Can Dratini be shiny in Pokemon GO?

Pokemon fans from Generation I as well as newcomers should be excited about the chance to catch shiny Dratini in Pokemon GO.

Dratini appeared way back in Kanto and has been a mainstay in the Pokemon series ever since. Its evolution, Dragonite, is one of the most powerful pseudo legendaries in the franchise (so legendary that Lance needed three of them on his Elite Four team). Will trainers, though, be able to find its shiny form?

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Can Dratini be shiny in Pokemon GO?

Image via Niantic

Fortunately, shiny Dratini is confirmed to be in the game and able to be caught. On May 11th, Dratini was the focus of a Spotlight Hour, running from 6 to 7 PM local time. During that hour, Dratini had a high spawn rate and many trainers were able to get enough encounters to where they found a shiny. Outside of the Spotlight Hour, players can still find shiny Dratini, but they just won’t have the increased spawns to take advantage of.

As of now, there is no way to boost a Pokemon’s chance of being shiny. This means that the only way to find a shiny version of a Pokemon is to keep getting encounters and hope to get lucky. Shiny hunting, in both the main series and Pokemon GO, truly requires dedication and patience.

Shiny or not, Dratini is always a valuable find. This is, of course, true for fans of Dragon-type Pokemon, as well as those nostalgic about the Kanto region. Dragonite is a great Pokemon to use in PvP modes as well as Raid battles. It also is good trade fodder, so if any trainer has a couple of Dratinis, they could use one to trade for a different Pokemon that they want.

When fully evolved, Dragonite has a base Attack of 263, which is higher than many strong Pokemon like Mamoswine and Gengar. Also, because of its Dragon and Flying typing, Dragonite has a lot of valuable resistances: Grass, Fighting, Ground and Water type moves. This powerful dragon also gets access to Draco Meteor, one of the best moves in the game. Paired with other strong charge moves like Hurricane or Hyper Beam, Dragonite is capable of unleashing massive amounts of damage.