Niantic
Today is a special opportunity for Pokemon Go trainers. Shiny Articuno is going to be available during pure Articuno raids today, Saturday, July 7. For three hours, all gyms will be spawning Articunos only. This means you’ll have an even better chance at getting that elusive shiny Articuno. Here’s everything you need to know.
Other regions that already have the raid reward day live have reported that all gyms will be spawning Articuno during Tier 5 raids, Forbes reported. Here are the times for the Raid Reward Day today: 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m.-4 p.m. Central/11 a.m.-2 p.m. Pacific).
If you spin a disc, you’ll get five free raid passes to help you out. It’s not known exactly what percentage of Articunos are shiny, but the more you play, the better your chances (of course.) The current estimates range around 4 percent (read on for more details about that later in this story.)
Of course, you’ll want to know all the best counters before going in, to maximize your chances. According to Pokemon Go Hub, you’ll need at least three to four trainers to defeat Articuno in a raid (at least five trainers being the ideal number.) Articuno is especially weak against rock moves with 196 percent damage from them. The best raid counters, as suggested by Pokemon Go Hub, are:
- Tyranitar with Smack Down + Stone Edge (this is the best counter)
- Omastar with Rock Throw + Rock Slide (second best counter)
- Golem with Rock Throw + Stone Edge (second best counter)
After that, you have a lot of options for counters that just rate “good” on a scale from supreme to good. You can see them all here. In rainy weather, a boosted Raikou is a good counter. In sunny weather, a boosted Moltres and Entei are better than Golem and Onastar. In snowy weather, a boosted Metagross is good, but not as good as Golem and Omastar.
Shiny Articuno has a 100 percent catch rate, so once you defeat him, that part should be easy.
Right now, trainers are estimating that shiny Articuno has about a 5 percent spawn rate, but this hasn’t been confirmed. Redditor jostler57 reported that about 4 percent were Shiny (76 out of 1,873.) So Shiny Articuno might be spawning at a 1 percent lower rate than other Shiny averages. Meanwhile, a trainer from Sweden reported that they experienced a mid-3 percent spawn rate during the raid day, and a trainer from Germany got a 6 percent spawn rate.
Here are some more updates, as provided by trainers who have already participated in the live event in their countries:
- Redditor The_ShadowZone participated in the raid day in Vienna, and out of 34 raids did not get a single Shiny Articuno.
- However, other people had better results, as reported on this Reddit discussion. One person got two shiny out of nine, another got two out of four, and one group got three shinies out of 19 raids. Another unlucky trainer did six raids and didn’t get any shinies. And yet others only got one out of 20 or even less.
- Timers to battle were 180 seconds.
- Gyms with an EX raid pending won’t be participating, but every other gym will be taking part in raid day.
- No egg is available on all gyms at least an hour before and after, according to Redditor Ryan Rygart. And XP and Rewards are the same as T5.
This is a developing story. If you already participated in the raid day, let us know your experiences below.