Barboach 100% perfect IV stats, shiny Whiscash in Pokémon Go

This week's Spotlight Hour is all about the Whiskers Pokémon. If that makes you think of cat food, you're on the right track, because it's time to catch a perfect Barboach in Pokémon Go.

Barboach is one of those useless Pokémon with phenomenal potential. Its evolution, Whiscash, is the same type as Swampert, a demon of PVP. As a Water/Ground type, it is only weak to Grass, which is famously underrepresented in competitive play, meaning it's a great pick for your team in Pokémon Go.

Assuming you already have a Whiscash built for PVP, you may want to make the most of the other draw for this Spotlight Hour: the double evolution XP bonus, meaning that instead of catching Pokémon, you can rake in XP by cracking a Lucky Egg and going to town!

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Battling and catching Guzzlord in Pokémon Go

Barboach 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go

This week's Spotlight Hour is a great opportunity to catch a Barboach 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 Barboach 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 Barboach:

• Level 30 (wild CP maximum) - 702 CP
• Level 35 (weather-boosted wild CP maximum) - 760 CP

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 Whiscash good in PVP?

Yes; Whiscash is a beater in Great League in particular.

As mentioned, this Water/Ground-type is double-weak to Grass-type moves. That is its only weakness, which is great to hear when you realise that Go Battle League is not the stomping ground of Grass-type Pokémon.

Running Mud Shot, Mud Bomb and Scald, Whiscash offers a spammy, dynamic choice for your team. The only real drawback is that while Mud Shot is fast charging, it doesn't do much damage -- just something to be aware of.

In Great League, a perfect 0/14/13 caps out at 1500 CP, and hands you wins against Talonflame, Galarian Stunfisk, Lanturn, Azumarill and Vigoroth, which is very respectable. Losses will come from Lickitung, Skarmory, Medicham, Cresselia and Dragonair.

So how does Whiscash stand up Ultra League? It's not terrible, but it's hindered by a CP cap of 2346 at 15/15/15, so not going to be one of your top choices. While Swampert is better in most match-ups, Whiscash is actually decent anti-Swampert tech, while also taking down Registeel, Steelix, Talonflame and Cobalion. Losses will come from Virizion (obviously), Cresselia, Poliwrath, Giratina and Jellicent.

Don't run Whiscash in Master League.

Is there a shiny Barboach in Pokémon Go?

Yes, there is a shiny Barboach in Pokémon Go! Released alongside shiny Carvana and Sharpedo back in August 2019 as part of the Water Festival event, this shiny has been in the game for quite some time...

Spotlight Hours, unlike Community Days, do not have a boosted shiny rate, so, as you're hunting for a shiny Barboach, you'll be doing so with the regular shiny rates in this play. This means, if you really want a shiny Barboach, you need to make the most of this hour!

What does shiny Barboach look like?

As you can see below, shiny Barboach swaps the blues for golds, which is pretty cool. There's nothing particular 'Ground-y' about Barboach's design, for want of a better word, so the sandy swap is actually pretty cool. It works well and we love to see it.

Whiscash though? That's just a shame. As you can see below, it swaps its yellows for peachy-reds, and its blues for slightly darker blues... All in all, a lazy and disappointing shiny.

Shiny Carvanha + Barboach family comparisons
byu/rapcoz2134 inTheSilphRoad

Thanks to Reddit user rapcoz2134 for the handy preview.

Other tips for this Spotlight Hour

Aside from trying to catch a perfect shiny Barboach in Pokémon Go, there are a couple of other good reasons to partake in this week's Spotlight Hour. The vast majority of players showing up for this Spotlight Hour will no doubt be doing so for the hour-long special bonus below:

• The best reason is, of course, the double evolution XP bonus running throughout the hour. This gives you the chance to gather a lot of XP very quickly, so you can raise your Trainer Level. The best way to do this is to have two Tags in your Pokémon storage dedicated to this hour. The first is stuff you want to evolve and keep - generally strong Pokémon and Pokémon you need to evolve to update your Pokédex - and thing you want to evolve and transfer. This second box should contain all of the 12-candy Pokémon. The search string to quickly find all of these at lower than 3* rating is: 0*,1*,2*&10,13,16,265,293,519&!shiny.
• If you're a newcomer, this Spotlight Hour is the perfect time to collect enough Barboach candy to fully evolve this Pokémon and register its evolutions, Whiscash, in your Pokédex.
• Thanks to Barboach being an Water/Ground-type Pokémon, catching a bunch during this Spotlight Hour will add progress to your respective catch bonus medals.

Remember - Spotlight Hour events only last for an hour - 6pm to 7pm (local time). Come back next week, when Foongus scoops up the attention by bouncing into the Spotlight with its double catch Stardust - this is important because Foongus already gives more Stardust than usual, so this will be an event you don't want to sleep on!

Good luck finding a perfect shiny Barboach!