We essentially have a Community Day double feature in Pokémon GO this month. Yesterday, we had a three hour window for Articuno raids for a chance at the legendary being shiny, today we have the third and final Gen 1 starter as the centerpiece of actual Community Day, Squirtle.
As far as Community Day special features go, this is a pretty good one. Evolved Blastoises will learn Hydro Cannon as a special move today, which is a solid charge move, and the overall bonus for the three hour window (starting at 11 PT in the US) is 1/4 egg hatch distance, so you can hatch a bunch of eggs while you’re going around catching Squirtle everywhere in Pokémon GO today.
But as ever, the real prize of the day is trying to secure yourself not just a Blastoise with Hydro Cannon, but a shiny Blastoise with Hydro Cannon. If you’ve hunted down the last two starters, you could have yourself a full shiny of set of Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise, which is definitely something to brag about.
The problem? Shiny Blastoise…sucks. Sorry, I don’t know how else to say it. Unlike Charizard, who is awesomely colored black and red, or Venusaur with his differently colored flower, shiny Blastoise (and Squirtle and Wartortle) are barely distinguishable from their non-shiny counterparts. They’re just a shade lighter blue, and their shell might be a tiny bit more green. But that’s it. The shiny version is in the image above, and yet if you had no idea, I wouldn’t blame you. Instead, you’re going to have to look for the sparkles around him, which will be the best clue.
As for how to get one? It’s a numbers game, as per usual. He should be easier to find than shiny Articuno yesterday because he doesn’t need to be fought and caught in a raid, and you can instead just farm Squirtle all day long. Get those three hour lures running if you want to camp by a Pokestop. And Community Day is always the best time to use incense, given that more of the featured Pokémon will show up there as well.
The spawn rate for shinies during Community Day is somewhere between 3-5%, in other words, 1 in 20 or 1 in ~35 Squirtle catches should get you a shiny one you can evolve into a Blastoise. Obviously, sometimes you will just have totally garbage luck and you could catch 100 without seeing a shiny, but if you farm enough, hopefully you can snag one or two in three hours at least. I would not evolve your Blastoise until near the end so that you can use your highest IV shiny to do so. Oh and I almost forgot, this is also the day where you can get a Squirtle with sunglasses, which will actually evolve into a Blastoise with sunglasses, so see if you can go for the perfect duo of a shiny, sunglasses-wearing Blastoise.
Squirtle may not be the most exciting Pokémon out there in three generations of releases these days, but a shiny Blastoise to round out your set is a must-have regardless of his bad coloring. And with Hydro Cannon, Blastoise is a decent choice to take on some legendaries like Moltres (probably the next GO Fest raid reward) or Entei in the future.
Happy hunting, and I hope you have some decent luck and can secure yourself a shiny or three.
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