This week’s Spotlight Hour centres on the Tiny Bird Pokémon, making it the perfect time to catch a perfect Pidgey in Pokémon Go.

While this isn’t the first time Pidgey has hogged the limelight in Pokémon Go – it’s not even the first time it’s had a Spotlight Hour with this exact bonus — there are many reasons why you shouldn’t overlook the humble Pidgey. Not only does its evolved form, Pidgeot, have a Mega Evolution, it’s actually decent in competitive play.

If you don’t want to pick up a Pidgey, the other draw for this week’s Spotlight Hour is the special bonus that runs alongside the event – the double evolution XP bonus.

Pidgey 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon GoIs Pidgeot good in PVP?Is there a shiny Pidgey in Pokémon Go?What does shiny Pidgey look like?Other tips for this Spotlight HourTo see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings   Watch as battle Guzzlord - one of the Ultra Beasts in Pokémon GoWatch on YouTube

Pidgey 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

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

Pidgey.

‘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 Pidgey 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 Pidgey:

Level 30 (wild CP maximum) – 583 CPLevel 35 (weather-boosted wild CP maximum – 632 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.

Is Pidgeot good in PVP?

Pidgeot is excellent pretty much everywhere except Master League, where Ice-type Pokémon keep even the bravest bird in check.

In Great League and Ultra League you’re looking at one of the strongest Pokémon in the meta, with both running Wing Attack, Feather Dance and Brave Bird. Be aware that if you want to build one with these moves, you’ll need to use an Elite Fast TM to get the Exclusive move Wing Attack.

Pidgeot.

The reason Pidgeot is so good is primarily the combo of the fast-charging Wing Attack, coupled with the debuffing Feather Dance, which drops the opponent’s attack by a whopping two stages. After this, it matters far less that Brave Bird drops your defence by three stages, because of how incredibly hard it hits.

So, while using Pidgeot successfully can be a little tricky, simply showing up with one will put your opponents on the back foot, as they burn through their shields trying to stay alive.

The downside is that you’re running mono-Flying moves — without any coverage there are some match-ups you simply won’t win. This means you need to know your match-ups, and know when to switch out. In Great League you can expect to beat Trevenant, Sableye, Medicham, Noctowl and Swampert — which is a reasonable set of wins — while you’re losing against Bastiodon, Lanturn, Registeel, Galarian Stunfisk and Skarmory — again, a reasonable set of losses.

Ultra League is where Pidgeot shines brightest, and is currently a top-three Pokémon in terms of where it sits in the meta. While you still lose to Galarian Stunfisk, the Ice-types such as Walrein and Alolan Ninetails, and the likes of Obstagoon and Empoleon, your wins are still very strong. Here, you can still beat Trevenant and Swampert, but you can add Talonflame, Giratina and Cresselia to your list of wins, which puts you in a very good position.

The issue is simply its CP range – a perfect 15/15/15 Pidgeot caps out at 2407 CP, meaning that it is woefully underpowered in the Master League. You won’t win here, so play to your strengths in the lower leagues.

If you're hunting for a perfect PVP Pidgey, you’re looking for a 0/14/14 for Great League (CP 1498 at Level 27) , and a 15/15/15 for Ultra League (CP 2407 at Level 50).

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.

Is there a shiny Pidgey in Pokémon Go?

Yes! Released in June 2019, there is a shiny Pidgey in Pokémon Go. It has had a Community Day since then too, so a shiny Pidgey is far from a rarity.

Everything in Pidgey’s evolution line is a Normal/Flying type. (Image via pokemon.com)

Spotlight Hours, unlike Community Days, do not have a boosted shiny rate, so, as you’re hunting for a shiny Pidgey, you’ll be doing so with the regular shiny rates in this play. This means, if you really want a shiny Pidgey, you need to make the most of this hour!

What does shiny Pidgey look like?

Shiny Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot, Rattata and Raticate were all released at the start of Pokémon Day 2019. As you can see from the preview below, our favourite pigeons basically go Super Saiyan, taking on a golden hue and going blonde.

While it’s not the most ambitious set of shinies in the game, they do look fairly effective. Just be aware that in bright light it can be tricky to spot whether your Pidgey is shiny, so keep an eye out for the sparkles that give away when a shiny Pokémon has appeared!

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Thanks to Reddit user Suskyxlops for the handy preview!

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a perfect shiny Pidgey in Pokémon Go, there are a couple of other good reasons to partake in this week’s Spotlight Hour. The vast majority of players showing up for this Spotlight Hour will no doubt be doing so for the hour-long special bonus below:

The best reason is, of course, the double evolution XP bonus running throughout the hour. This gives you the chance to gather a lot of XP very quickly, so you can rise your Trainer Level. The best way to do this is to have two Tags in your Pokémon storage dedicated to this hour. The first is stuff you want to evolve and keep – generally strong Pokémon and Pokémon you need to evolve to update your Pokédex – and thing you want to evolve and transfer. This second box should contain all of the 12-candy Pokémon. The search string to quickly find all of these at lower than 3* rating is: 0*,1*,2*&10,13,16,265,293,519&!shiny If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Pidgey candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and register its evolution, Pidgeot, in your Pokédex.Thanks to Pidgey being a Normal and Flying-type Pokémon, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your respective catch bonus medals.

Remember – Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour – 6pm to 7pm (local time). Next week’s Spotlight Hour is all about Woobat, and the double catch Stardust bonus that runs alongside it.

Good luck finding a perfect shiny Pidgey!

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