Nidoran Male 100% perfect IV stats, shiny Nidoran Male in Pokémon Go

This week's Spotlight Hour is the perfect opportunity to catch a perfect Nidoran Male in Pokémon Go.

While it doesn’t have much use in Pokémon Go, being pretty awful across Go Battle League and raids alike, it's a great opportunity to look for the elusive 100% IV Nidoran Male.

As usual, catching as many Pokémon as possible is the plan for this week’s Spotlight Hour, although the main attraction really is the chance to maximise the double transfer candy bonus that runs alongside the event.

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Nidoran Male 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

This week’s Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Nidoran Male with perfect IV stats.

‘Perfect’, of course, means two things in Pokémon Go. 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 these three stats, a perfect IV Pokémon is usually only ever the best version of itself in the Master League, raids and Go Rocket battles.

In this case, a perfect Nidoking in Great League has a max CP of 1498 at Level 22, with a IVs 0/14/15.

Of course, you can’t see the IV of a Pokémon without catching it first, so it helps to know the CPs that a perfect Nidoran Male will spawn at.

If you’re at Level 30 (or above), you’ll ideally be looking for the following CPs for a perfect 15/15/15 Nidoran Male:

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 Nidoking good in PVP?

No. No it is not.

This doesn't mean that it will never be good though. Each Pokémon in Pokémon Go is always just one move update away from being meta relevant.

But, right now, Nidoking is pretty awful – in Great League, it is outfone by both Nidoqueen and, to add insult to injury, Nidorina. That said, Nidoking can still take down Azumarill and Alolan Ninetails, with Registeel, Medicham and Bastiodon in an otherwise fair fight. Use it if you really want to, but there are just much better options.

In Great League, Nidoking runs Poison Jab as its Fast move, with Sand Tomb and Earth Power as Charged Moves. This is not only worse than Nidoqueen, which runs Poison Fang instead of Sand Tomb, but Nidoking also has worse stats overall.

If you want a perfect Go Battle League IV Nidoking, in the hopes that it becomes meta-relevant at a later date, you should be looking for a 0/14/15 Nidoran Male for Great League and an 0/14/14 Nidoran Male for Ultra League.

Last, we have Master League. If Nidoqueen struggles in this meta, you know that Nidoking doesn't even get a shout here.

The World of Wonders season has come to Pokémon Go, which has brought the World of Wonders quest. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

Is there a shiny Nidoran Male in Pokémon Go?

Great news - there is a shiny Nidoran Male in Pokémon Go and has been for a long time!

The shiny form of Nidoran Male was released as part of Go Fest Dortmund in 2019; if you catch one, you can evolve it into a shiny Nidorino and, eventually, shiny Nidoking.

If luck is on your side, you may find a shiny Nidoran Male in the wild, but be aware that this is not a Community Day and shiny rates are not boosted, so the chances of catching one, let alone a perfect one, are very low. That said, each Nidoran you see has the potential to be shiny, so it’s purely a numbers game — tap each and every one of them and see what you get. Good luck finding the Nidoran you need!

What does shiny Nidoran Male look like?

Like with Nidoran Female, shiny Nidoran Male flips the colour pallet on its head, taking the female's blue in favour of its usual pink.

Other things to know about Nidoran Male Spotlight Hour

Spotlight Hour always brings a bonus for you to exploit, and this week it's double transfer candy. As always, this runs throughout the hour and affects more than just the Pokémon in the spotlight.

The smartest way to maximise the bonus here is to have a Tag in your Pokémon storage just for this purpose. We recommend creating one called 'Transfer', where you can place Pokémon you don't want or need. Instead of transfering them as and when you catch them, hold them back for events like these, when you can bulk transfer them. All that candy adds up very quickly, and is especially useful when transerring something like a Mewtwo for double candy!

It's also good to note that, thanks to Nidoran Male being a poison-type, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your poison-type catch bonus medal.

Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour - 6pm to 7pm (local time) - don't worry if you can't partake in this week's event. Next week sees Pidove take the spotlight on 30th August, with a very useful double evoltion XP bonus.