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

This week’s Spotlight Hour is all about the Dark Pokémon — and if that’s not one of the vaguest categories, we don’t know what is. Either way, this week’s event is the perfect time to catch a perfect Houndour in Pokémon Go.

Houndoom, Houndour’s evolution, is a poor choice in Pokémon Go, both as a Raid attacker, but thanks to its ability to Mega Evolve, it’s a reasonable choice for raids.

But more importantly, with the double catch Stardust bonus running alongside this Spotlight Hour, showing up and catching all the Pokémon is always a great way to spend this event.

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Houndour 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

This week’s Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Houndour 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 Houndour 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 Houndour:

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 Houndoom good in PVP?

In short, no, which is a shame as the Dark/Fire pool is incredibly shallow, (Incineroar being the other option).

If you want to give Houndoom a bash in PVP, you’ll want to run Snarl, Crunch and Flamethrower. Snarl is very fast-charging, Crunch has a 30% chance to debuff the opponent’s defence, and Flamethrower is there for coverage. It’s spammy and flexible, and it applies shield pressure. The issue, of course, is Houndoom’s stats. It’s just not built for PVP.

This brings us to the matchups. In Great League, Shadow Houndoom Registeel, Venusaur, Sableye, Alolan Ninetails and Trevenant – though it should be noted that while the last one should be an easy win, it’s surprisingly close. Losses, meanwhile, come from Medicham, Galarian Stunfisk, Altaria, Noctowl and Umbreon.

Houndoom fares a little better in Ultra League, but the difference is miniscule. You beat Venusaur, Alolan Ninetails, Trevenant, Cresselia and Jellicent. Losses come from Walrein, Registeel (ouch), Talonflame, Charizard and Giratina.

As usual, Master League is just a travesty; you cap out at 2979 CP, making Houndoom unfit for the big leagues.

The Season of Hidden Gems has arrived, bringing with it a new Go Battle League season. Depending on your region, you can currently battle Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf in five-star raids. Elsewhere, be sure to compete in Shadow Raids, 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 Houndour in Pokémon Go?

Yes, there is a shiny Houndour in Pokémon Go. Shiny Houndour and Houndoom were added in August 2018, alongside Snubbull and Granbull.

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 Houndour look like?

As you can see below, shiny Houndour simply swaps its blacks for navy blues and reds for yellows. It’s not the most ambitious shiny, but if you’re a fan of blue Pokémon, this one’s clearly for you!

Shiny Houndoom is much the same — the changes to colouration are conserved in this evolution. Blacks turn blue and reds turn yellow.

Thanks to YouTube user cybercychreus for the video showing shiny Houndour’s evolution.

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a shiny Houndour 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 Houndour caught giving 200 Stardust instead of the base 100. If the in-game weather is 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 Houndour 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 Houndour candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and enter its evolution, Houndoom, in the Pokédex.
• Thanks to Houndour being a Dark/Fire-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 month’s Spotlight Hour events are yet to be announced, but check back next week for a primer on whoever is taking centre stage on Tuesday!

Good luck finding a perfect Houndour!