This week’s Spotlight Hour is all about the Long Neck Pokémon. That’s right, it’s time to catch our favourite palindromic Pokémon, Girafarig, in Pokémon Go.

Girafarig is thoroughly underwhelming in Pokémon Go, sadly. It’s just bad everywhere, from Raids to Go Battle League. And yet, there’s something exciting about seeing it pop up on your screen. Perhaps it’s how easy it is to get Excellent Curve Balls with this Pokémon...

Speaking of, the bonus that runs alongside this Spotlight Hour: double catch XP bonus. If you can get the hang of Excellent Curve Balls with Girafarig, you can rack up XP quickly over the course of the hour!

Girafarig’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go explainedGirafarig evolution chart: What does Girafarig evolve into?Is Girafarig good in PVP?What does shiny Girafarig look like in Pokémon Go?To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Watch as battle Guzzlord - one of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon GoWatch on YouTube

Girafarig’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go explained

This week’s Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Girafarig with perfect IV stats.

Girafarig.

'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 your 4* Pokédex, raids and Master League. Yet, because of how CP is calculated 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 Girafarig 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 Girafarig:

Level 30 (wild CP maximum) – 1754 CPLevel 35 (weather boosted CP maximum) – 1900 CP

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.

Girafarig evolution chart: What does Girafarig evolve intro?

Girafarig has one evolution – Firagarif – although it is not currently available in Pokémon Go. In the main-series game, it can only evolve if it knows the move Twin Beam. With the recent exception of Mega Rayquaza, there are no Pokémon in the game that need to know a particular move in order to evolve. So, how this will play out in Go remains to be seen.

Everything in the Girafarig line is a Normal/Psychic-type. (Image credit: pokemon.com)

One thing that is interesting about this new evolution eventually joining Pokémon Go is that it might find itself being useful in Go Battle League. Again, this remains to be seen.

Is Girafarig good in PVP?

No, despite having an interesting typing of Normal and Psychic, it’s pretty awful. Its stats are skewed the wrong way for PVP and its moves leave a lot to be desired.

However, if you are desperate to use this Pokémon in Go Battle League, you should probably know Girafarig’s best moveset.

Spoiler warning, it’s underwhelming. You want to run Double Kick, Psychic Fangs and Thunderbolt. Though this is fairly spammy, it doesn’t really hit that hard, and Psychic Fangs is the only STAB move to speak of.

Girafarig in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

In Great League, this gives you wins against Alolan Sandslash, Noctowl, Lickitung, Pelipper and Walrein. Losses come from the far more meta-relevant Medicham, Alolan Ninetails, Registeel, Galarian Stunfisk and Lanturn.

In Ultra League, you want to swap Thunderbolt for Trailblaze, which doesn’t hit as hard, but it does boost your attack and changes your coverage options for the better. You also want to get your Girafarig up to Level 50 (2314 CP at 15/15/15), which is an eyewatering investment for a bad Pokémon.

Jumping through these hoops will now allow you to beat Registeel, along with Swampert, Cobalion and Walrein. However, you will lose against Cresselia, Giratina, Trevenant, Charizard and Tapu Fini.

Master League is clearly a bridge too far. Don’t even think about it.

The Season of Adventures Abound is here! The Halloween event has returned, bringing with it Greavard and Houndstone.Party Play - Pokémon Go's multiplayer feature - is here, along with the Welcome Party quest.You can also work on the Timed Investigation: Master Ball quest and compete in the Go Battle League.Be sure to compete in Shadow Raids, complete Routes, use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres. This incense may also give you encounters with other rare Pokémon in Pokémon Go.

What does shiny Girafarig look like in Pokémon Go?

Shiny Girafarig was released back in February 2022 as part of Pokémon Go Tour: Johto, along with Shiny Unown J, Corsola, Remoraid, Octillery, Mantine, Phanpy, Donphan, Tyrogue and Hitmontop. That was a big day for shinies!

Unfortunately, unlike Community Day, the shiny rate during a Spotlight Hour is not elevated, leaving it at the base shiny rate of around 1/500. So, unless you plan on catching around 500 Girafarig, you shouldn’t expect to see a shiny during its spotlight hour!

To find a shiny Pokémon, you need to start a catch encounter with a Pokémon in the wild. From there, it’s easy to tell if the Pokémon you’ve encountered is shiny due to its alternative colouring, shiny icon next to its name and the sparkles which shine when the encounter begins.

Some shinies are easier to spot than others, such as Girafarig.

Thanks to YouTuber ProphetPoke for the video from the main-series games!

As you can see in the video above, the major here is the nose, spine swap from pink to blue, and the hooves change from grey to a similar shade of, you guessed it, blue! Girafarig’s back end is a little lighter than its regular cousin.

If you want to see a preview of shiny Farigiraf, skip forward to 4:28. It’s a much more noticeable shiny, with its fur changing to a deep red. While the first shiny is, admittedly, a little lazy, we must say it’s still a pretty cool one, and we’re always happy to see it pop up on the screen.

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a shiny Girafarig 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 Girafarig to quickly rack up the XP! If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Girafarig candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter all of its evolutions in the Pokédex. You’re going to need a lot so make sure you use those Pinap Berries! Thanks to Girafarig being a Normal/Psychic-type, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your respective catch bonus medals.

Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour – 6pm to 7pm (local time). Come back next week for a primer on Growlithe, which paws its way onto the stage with a double catch Stardust bonus!

Good luck finding a perfect Girafarig!

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