This week’s Spotlight Hour is all about the Slacker Pokémon, Slakoth. This means that this is a great opportunity to look for a perfect Slakoth in Pokémon Go.
Slakoth and its evolved forms — Vigoroth and Slaking – slot into a weird place in Pokémon Go, in that each Pokémon has a different use case. Well, Slakoth doesn’t. Slakoth is just a worse Slowpoke. Vigoroth, however, is great in PVP and Slaking gets honourable mention in our list of best Pokémon in Pokémon Go for its ridiculous bulk.
However, Slakoth is a relatively rare spawn, and since it last had a Community Day in 2019, there’s a good chance you’re missing a perfect 4* Slakoth or perfect 4* Slacking. If this is one of your favourite Pokémon, there’s never been a better chance to go catch ’em all.
Even if you’re not keen on Slakoth, you should still try to catch as many Pokémon as possible during this week’s Spotlight Hour because of the double catch candy bonus that runs alongside the event — especially if you want to max out a Slaking for gym defence.
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Slakoth 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
This week’s Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Slakoth 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 Slakoth 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 Slakoth:
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 Slaking good in PVP?
We love this family of Pokémon and are pretty excited to see it in the spotlight. However, it’s impossible to call Slaking ‘good’ in PVP, because it’s astoundingly bad.
That accolade goes to the extremely moody middle child: Vigoroth. While Slakoth and Slaking are exactly about as energetic as they sound, Vigoroth is thematically a better Primeape, tearing around like nobody’s business. The reason for this is laid out in its official Pokédex entry below:
“Its stress level rises if it cannot keep moving constantly. Too much stress makes it feel sick.”
Poor Vigoroth. Fortunately, PVP is a great way for it to blow off stress, as it’s actually very good — both in Great League and in limited metas where it is eligible (and tends to dominate).
Vigoroth runs Counter, Body Slam and Bulldoze as a second Charged move in Great League, which is a great combo: it’s spammy and flexible, giving you a variety of options depending on the situation. And, as a mono-Normal type, it’s only weak to Fighting, helping ensure you take neutral damage from the vast majority of the meta.
The bonus is that that Body Slam is the spammiest Charged move you have, and it gets STAB, making things all the better for you.
In Great League, you can expect wins against Registeel, Lanturn, Noctowl, Galarian Stunfisk and Swampert, which is pretty excellent. Losses, meanwhile, come from Trevenant, Medicham, Skarmory, Sableye and Scrafty.
Ultra League requires a swap from Bulldoze to Brick Break, in a bid to react better to the meta. While this doesn’t hit as hard, it allows you to beat the likes of Snorlax, Empoleon, Obstagoon, Galarian Stunfisk and Umbreon. This is reasonable, but it’s not as exciting as Great League. Your losses, meanwhile. are pretty devastating: Cresselia, Trevenant, Talonflame, Swampert and Walrein. Ouch.
A perfect 15/15/15 Vigoroth caps out at CP 2225 at Level 50, meaning that it just can’t keep up with Master League. While you can evolve it into a Slaking to get to CP 5010, it’s not worth it for PVP – nobody is that deep in the market for Master League Gengar counters.
Instead, your CP 5010 perfect Slaking needs to go and live in the local Gym. This isn’t a comment on its energy levels; a CP that high makes any gym look incredibly well defended, and so is a great Pokémon to hold the fort and rack up those free coins.
The Season of Rising Heroes is here! It began with the first Gen 9 Pokémon – Gimmighoul and Gholdengo – appearing in Pokémon Go.
The Festival of Colors event is currently running – bringing both Bruxish and Mega Medicham with it!
As you continue your Pokémon Go adventure, make sure to battle Giovanni, the Team Go Rocket Leaders or in the new Go Battle League season. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for Kecleon or, if you purchased it, work on the Masterwork Research: Wish Granted quest.
Elsewhere, be sure to 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 there a shiny Slakoth in Pokémon Go?
Yes, and there has been since its community day in June 2019.
What does shiny Slakoth look like?
As you can see below, shiny Slakoth is a pretty obvious shiny! The light brown fur becomes a fantastic purple colour, while its nose takes on a red hue.
Vigoroth’s shiny is a little more subtle, with its fur simply becomes a little blonder and its tuft of facial fur turning from red to orange. Slaking, true to form, doesn’t have the energy to really change colours. Its collar of fur gets a little darker, and its nose gets a little more red. Job done, back to slacking off…
Thanks to Reddit user gildenilson for the handy preview.
Other tips for this Spotlight Hour
Aside from trying to catch a shiny Slakoth 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 candy bonus running throughout the hour. This gives you the chance to gather Candy twice as fast as usual, with each Slakoth caught giving up to 13 Candy if you use a Pinap/Silver Berry with a Mega-Evolved Pokémon of the same type, instead of the base 3.
- This bonus also extends to your research rewards. Remember, you don’t need to catch these Pokémon when you complete the task; if you run away, you can ‘bank’ up to 200 Pokémon for times like this, or when you want to maximise a Star Piece or Lucky Egg bonus.
- If you’re a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Slakoth Candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter all of its evolutions in the Pokédex.
- Thanks to Slakoth being a Normal-type, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your respective catch bonus medal.
Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour – 6pm to 7pm (local time). Next month’s spotlight hour Pokémon are yet to be announced, but check back next week for a primer on whatever’s coming next!
Good luck finding a perfect Slakoth!
