Every Tuesday in Pokémon GO, trainers might notice a single Pokémon appearing everywhere in the wild. For one hour, whatever the featured Pokémon is will be appearing almost exclusively everywhere.
Trainers can go around and collect all the candy they need and even have a chance at a shiny if it’s available. It’s a great time to get out and play the hit mobile game.
Pokémon featured in Spotlight Hour this month
The Spotlight Hour is from 6 pm to 7 pm local time. Each Tuesday brings a new opportunity, so here’s what the schedule looks like for May, 2025.
August 1- Vulpix
Shiny Vulpix is available on Spotlight (Image via Sportskeeda)
The first Spotlight Hour in August belongs to Vulpix. This Pokémon will come with twice the usual evolution XP, so evolving anything across the hour will come with twice as much reward. Vulpix has had a shiny variant for a long time, and it will be available during the hour. It’s then that trainers can see this Pokémon almost exclusively, which means there will be plenty of opportunities to find the yellowish version rather than the orange one. It evolves to Ninetales with 50 candy, so it might be an opportune time to get a shiny version of that as well. Naturally, that will yield twice as much XP.
August 8- Paras
A shiny Paras looks like this
Following the appearance of Vulpix, Paras will drop into the Spotlight. Players will see it all over their map from 6-7 pm. During that time, all Pokémon come with double the catch stardust, so it’s a great time load up on the valuable currency. This can be a good way to level up Pokémon or make special trades. Paras can be shiny, so trainers will likely be catching a lot in an effort to find the off-color Paras. It evolves into Parasect, so you may end up with a shiny of that, too. That requires 50 candies, so be sure to catch enough so that you can evolve if you need to.
August 15- Stufful
Shiny Stufful is yellow (Image via Pokémon Blog)
The third Spotlight Hour for the month of August will see Stufful enter the playing field. This shiny has been in the game for a while since it had a Community Day in 2025. Many players might have one, but it hasn’t been in all that many large events, so this is a good chance to get one. From 6-7, catching it will grant twice the normal catch XP. Finding a shiny Rhyhorn will take a lot of attempts, so you can catch and release to quickly level up. The downside to this is that Stufful requires 400 candy to evolve, so you may need to spend the entire hour catching them to even come close to enough. Regardless, that is an excellent way of getting a lot of XP.
August 22- Venonat
Shiny Venonat and Venemoth (Image via PIMPNITE on YouTube)
Venonat will be this month’s fourth featured Pokémon. From 6-7, this will be a majority of what any Pokémon GO players will see. Fortunately, it can be shiny. Its shiny trades out the pink eyes for blue eyes, so trainers will know if they stumble upon one. Catching anything grants twice the candy during the hour, so it would be in trainers’ best interests to catch all the Venonats they see. Additionally, it evolves to Venemoth with 50 candies, so you’ll need to catch a lot to be able to get that shiny Venemoth.
August 29- Tentacool
Shiny Tentacool is purple
August is the rare month that has five Tuesdays, so it gets an extra Spotlight Hour. Stepping into the spotlight to close the month will be Tentacool. It does have a shiny which trades out its typical blue coloring for a purple shade. Trainers will know if they get one within an instant. It evolves to Tentacruel, which can also be shiny. Trainers will be granted twice the transfer candy, so it’s worth catching and releasing in search of the shiny. Furthermore, trainers may want to save any pending transfers for this evening to maximize their candy intake.
Shiny odds for Spotlight Hour
Unfortunately, there is no shiny boost for Spotlight Hour. In a sense, there is because instead of just having one random chance, they have hundreds of random chances since they will see so many. However, the overall rate does not change.
It is still the roughly 1-in-450 rate for shinies. Community days and other events carry increased shiny odds, but Spotlight Hour does not. Trainers will still have to be extremely lucky to get a shiny version of Houndour, Ponyta, Alolan Geodude or Skorupi.
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