Shiny Porygon, evolution chart, 100% perfect IV stats and Porygon-Z best moveset in Pokémon Go
How to get the most out of Porygon's Community Day!
Porygon, the Virtual Pokémon is floating in for January’s Community Day Classic – a recurring Pokémon Go event that celebrates a specific Pokémon, bringing them back for another crack at Community Day fame! As with all Community Day events, it brings a bevy of bonuses, including boosted shiny rates and an exclusive move for its final evolution, Porygon-Z!
Since Porygon is a relatively rare spawn in Pokémon Go, outside of the occasional special event, this is a great chance to catch one and add all of its evolutions to your Pokédex - especially if you missed its first Community Day event back in 2020, or its Spotlight Hour event in November 2022.
While Porygon, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z (Porygon’s evolved forms) have seen use in competitive play and raids over the years, they’re now fairly useless in Pokémon Go. However, newer players (and those that missed the original Community Day event) will most likely be missing the shiny. If that’s you, this is your chance to try to find one!
Even if you’re not keen on Porygon, you should still try to catch as many Pokémon as possible during this week’s Spotlight Hour because of the triple catch XP bonus that runs alongside the event.
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Porygon 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
This month’s Community Day Classic is a great opportunity to catch a Porygon 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 Porygon 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 Porygon:
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.
What does Porygon evolve into?
Porygon is unique in that both of its evolutions are special evolutions that require specific items. If you don’t have the item, you can’t evolve your Porygon.
Porygon evolves into Porygon2 with 25 Porygon Candy and an Upgrade - 'a transparent device that can make certain species of Pokémon evolve'. Spoiler warning: it only works on Porygon.
Porygon2 evolves into Porygon-Z with a further 100 Porygon Candy and a Sinnoh Stone - an item unique to Pokémon Go that helps certain Pokémon from the Sinnoh region evolve.
This means you need a total of 125 Porygon Candy to fully evolve the Virtual Pokémon.
Although there’s no firm evidence to prove this, we’re 100% convinced that Porygon is a duck – if said duck was made entirely of polygons. As it evolves it looks less a duck, with Porygon2 looking like an inflatable pool toy and Porygon-Z being a floating... weird thing.
It’s pretty difficult to describe - almost as difficult as the missing hyphen in Porygon2 is annoying - but its official Pokédex entry might shed some light on this...
- Porygon - 'State-of-the-art technology was used to create Porygon. It was the first artificial Pokémon to be created via computer programming.'
- Porygon2 - 'This is a Porygon that was updated with special data. Porygon2 develops itself by learning about many different subjects all on its own.'
- Porygon-Z - 'Porygon-Z had a program installed to allow it to move between dimensions, but the program also caused instability in Porygon-Z’s behaviour.'
So, it’s a dimension-shifting AI with behavioural issues? Sounds apocalyptic.
January’s Community Day Classic event runs from 2pm to 5pm (local time), so you’ll have three hours to gather as much Porygon Candy as possible to ensure you can fully evolve it!
Remember, having a Normal-type Pokémon Mega Evolved will net you one extra Porygon Candy per catch, so if you think you’re going to be short on candy, bring a Mega Buneary, Mega Pidgeot or Mega Kangaskhan!
Porygon-Z’s moves and best moveset recommendations
Porygon-Z’s best moveset is Lock On, Tri Attack and Zap Cannon. Its full moveset is as follows:
Fast Moves
- Lock On (Normal)
- Charge Beam (Electric)
- Hidden Power (one for each element)
Charged Moves
- Zap Cannon
- Blizzard
- Solar Beam
- Hyper Beam
Legacy Charged Moves
- Tri Attack
- Return
However, no moveset is going to make Porygon-Z good in PVP; its stats all went to attack, rather than bulk, which is the opposite of what you’re looking for in competitive Pokémon Go.
So what about Porygon2, which inverts these stats? Porygon2’s defensive stats are a relative boon, sure, but not enough to make an actual impact. Still, this is one of those rare cases when the middle evolution can actually outperform the final evolution, depending on your league. Let’s go through this league by league.
Porygon2, the middle evolution is the way to go for Great League and Ultra League, though that sentence should be taken with a virtual pinch of salt - in Great League, Porygon2 doesn’t even make the top 500 Pokémon.
If you’re keen on Porygonning these leagues, you want to run Lock On, Tri Attack and Zap Cannon. Lock On, we all know, is phenomenally fast-charging, even if it does next to no damage. This helps you ramp up to Tri Attack, which gives a 50% chance to debuff the opponent’s attack and defence by one stage each. If you need to go big, Zap Cannon offers an Electric-type coverage nuke with a 66% chance to debuff the opponent’s attack by one stage.
And since nothing is particularly resistant to Normal attacks, you know you can push through decent STAB damage with reasonable shield pressure.
Sadly, while Porygon2 is technically only weak to Fighting-types, it has a secret weakness you should be aware of: it’s weak to good Pokémon. Specifically, Galarian Stunfisk, Swampert and even Trevenant - a Pokémon it should resist - all hand it an easy loss. Sure, it can beat Skarmory and Azumarill, but if those are your biggest concerns, there are better answers you can bring out.
The same problems stand in the Ultra League, although this chaotic and inconsistent Pokémon does fare slightly better. Tapu Fini, Walrein and Talonflame are all shocking victories, although the losses will have you cringing: Swampert and Nidoqueen are both resistant to Electric-type attacks, Trevenant and Giratina don’t care about Porygon2’s resistance and Cresselia just wins in the long game.
OK, so what about Master League? Given the unlimited CP cap, the final evolution is always the way to go, and Porygon-Z finally has its chance to shine - as long as you bring the Community Day-exclusive Tri Attack and Blizzard as a coverage nuke. Be aware that the same issues apply as before, although now you also have the issue of glassiness to contend with - to put that in context, a maxed out Porygon2 having a higher defense stat than Porygon-Z!
But, if you’re happy with this tactic, Blizzard really kicks you up a level, with the Dragon-type Garchomp, Giratina and Zekrom, and Flying-type Togekiss and Yveltal all losing here. Be aware that Dragonite has Superpower, which will wreck you faster than you could imagine. You also lose to Metagross, Gyarados, Lugia and Excadrill, which are fairly common in this meta.
If you’re keen to try Porygon in these leagues, you’re looking for the following stats for the respective Pokémon:
- 0/12/15 for Porygon2 in Great League
- 1/15/15 for Porygon2 in Ultra League
- 15/15/15 for Porygon-Z in Master League
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.
What do shiny Porygon, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z look like?
Shiny Porygon in Pokémon Go was released on its original Community Day back in September 2020.
During Community Day events, the shiny rate is boosted, so catching a shiny Porygon in the wild should be relatively straightforward.
Each Porygon 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 Porygon you need!
If you want to evolve your Porygon into a Porygon2, you’ll need 25 Porygon Candy and an Upgrade, and you’ll need a further 100 Porygon Candy and a Sinnoh Stone to evolve your Porygon2 into an Porygon-Z.
As you can see below, shiny Porygon is pretty sweet - in each of the three, the colour palette is flipped and darkened. The red head and torse take on a lovely deep blue, while the blue accents (beak, wings and feet) take on a lilac hue that goes incredibly well together.
Thematically linked shinies like this really do look excellent, and shiny Porygon, shiny Porygon2 and Porygon-Z all look fantastic.
Other Porygon Community Day Classic bonuses
Community Days in Pokémon Go always come with a string of bonuses, and the Porygon Community Day is no different.
Some of these bonuses are always the same - like increased spawns and shiny rates. There are, however, a rotating set of other bonuses for Community Days, such as double or triple catch Candy, Stardust or XP. This said, Community Day Classics have fewer bonuses than the regular Community Day events.
Here’s a full list of Porygon Community Day bonuses can be found below:
- Increased spawns
- Increased shiny rate
- Triple catch XP
- 3-hour Incense duration (not including Adventure Incense)
- 3-hour Lure duration (not including Golden Lures)
- Photobombs - Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Porygon, and increase your Cameraman medal, up to five times during the event.
- Field Research - Spin PokéStops to get event-exclusive tasks, similar to previous Community Day events. This is likely to be ‘Catch 3 Porygon’ for a couple of Great Balls or Ultra Balls, Stardust or a Porygon encounter.
- Special Research - For $1.00, or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency, you can take part in the Porygon Special Research story.
- Stickers - Get event-themed stickers by spinning PokéStops, opening Gifts and from the in-game shop.
- Exclusive move - Evolve Porygon during the event to get a Porygon-Z which knows the exclusive attack Tri Attack (a Normal-type Charged Move).
- PokéStop Showcases for Porygon
Good luck finding a perfect Porygon!