Finding a shiny Spheal – the Clap Pokémon – is a draw of the next Spotlight Hour in Pokémon Go.

This is a Spotlight hour that fans of Go Battle League will have been waiting for, as Spheal’s final evolution, Walrein, is a force to be reckoned with in Pokémon Go. So, if you’re still missing the a shiny or the 4* perfect Pokémon, this is your chance to try to find one, while also grinding the Candy and Candy XL you’ll need to max out your Pokémon for competitive play.

This week’s Spotlight Hour also comes with a double catch XP bonus that runs alongside the event, so make sure you catch as many Pokémon as possible!

Spheal 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon GoIs Walrein good in PVP?Is there a shiny Spheal in Pokémon Go?What does shiny Spheal 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

Spheal 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

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

Spheal.

'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 Spheal 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 Spheal:

Level 30 (wild CP maximum) – 825 CPLevel 35 (weather-boosted wild CP maximum) – 893 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.

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 Walrein good in PVP?

Yes, very. While Walrein has fallen from favour as one the most popular Pokémon in Go Battle League, following a nerf in the summer 2022 move rebalancing, it’s still incredibly good and better than most players seem to think. This means that answers to this great blubbery Pokémon may be fewer than we've previously seen, giving you ample room to exploit this hole in the meta.

Walrein

No matter your cup or league, this Pokémon runs Powder Snow, Icicle Spear and Earthquake as a second charged move.

This combo has proven incredibly effective, prompting the aforementioned nerfing. The two Ice-type attacks are fast charging and cheap to fire off, and Earthquake is a relatively cheap, but powerful coverage nuke. This leaves you with a bulky Pokémon that is incredibly spammy and flexible. It has no real downsides, and this coverage gives you answers to Walrein’s Electric, Grass and Rock-type weaknesses. All that's left unanswered is Fighting, which tends to have low bulk and high damage. You have high bulk and high damage, so what's not to like?

Well, the issue is the multiple Community Day moves, making this one expensive Pokémon to build in terms of Elite TMs. The good news is that there was a Spheal Community Day in January 2022, and we’re now in December 2022. Traditionally, there is a special Community Day (or weekend) event that allows you to evolve any Community Day Pokémon from that calendar year. Assuming this goes ahead, you can evolve your Spheal into a Walrein that knows both Icicle Spear and Powder Snow, making your life significantly easier. So, if you catch a perfect Spheal for Go Battle League, make sure you wait to see if this event fires!

With all that said, is Walrein worth it? Let's take a look, league by league.

While Walrein is no longer top-walrus in Great League, it's comfortably in the top five, pulling in wins against Altaria, Galarian Stunfisk, Sableye, Trevenant and Swampert. It loses pretty hard to Scrafty, Medicham, Skarmory, Umbreon and Bastiodon, placing it very high up in the meta. If you're keen for a perfect Great League Walrein, you want an 0/12/15 at Level 21.

Shadow Walrein, meanwhile, is still a top-two Ice type in Ultra League,thanks to it taking down Nidoqueen, Trevenant, Giratina and Swampert – all of which make our list of Ultra League recommendations. It does, however, lose to Scrafty (again), Cresellia, Obstagoon, Talonflame and (importantly) Shadow Swampert. If you think this is part of a cool build, a perfect Ultra League Walrein is a 0/15/15 at level 39.5. The regular version will also work, but it won’t win as many matches.

Moving into the world of Master League, Walrein is respectable. It’s not in the top-five Ice types, but it will hold its own against all of the non-Steel-type dragons, along with Excadrill and Groudon, but it will lose to Zacian, Mewtwo, Lugia and even Gyarados.

Is there a shiny Spheal in Pokémon Go?

Yes, there is a shiny Spheal in Pokémon Go and it’s an awesome purple colour!

Everything in the Spheal evolution line is an Ice/Water-type Pokémon. (Image via pokemon.com)

The shiny form of Spheal was released back in December 2021. If you catch one, you can evolve it into a shiny Walrein; however, you will need 125 Spheal Candy to do so.

If luck is on your side, you may find a shiny Spheal in the wild, but be aware that this is not a Community Day and shiny rates are not boosted, so the chances of catching one, let alone a perfect one, are very low. That said, each Spheal you see has the potential to be shiny, so it’s purely a numbers game — tap each and every one of them and see what you get. Good luck finding the Spheal you need!

What does shiny Spheal look like?

As you can see, shiny Spheal follows the tradition of blue turning to purple. Its evolutions, Sealeo and Walrein, do the same, with the latter taking on a darker purple, as you would expect. All in all, a pretty cool set of shinies!

Spheal family with shinies.

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a shiny Spheal 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 Spheal to quickly rack up the XP! If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Spheal candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter all of its evolutions in the Pokédex. Thanks to Spheal being an Ice/Water-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). Next week, you can look forward to Bergmite in the spotlight, with double catch Candy!

Good luck finding a perfect shiny Spheal!

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