Article by KingDucksPool and Tangent444

 

Graphics and Translations by G47IX and Mikeiff

 

 

Download the ENG and POL versions

 

 

 

— May Spotlight Hours —

 
 
 

  • May 4 — Cottonee — 2x candy for catching

 
 

  • May 11 — Dratini — 2x candy for transfer

 
 

  • May 18 — Alolan Rattata — 2x XP for evolving

 
 

  • May 25 — Marill — 2x stardust for catching

 
 
 
 

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Enhancing the spotlight will be focusing on tips and tricks to maximize your gains during the weekly spotlight hours which occur on Tuesdays between 6pm and 7pm local times and include a concise PvP breakdown on IVs to target and how much to prioritize grinding for XLs.

 

No matter how you play the game you will need to gain resources to progress along your journey. These spotlight hours are a great way to gain resources in a short time with some prep work. We will be looking at the different types of weekly rewards to determine how to enhance the returns and the spotlighted Pokémon to see if it will help you on your specific journey.

 
 
 

It is recommended to use an incense to help increase your spawn rate during these hours. Currently incense lasts 1 hour so you will only need to use 1. In preparation for each spotlight hour, you will want to make sure you stock up on Pokéballs, so you do not run out while catching the whole time to benefit from this hour.

 

You will also want to have enough Pokémon available storage in your bag so that you do not have to stop and transfer to clear space. These 2 tips are very important, do not take long to do (depending on your current space) and will need to be looked at every week so you are not surprised during a spotlight hour you may really want to do.

 

 

 

GO Stadium has an excellent IV rank checker to show how your Pokémon is ranked, and you can adjust for any way you obtain the Pokémon. The website is linked in the terms section at the bottom along with some helpful explanations of common Pokémon GO phrases if needed.

 
 
 

We will now look at each day separately and give some helpful tips to prepare you for that spotlight hour in order to save time and help maximize your rewards.

 
 
 
 
 

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— May 4 — Cottonee Spotlight — 2x Candy for Catching —

 
 
 

Catching with no other factors added except the spotlight reward

 
 
 

  • 1st form Pokémon is 6 candy

 

 

  • 2nd form Pokémon is 10 candy

 

 

  • 3rd form Pokémon is 20 candy

 
 

There are 2 types of berries that also help with gaining more candy. Pinap and silver pinap both give twice the amount of candy and the silver helps to increase your catch rate slightly. Another tip is the most time consuming of all, yet potentially the most beneficial. In preparation for this specific reward, you can stack field research tasks of Pokémon to be caught during this hour to help catch more. These stacked field research Pokémon will be stored above your active tasks and are kept in the order you stacked them. You can stack up to 99 Pokémon this way which will allow you to catch a significant amount more Pokémon if you are doing it from home, and potentially allow you to catch 2nd or 3rd form Pokémon depending on which Pokémon you have stacked. You can also keep special research tasks but in doing so, it will not allow you to progress to the next stage until that Pokémon is caught and you cannot stack multiple special research tasks so use this at your own discretion

 
 
 
 
 

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— Cottonee Spotlight —

 
 
 

Bonus: 2x Candy for catching

 

Cottonee: Grass/Fairy - 15/15/15 level 50 - CP 791

 

Whimsicott: Grass/Fairy - 15/15/15 level 50 - CP 2277

 

Weaknesses: Fire, Flying, Ice, Steel & 2x Poison

 

Resistances: Dark, Electric, Fighting, Grass, Ground, Water & 2x Dragon

 

Evolution Costs: 50 Cottonee candy > Whimsicott

 

2nd Charge Move Costs: 25 Cottonee candy & 10k stardust

 

LC: Cottonee: 0/15/15 level 30.5

 

GL: Whimsicott: 0/14/15 Level 28.5

 

UL: Whimsicott: 15/15/15 level 50

 

ML: N/A

 

XL Priority: Medium - Spice pick for UL with unique coverage

 

Shiny: N/A

 

Mega Evolve: Venusaur or Abomasnow

 
 
 

PVP Considerations

 
 
 

Whimsicott is a solid pick in Great League, particularly in restricted cup formats, and is worth hunting for a good one. Keep in mind that sometimes PvP IVs are not optimal on a Charm user, as a little bit of attack can help it do more damage in the right matchups, so if you want check a few IV combinations that you catch using PvPoke to find the one that might perform the best. If you are unsure how to do this, picking a high rank one is typically a safe play. Whimsicott also has some nice matchups in Ultra League as a Charm user that has a stronger matchup against traditional Swamperts that run Hydro Cannon and Earthquake than any other Charm user. It is comparable to Togekiss, picking up a slightly better Swampert matchup but dropping a few others ones in the process. It needs to be powered up to Level 50, which is very expensive in terms of resources.

 
 
 
 
 

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— May 11 — Dratini Spotlight — 2x Candy for Transfer —

 
 
 

There are a couple ways to prepare for this reward and they will allow you to gain extra candies on Pokémon that are rare. You can manually change the names of each of the Pokémon you plan to transfer so you can search for them or you can set up Tags to organize your Pokémon storage. With the expansion of group transferring which can be found in the in-game settings will allow transferring of Legendary and certain Mythical Pokémon, it will make gaining needed candy for them a lot quicker.

 

 

 

To prepare for mass transferring, you can trade with friends beforehand and have extra Pokémon available to transfer but be sure to change their name or tag them, so you do not miss them. You can search by “Traded” to see which Pokémon have been previously so when you are trading with your friends you do not try to do so again. Another search choice which will help organizing Pokémon for transfer is the “Number #” option. It allows you to sort your Pokémon by Pokédex number so you can group all Pokémon with the same number together. Just be careful to Tag or rename the transfer Pokémon, so you do not accidentally remove important Pokémon. You can get XL candies from transferring but the amount is randomized.

 
 
 
 
 

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— Dratini Spotlight —

 
 
 

Bonus: 2x Candy Transfer

 

Dratini: Dragon - 15/15/15 level 50 - 1136 CP

 

Dragonair: Dragon - 15/15/15 level 50 - 2012 CP

 

Weaknesses: Dragon, Fairy, Ice

 

Resistances: Electric, Fire, Grass, Water

 

Dragonite: Dragon/Flying - 15/15/15 level 50 - 4287 CP

 

Weakness: Dragon, Fairy, Rock & 2x Ice

 

Resistances: Bug. Fighting, Fire, Water & 2x Grass/Ground

 

Evolution Costs: 25 Dratini candy > Dragonair, 100 dratini candy > Dragonite

 

2nd Charge Move Costs: 75 Dratini candy & 75k stardust

 

2nd Charge Move Costs for Shadow: 90 Dratini candy & 90k stardust

 

LC: Dratini: 0/15/15 level 19.5

 

GL: Dragonair: 1/15/15 level 34

 

GL: Dragonite: 3/15/14 level 14.5

 

UL: Dragonite: 0/13/15 level 24.5

 

ML: Dragonite: 15/15/15 level 51 (Great option for Best Buddy)

 

XL Priority: High - Great pick for ML

 

Shiny: Yes

 

Mega Evolve: Charizard X or Ampharos

 
 
 

PVP Considerations

 
 
 

 

Dragonite is in a unique class of Pokémon, having relevance in all 3 leagues and being a useful dragon type for raiding and gym battles. It is recommended to have a Dragonite for each league, but it stands out the most as a pick in Ultra League Premier and Master League. Dragonair is a solid pick in Great League and also worth hunting for good PvP IVs during spotlight hour. Both Dragonair and Dragonite are strong options to consider as a shadow Pokémon, but you won't be hunting for that during this spotlight hour.

 

— Alolan Rattata Spotlight —

 
 
 

Bonus: 2x XP for evolving

 

Alolan Rattata: Dark/Normal - 15/15/15 level 50 - 830 CP

 

Alolan Raticate: Dark/Normal - 15/15/15 level 50 - 1927 CP

 

Weaknesses: Bug, Fairy, & 2x Fighting

 

Resistances: Dark, 2x Psychic, 3x Ghost

 

2nd Charge Move Costs: 25 Rattata candy & 10k stardust

 

LC: Rattata: 1/15/15 level 27

 

GL: Raticate: 0/13/14 level 39

 

UL: N/A

 

ML: N/A

 

XL Priority: N/A - Spice pick for GL but does not require XL

 

Shiny: Yes

 

Mega Evolve: Pidgeot or Lopunny or Houndoom or Gyarados

 
 
 

PVP Considerations

 
 
 

Alolan Raticate for GL has limited play, but could see use in some restricted metas so it is recommended to have one with optimal IVs in your bag in case you decide to build one. It shares the same typing with Obstagoon, and at the moment it is hard to imagine choosing Alolan Raticate over Obstagoon if given the choice. However, you never know when Niantic will make changes such as a moveset update or an announced themed cup where only thick rat Pokémon are allowed.

 
 
 
 
 

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— May 25 — Marill Spotlight — 2x Stardust for Catching —

 
 
 

Catching with no other factors added except the spotlight reward

 
 
 

  • 1st form Pokémon is 200 stardust

 

 

  • 2nd form Pokémon is 600 stardust

 

 

  • 3rd form Pokémon is 1000 stardust

 
 

The reward this week is likely the one a lot of trainers look forward to so be sure to watch the weather during the spotlight time because a weather boosted Pokémon will earn you 25% more stardust. You can buy starpieces in the shop for 100 Pokécoins. They will give you 50% more stardust. If you do not want to spend your money on Pokécoins make sure to earn them through the gym's rewards system which allows you 50 Pokécoins daily. You will need 2 starpieces since they last only 30mins so plan accordingly. Lastly similar to previous weeks, stacking Pokémon to catch during this hour will help you get increased stardust for specific Pokémon you have kept. As you can see, stacking Pokémon from field research have multiple uses and it is recommended to save them for the spotlight hours you feel will most benefit your goals.

 
 
 
 
 

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— Marill Spotlight —

 
 
 

Bonus: 2x Stardust for catching

 

Marill: Water/Fairy - 15/15/15 level 50 - 521 CP

 

Azumarill: Water/Fairy - 15/15/15 level 50 - 1795 CP

 

Weaknesses: Electric, Grass, Poison

 

Resistances: Bug, Dark, Fighting, Fire, Ice, Water & 2x Dragon

 

2nd Charge Move Costs: 50 Marill candy & 50k stardust

 

LC: N/A

 

GL: Azumarill: 0/15/15 level 45.5

 

UL: N/A

 

ML: N/A

 

XL Priority: High - Great pick for GL

 

Shiny: Yes

 

Mega Evolve: Gyarados or Blastoise

 
 
 

PVP Considerations

 
 
 

Marill is a 2nd form Pokémon but does not receive the bonuses of that since its first form, Azurill, is a baby Pokémon. Azumarill is one of the strongest Pokémon in the Great League and it is absolutely essential that you have one if you are serious about competing in GO Battle League or other community formats like Silph Arena. While not absolutely required for Great League use, Azumarill reaches its highest possible stat product using XL candies and this means it is worth spending this spotlight hour hunting for the right PvP IVs and loading up on XL candy.

 
 
 
 
 

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— Terms —

 
 
 

Spawn rate = How fast Pokémon will show up in a giving time

 

XP = Experience Points

 

CP = Combat Power

 

Stacking = Keeping multiple research rewards to be used later

 

IVs – Individual Values

 

Mega Evolve = Pokemon when mega evolved will help gain extra candy

 

STAB – Same type attack bonus

 

META – Most effective tactics available

 

PVE = Player vs Environment – (Raiding/Gym Battles)

 

PVE - IVs = Individual values for Raiding – as close to 15/15/15 as possible

 

PVP = Player vs Player

 

PVP - IVs = Individual values for battling – usually low attack and high defense/stamina

 

Fast Move = Move used to gain energy for charge move

 

Charge Move = Move shown on the screen that energy is gained to use

 

GBL - GO Battle League

 

LC = Little Cup 500CP and lower (must be 1st form but can evolve)

 

GL = Great League 1500CP and lower

 

UL = Ultra League 2500CP and lower

 

ML = Master League unlimited CP

 
 
 

https://www.stadiumgaming.gg/rank-checker