Pumpkaboo 100% perfect IV stats, shiny Pumpkaboo in Pokémon Go

This week’s Spotlight Hour is all about the Pumpkin Pokémon, which is absolutely perfect for Halloween! Get ready to go looking for a perfect Pumpkaboo in Pokémon Go.

Gourgeist, Pumpkaboos’s evolution, is unique in that it comes in four different sizes - each with its own stat spread, but don’t get tricked into giving your opponent a treat; this Pokémon is pretty much a worse version of next week’s Spotlight Hour Pokémon, Trevenant, in Pokémon Go.

But more importantly for competitive players, the double catch Stardust bonus running alongside this Spotlight Hour is always a fantastic bonus - it’s just a shame that this bonus wasn’t given last week, when we had Shroomish, a Pokémon that drops Stardust as if it were spores...

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Pumpkaboo 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

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

'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 Pumpkaboo 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 Pumpkaboo:

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 Gourgeist good in PVP?

There’s no skirting around this: it is so similar to Trevenant that it is up against very stiff competition. Both are Ghost and Grass-type Pokémon with mostly similar movesets, but Gourgeist lacking Shadow Claw is too much of an issue for it to be worth using.

However, if you’ve put your big kid pants on and are loudly declaring that you ain’t ‘fraid of no Ghost trees, there’s a couple of things to be aware of: Large Gourgeist works best for Great League and Super Gourgeist works better for Ultra League. Master League is a no-no, you’ll just be left with smashed pumpkin.

Large and Super, of course, relate to the size of the Pokémon, and, of course, these are the relatively rare sizes, which means you have your work cut out for you if you’re really going to try to make this work. You can read more about how this works, on our page explaining how Pumpkaboo works in Pokémon Go.

The other thing to note is that you’ll want to run Hex, Shadow Ball and Seed Bomb. That’s almost the same as Trevenant - you’re just missing the best Ghost-type Fast attack...

This brings us to the matchups. In Great League, you can beat Swampert, Medicham, Lanturn and Galarian Stunfisk. Losses will come from Bastiodon, Pelipper, Carbink, Scrafty and Registeel.

Ultra League Swampert, Tapu Fini, Cobalion and Cresselia. Losses will come from Trevenant (obviously), Obstagoon, Walrein, Giratina and Jellicent.

And Master League? No means no.

The Season of Timeless Travels has arrived in Pokémon Go! The Along the Routes event is here, bringing Gift Exchange and the A Route to New Friendships quest with it. During it, take the time to try out Routes and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

Is there a shiny Pumpkaboo in Pokémon Go?

Yes, there is a shiny Pumpkaboo in Pokémon Go! Shiny Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist were released in October 2022, as part of the annual Halloween event!

However, since Spotlight Hours do not have a boosted shiny rate, the chances of finding a shiny are the same as it would be finding it in the wild. You simply have more chances of finding one because of the number that spawn.

What does shiny Pumpkaboo look like?

As you can see below, shiny Pumpkaboo swaps its pumpkin-themed colouring for a more ethereal look. Oranges become purple and browns become black. The two yellow spots on the body, eerily looking like eyes (they’re not the eyes), keep their lantern-yellow hue, leaving us with an overall excellent shiny. This is a shiny that just oozes Halloween spirit.

Shiny Gourgeist follows this theme, but is slightly less striking. The hair/arms swaps from peach to purple, the browns swap to black and the next is just ever so slightly lighter. It’s still a very nice shiny, but it’s just not as cool as shiny Pumpkaboo!

Shiny Pumpkaboo Family Comparison
byu/Jacobcornwell_ inTheSilphRoad

Thanks to Reddit user Jacobcornwell_ for the preview showing shiny Pumpkaboo’s evolution.

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a shiny Pumpkaboo 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 Stardust bonus running throughout the hour. This gives you the chance to gather Stardust twice as fast as usual, with each Pumpkaboo caught giving 200 Stardust instead of the base 100. If the in-game weather is foggy or sunny, this adds an additional 50 Stardust (twice the usual 25), and this is stacks with a Star Piece to give a 1.5x multiplier to all Stardust gained. This means that each weather-boosted Pumpkaboo caught while using a Star Piece will be worth 375 Stardust!
• If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Pumpkaboo candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter its evolution, Gourgeist, in the Pokédex.
• If there are four possible sizes of Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist, with each having their own spot on the Pokédex page. If you’re missing any of these, this is your perfect chance to fill that gap!
• Thanks to Pumpkaboo being a Grass and Ghost-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’s Spotlight Hour events features the Stump Pokémon, Phantump!

Good luck finding a perfect Pumpkaboo!