Spotlight Hours in Pokemon GO

Every Tuesday in Pokemon GO, we get a spotlight hour. During the spotlight hour, 99% of spawns turn into one specific species of Pokemon, starting from 6pm local time until 7pm local time. But are they worth doing? Or are they a waste of time?

It depends on the Pokemon

It really, really depends on the Pokemon. There have been all sorts of Pokemon in spotlight hours, ranging from Minun and Plusle to heavy hitters like Beldum. Generally though, the spotlight Pokemon is related to whatever event is currently going on. For example, during the last Rocket Takeover, Skorupi was the spotlight hour Pokemon, even though it was a common spawn in the Team Rocket event.

However, some spotlight hours are good for other things; a Shellder spotlight hour attracted players not because Shellder is good, but because it gives you 1000 stardust for catching it. Coupled with a Starpiece, it was possible to earn a fuckton of stardust in the course of an hour.

If you don’t like the spotlight Pokemon, don’t worry, all is not lost. During a spotlight hour, you can open a Meltan box and catch those instead, or perhaps go for Gimmighoul coins and candy. This is doubly useful when the bonus is double catch candy.

It also depends on the bonuses

Alongside the featured Pokemon every spotlight hour has some sort of buff or bonus to it. During a Spotlight hour, you can have double catch candy, double stardust, double experience for evolutions and even bonus candy when transferring a Pokemon. These bonuses can overlap with bonuses from other events, meaning you can occasionally get a LOT of candy or bonuses for very little. Some people will hold onto rare Pokemon like Legendary Pokemon, just to transfer them during a double transfer candy event. Double experience for evolutions on the other hand is a bit more niche, and it’s generally better to evolve Pokemon like Weedle or Caterpie, since they only require 12 candy to evolve.

The best spotlight hour bonus is always double stardust, and it’s a great time to use a Starpiece. Even better if the Pokemon is weather-boosted.

Unfortunately, the one thing that isn’t boosted is the shiny chance. The chance to catch a shiny is the same as it is outside a spotlight hour, so it’s unlikely that you’ll find a shiny.

They should go further

Really though, Niantic should make spotlight hour even more spotlight-y. As well as general spawns, they should make everything feature the spotlight Pokemon. 1-star raids should pop up at 6pm, and Team GO Rocket balloons and grunts that spawn within the hour should also feature the spotlight Pokemon too. Heck, we could have 2km eggs that only contain that specific Pokemon too. Why make it just normal spawns when EVERYTHING should be the featured Pokemon?

Okay, maybe that’s a little silly, but it’d be fun. It’d also be a good opportunity to allow people to catch a minimum 2-star Pokemon. Then again, there are generally enough spotlight Pokemon to catch one with good stats.

But yeah, spotlight hours are a neat little event that can have some nice bonuses. Sure, the featured Pokemon can be a bit dull sometimes, but it’s just an hour, then everything goes back to normal.