Best ways to find Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO (July 2023)

Shiny Pokemon are among the most fascinating creatures in Pokemon GO. Thanks to their sheer rarity, many players light up with excitement upon coming into contact with one of these monsters despite the variant not possessing any sort of bonus stats or special moves to be used in battle. They merely sport an altered color pallet.

Though the difference between a Shiny Pokemon and a standard one is purely cosmetic, players still love to collect these types of creatures. With this in mind, many shiny hunters are always looking for easier ways to find them, and Pokemon GO has a few tricks for these players.

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Easiest way to get Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon GO

Shiny Rayquaza as seen in the anime (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Thankfully, Pokemon GO has several methods to yield more Shiny Pokemon than simply searching through hundreds of random encounters. The first that most players know of is Legendary Five-Star Raids. Legendary Pokemon typically control these raids, making completing the fight challenging for most players.

Luckily, players' efforts are greatly rewarded as almost all Legendary Pokemon encountered through these battles have a much higher chance of being found in their shiny variants. This rate is around one in every 20 completed Five-Star Raid Battles.

Though still quite daunting, these odds are much better than grinding wild Pokemon for upwards of days at a time.

However, this shiny hunting method comes with its own share of downsides. For starters, players need Raid Passes if they want to participate in a Five-Star Raid Battle. With the cost of these items doubling in recent times, this method can get very expensive.

Most players also need a team of at least three other players to grind with, which is easier said than done.

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Best ways to find Shiny Pokemon in the wild in Pokemon GO

Official artwork for Poliwag's Community Day in Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

Most notoriously, the Community Day monthly event is the best chance players get at catching Shiny Pokemon in the wild in Pokemon GO. During this three-hour event, players have roughly a one in 25 chance of encountering the shiny variant of the creature the event is meant to showcase. For the month of July, this will be Poliwag.

Trainers also tend to spend the weekly Spotlight Hour event shiny hunting. Though this event does not possess a higher shiny spawn rate, the sheer amount of one type of creature spawning is enough to motivate many to spend the hour grinding encounters for the chance to see one of these rare Pokemon.

Players should note that before engaging in a shiny hunt of any kind, not every creature will appear as a shiny on live servers. As such, players should consult the official Pokemon GO website to see if they will be fortunate enough to encounter a specific Shiny Pokemon when they go out.