POKEMON GO UPDATE: COMMUNITY DAY - HOW TO GET SHINY DRATINI

POKEMON GO UPDATE: COMMUNITY DAY

Today is the second ever Pokémon GO Community Day, a new event that Niantic has planned to get people all outside catching during the same time window to recreate the magic of launch week a year and a half ago.

The first time around it was Pikachu who was everywhere with the special move Surf, and players could pick up a shiny version of him pretty easily, as shiny spawns were increased dramatically. But today? Pokémon GO is offering something truly unique, an almost guaranteed shot at shiny Dratini, which can evolve into a shiny Dragonair, which can evolve into a shiny Dragonite.

While Pokémon GO has slowly been introducing shinies, only a few truly “top tier” shinies exist like Gyarados or Aggron. But Dragonite, who continues to be useful to this day despite being Gen 1, and is one of the most iconic Pokémon from that generation, is probably a cooler find than all of them.


The fact is, during the time window today (2:00 PM EST – 5:00 PM EST), you will have your best shot at getting this shiny evolution tree, and possible your only shot, depending on what happens after Community Day today. The ratio seems to be roughly 5-10% of all Dratini catches today are shiny, meaning if you catch 10-20 you should probably get yourself at least one. After that, just keep hunting for ones with higher IV. You only need one shiny Dratini to evolve it into a shiny Dragonite, but to guarantee yourself one, take advantage of this flood of Dratini and catch enough to get you to 125 candies, which is about 40, without berries, 20 with them, and even less if you're grinding up your extras. More or less if you participate in Community Day for any length of time today, you can probably have yourself a shiny Dragonite by the end of the next few hours. But be sure to wait until you're totally done catching to make sure you're evolving your highest IV shiny.

Shiny Dratini is pink, shiny Dragonaire is extra pink, and then for some reason, shiny Dragonite is actually green, though I suppose that makes sense given the color scheme of the originals, and how it changes after the first two.

A lot of the time, shinies are barely noticeable color changes, but that’s not the case this time, as green Dragonite is as noticeable and cool as red Gyarados in my opinion. The point is, even if you’re only rarely playing Pokémon GO these days, this is without question your best chance at getting a shiny Dragonite, and if you evolve a shiny Dragonite today, he will also get a special move, Draco Meteor, that he cannot get otherwise.

Worst case scenario, after Community Day shiny Dratini will not be added to the general pool and this will have been your only shot to get him. Best case scenario, Dratini is added to the shiny pool, but the odds to find one go way back down to one in a few hundred, and with Dratini already a pretty rare Pokémon in most locations, you may never actually find one again without an extreme amount of hunting. So yes, you’re going to want to go outside today and catch Dratini until you find one.

I really do think that Community Day is one of the best things that Pokémon GO has done in the last few months, as it gives everyone a reason to pick up the game again with really unique prizes like ultra-rare shinies that becomes easily accessible for a short window. I’m looking forward to seeing how these continue to evolve, but for now, this Dratini event is definitely a can’t-miss, and you will absolutely want to secure yourself a shiny (or ten) by the end of the session today.