pokédex, raids and Master League. Yet, because of how CP is calcuated using three stats, a perfect IV Pokémon is generally only ever the best version of itself in the Master League. Of course, you can’t see the IV of a Pokémon without catching it first, but with a little research beforehand, you can quickly spot a perfect Ralts based on the CP alone. If you’re at Level 30 (or above), you’ll ideally be looking for the following CPs for a perfect 15/15/15 Ralts: The wild CP value aligns with your Trainer Level until you reach Level 30 and, due to the majority of the player base now being above this level, we’ve kept to these values for the sake of simplicity. These values will, however, be different if you’re currently below Level 30. The Season of Mythical Wishes continues with the Winter Holiday event, which has brought Mega Glalie to Pokémon Go. Don’t forget to partake in the new Go Battle League season. Elsewhere, be sure to use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres.
Is there a shiny Ralts in Pokémon Go?
Yep, there is a shiny Ralts in Pokémon Go and it looks better than the original! The shiny form for Ralts was released on the game’s 20th Community Day, back in August 2019. If you catch one, you can evolve it into a shiny Kirlia and either a shiny Gardevoir or a shiny Gallade. If luck is on your side, you may find a shiny Ralts in the wild, but be aware that this is not a Community Day and shiny rates are not boosted, so the chances of catching one, let alone a perfect one, are very low. That said, each Ralts you see has the potential to be shiny, so it’s purely a numbers game — tap each and every one of them and see what you get. Good luck finding the Ralts you need!
What does shiny Ralts look like?
As you can see, shiny Ralts, and its evolutions, take on a handsome blue instead of the grassy green of the originals. It’s ‘fins’, for want of a better word, become orange instead of red, with Gallade’s fin becoming a much darker grey. Thanks to Reddit user VpWaLL for the handy comparison!
Other tips for this Spotlight Hour
Aside from trying to catch a shiny Ralts in Pokémon Go, there are a couple of other good reasons to partake in this week’s Spotlight Hour:
The best reason is, of course, the double catch XP bonus running throughout the hour. This applies to all Pokémon caught, so do your best to get good at Excellent Curve Ball throws on a Ralts to quickly rack up the XP! If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Ralts candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter all of its evolutions in the Pokédex. This is pretty important as it will require 250 Candy to get all four Pokémon in your Pokédex. Thanks to Ralts being a fairy and psychic-type, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your fairy and psychic-type catch bonus medals.
Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour - 6pm to 7pm (local time), and next week’s is Aron and double catch candy.
Are Gardevoir and Gallade good in PVP?
How do Ralts evolutions Gardevoir and Gallade fare in PVP, also known as competing against other players in Battle League? Ralts is one of those Pokémon that can evolve into two different final Pokémon. For 25 Candy, you can evolve your Ralts into a Kirlia. From here you have a choice: any Kirlia can evolve into a Gardevoir using 100 Candies, but a male Kirlia can evolve into a Gallade using 100 Candies and a Sinnoh Stone. Gardevoir is a psychic/fairy type, like Ralts, whereas Gallade is a psychic/fighting type. Clearly, the two Pokémon have very different use cases, given their type differences. Gardevoir is generally better in Great League and Master League, running Charm, Shadow Ball and Synchonoise. Gallade, on the other hand, is slighly better in Ultra League, running Confusion, Close Combat and Leaf Blade. Interestingly, the Shadow version is almost always recommended, no matter which Pokémon or League, with the exception of Ultra League Gallade, where the regular version outperforms its Shadow equivalent. But, let’s look at each in turn, in a little more detail. Gardevoir In Great League, Shadow Gardevoir is a top-10 fairy type, and just misses out on the top-5 for pscyhic types. While it’s a perfectly decent choice, with wins against Scrafty, Medicham, Sableye and Trevenant, it does lose pretty hard to Galarian Stunfisk and Skarmory, with closer losses (but losses nonetheless) against Lanturn, Azumarill and Swampert. The reason for this is simply that while while Charm applies a lot of fast move pressure, it’s still a slow glass cannon that applies low shield pressure. If you want to increase your defence by running the regular instead of Shadow variant, you will pick up wins against Obstagoon, but start losing to Trevenant instead. This isn’t really worth it in the long run. Looking to Ultra League, Gardevoir really takes a hit, missing out on the top 15 for fairy, and only just getting into the top 15 for psychic types. It still beats the dark types (Scraft and friends), but still loses to Glarian Stunfisk and Swampert, both of which are demons in this meta. By and large, you probably don’t want to run Gardevoir in Ultra League. However, Gardevoir makes a comeback in Master League, with similar rankings to the Great League. The reason for ths is that dragons are overrepresented in Master League, and Gardevoir chalks up wins against Dragonite, Garchomp, Zekrm and Dialga, with the sneaky win against Gyarados (which is somehow not a dragon) as a bonus. Fortunately, Gardevoir doesn’t lose as hard (or as quickly) as in the lower leagues, with losses against Excadrill, Lugia, Mewtwo, Zacian and Giratina Origin being relatively close matches (albiet, again, still losses). No matter your league, the TL;DR: on Gardevoir is that it is a glass cannon that runs some excellent but slow attacks. You’re looking for an 0/15/15 for Great League, or a perfect 15/15/15 for Master League. Gallade For all the excitement of Gardevoir, Gallade is a bit underwhelming in Great League, ranking in the top 15 for psychic but missing out on the top 30 for fighting types. While it still has access to Charm, losing STAB means that Confusion becomes the better option. Close Combat is quite technical, in that it is guaranteed to drop your defense by two stages, leafing you with the grass-type Leaf Blade for coverage. All the while, it keeps the same probems as Gardevoir in that it is a big, clumsy, glass cannon. If you are keen to run a Great League Gallage, it does chalk up wins against Bastiodon, Medicham, Azumarill, Lanturn and Nidoqueen, which is a good chunk of the top of the meta. However, it also loses pretty hard to Swampert, Glaraian Stundusk, Trevenant and eveb Scrafty – a dark-type Pokémon it really should be able to beat. It’s really just Ultra League where you will want to consider Gallade, where it’s a top-10 psychic type (and only just a top-30 fighting type). Here, it flips the match-up on both Swampert Scrafty, while also beating Walrien and Galaran Stunfisk. However, it loses hard against Giratina, Talonflame, Cresselia and even the dark-type Umbreon. This is mostly for the same reason as before – it’s a technical Pokémon that simply lacks the bulk you’d want, no matter how spammy the fast move is. Gallade isn’t awful in Master League, but it loses to the things that Gardevoir beats — namely Dialgo, Garchomp and Gyarados, wile also losing to the likes of Metagross and Zacian. It does pick up wins against Galarian Zapdos, Melmetal, Kyogre and Excadrill, but there are simply better options when you get to the likes of Master League. The TL;DR here is that Gallade is also glass cannon, but is slightly spammier by dropping Charm, and has a STAB move that self-debuffs. You’re looking for an 0/12/15 for Ultra League, or a perfect 15/15/15 for Master League.
