Shiny Poliwag, evolution chart, 100% perfect IV stats and Politoed best moveset in Pokémon Go
Everything to get the most out of Poliwag Community Day!
Poliwag has finally found its way into the spotlight! The Tadpole Pokémon, at long last, is spawning on July’s Community Day – a reoccurring Pokémon Go event that celebrates a specific Pokémon, while boosting shiny rates and offering an exclusive move, along with a whole host of other bonuses!
This Pokémon is part of an exclusive group, where members have branching evolutions that cross generations. So, whether it’s Politoed you’re after, or the Gen 1 classic Poliwrath, this is a Pokémon Go Community Day worth showing up for.
Since Poliwag will be spawning en masse throughout the event, this is the best chance we’ve had for catching an Poliwag with 100% perfect IV stats and, if you achieve this feat, it’s a good idea to know Poliwrath and Politoed’s best moveset.
Even if you’re not fussed on this month’s Community Day Pokémon, there are a multiple other bonuses that may get you out and about, including the Pokémon Breeder’s favourite four words: quarter hatch distance bonus.
On this page:
- Poliwag’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
- Poliwag evolution chart: What does Poliwag evolve into?
- Poliwrath moves and best moveset recommendation
- Politoed moves and best moveset recommendation
- What do shiny Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath and Politoed look like?
- Other Poliwag Community Day bonuses
Poliwag’s 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
July’s Community Day is the perfect opportunity to find a Poliwag with perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go.
For Poliwag, the CP values which correspond to perfect 15/15/15 stats are as follows:
- Level 30 (wild CP maximum) – 710 CP
- Level 35 (weather boosted CP maximum) – 769 CP
Poliwag’s wild CP value aligns with your current Trainer Level until you reach Level 30, so, since the majority of the player base is above this level, we keep to these values for the sake of simplicity. If you’re currently beneath Level 30, however, these values will be different.
Perfect stats in Pokémon Go, however, depend entirely on what you want to use your Pokémon for.
Perfect for the Master League and raids means exclusively 15/15/15 – the best possible stats that a Pokémon can have.
Meanwhile, perfect for Great League and Ultra League are completely different, as the goal is to get the highest level you can without going over the CP cap (1500 for Great League and 2500 for Ultra League). Since attack raises CP more than defense, the highest-level Pokémon in these leagues tend to have low attack and high defence.
If you want to run Poliwrath/Politoed in those two leagues, you’re looking for different stats:
- A perfect Great League Poliwrath is 0/14/15, reaching 149 CP at Level 22.0
- A perfect Great League Politoed is 0/15/11, reaching 1500 CP at Level 23.5
- A perfect Ultra League Poliwrath is 0/14/14, reaching 2499 CP at Level 44.0
- A perfect Ultra League Politoed is 0/14/14, reaching 2498 CP at Level 48.5
Poliwrath and Politoed are both decent in Go Battle League, but Politoed has performed better until now. This isn’t a massively useful comparison, however, as Poliwrath is a Water/Fighting-type and Politoed is mono-Water. This means that each have their own use cases — and with each getting different Community Day moves, their favourability is likely to change.
Let’s get Politoed out of the way first. Politoed will get the exclusive move Ice Beam during this event, which is a sidegrade from Blizzard. In Great League, Politoed runs Mud Shot, Weather Ball (Water) and Earthquake (Legacy), meaning that Ice Beam isn’t particularly relevant. In Ultra League, you can swap Earthquake for Ice Beam if you want, but you’re simply trading power for speed. Don’t run Poliwrath in Master League.
Now, Poliwrath is where things get a little more exciting — and if you’re a fan of PVP, this is the evolution you should be focussing on.
With the addition of Counter, Poliwrath’s eligibility goes up a fair whack. It’s the first Water-type Counter user, which could open some interesting possibilities, though it’s not likely to beat out Medicham in Great League. If you want to give it a go, we recommend you run Counter, Ice Punch and Power-Up Punch. Dynamic Punch is also a good shout, but if you like spammy moves that build momentum throughout the match (we certainly do), PUP is the way to go.
Poliwag evolution chart: What does Poliwag evolve into?
Poliwag evolves into Poliwhirl with 25 Poliwag Candy. Poliwhirl, meanwhile has two evolutions – Poliwrath and Politoed. Each of these requires an additional 100 Candy, though Politoed also requires a Kings Rock.
The theme here is a little weird. When Poliwag evolves, it grows a pair of arms and the swirl on its stomach swaps direction — the forelimbs reflect the metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog, which is cool, though the swirl and gloves are purely a Pokémon thing. Poliwrath is just Poliwhirl, but bigger and angrier thanks to it gaining Fighting as a secondary type.
Politoed, as the name suggests, is slightly different in that it has multiple toes. It’s also the first evolution to actually look like a frog — fitting as while the other three Poli’s are Tadpole Pokémon, Politoed is the Frog Pokémon, and it’s a cutie at that.
You can find out more about each Pokémon in their official Pokédex entries below:
Poliwag: For Poliwag, swimming is easier than walking. The swirl pattern on its belly is actually part of the Pokémon’s innards showing through the skin.
Poliwhirl: Staring at the swirl on its belly causes drowsiness. This trait of Poliwhirl’s has been used in place of lullabies to get children to go to sleep.
Poliwrath: Its body is solid muscle. When swimming through cold seas, Poliwrath uses its impressive arms to smash through drift ice and plow forward.
Politoed: At nightfall, these Pokémon appear on the shores of lakes. They announce their territorial claims by letting out cries that sound like shouting.
July’s Community Day event runs between 2pm and 5pm (local time), so you’ll have three hours to gather as much Poliwag Candy as possible, to ensure you get both evolutions.
If you’re hurting for candy, use Pinap Berries and Silver Pinap Berries to double the amount of candy you earn from catching, and make sure to have a Water-type Pokémon mega evolved – Mega Blastoise, Mega Gyarados or even Primal Kyogre will do the trick.
Poliwrath moves and best moveset recommendation
The question we all have now is what is Poliwrath’s best moveset?
Poliwrath runs Counter (Fast), Ice Punch (Charged) and Power-Up Punch (Charged), leaning into the fact that it’s a Fighting-type. Counter is one of the best moves in the game, and PUP is a spammy move that helps you gain momentum, laying down shield pressure in the process. Ice Punch is there as coverage, should you need it.
If you want to see the full move set, here it is:
Poliwrath Fast Moves- Mud Shot (Ground)
- Bubble (Water)
- Rock Smash (Fighting)
- Counter (Legacy Fighting)
- Ice Punch (Ice)
- Dynamic Punch (Fighting)
- Scald (Water)
- Return (Legacy Normal)
- Power-Up Punch (Fighting)
- Submission (Fighting)
- Hydro Pump (Water)
We expect Poliwrath to do fairly well in Great League, and occasionally act as a stand-in for Medicham, which should still outperform our angry blue friend. That said, we expect it to make more of a splash in Ultra League.
Politoed moves and best moveset recommendation
Until now, Politoed was the more popular of the two Poli’s, running Mud Shot (Fast), Weather Ball (Water, Charged) and Earthquake (Legacy Charged) in Great League. In Ultra League, you can swap Earthquake for Blizzard if you want power, or Ice Beam (the Community Day move) if you want speed. It’s much of a muchness though, so lean into whichever you think suits you.
If you get a good Politoed on Community Day, you can try the move, but if you have an older ‘toed sitting around, it’s probably not worth using an Elite Charged TM to learn Ice Beam.
If you want to see the full move set, here it is:
Poliwrath Fast Moves- Mud Shot (Ground)
- Bubble (Water)
- Weather Ball (Water)
- Surf (Water)
- Earthquake (Legacy Ground)
- Blizzard (Ice)
- Ice Beam (Ice)
- Return (Legacy Normal)
- Hydro Pump (Water)
The Season of Hidden Gems has arrived, bringing with it Routes, Zygarde, and a new Go Battle League season. 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.
What do shiny Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath and Politoed look like?
The opportunity to catch a shiny form of the highlighted Pokémon is one of the biggest draws of any Community Day event. This is thanks to the increased shiny rate for the event’s highlighted Pokémon combined with how catching Pokémon of the same type naturally increases said rate making it easier to encounter shinies.
To find a shiny Pokémon, you need to either start a catch encounter with a Pokémon in the wild or earn said encounter by completing an activity like a raid. From there, it’s easy to see if you’ve encountered a shiny Pokémon due to its alternative colouring, the sparkles that appear when the encounter begins and the shiny icon next to the Pokémon’s name.
While these shinies have been available for a while, this is the first Poliwag Community Day, which means if you’re still missing these shinies, you’ve never had a better chance to hunt them out!
Below you can take a look at shiny Poliwag, Poliwhirl, Poliwrath and Politoed, which have been available since it was released as part of Go Fest 2019 in Yokohama.
Shiny Poliwag family comparison. Available starting August 6 at 10AM JST.
by u/brizvela in TheSilphRoad
As you can see, shiny Poliwag and Poliwhirl simply swap blue for light blue. They’re not the most inspired... Poliwrath at least swaps blue for green, taking on a much more froggy colour.
Talking of frogs, Politoed swaps its greens for blues, and its yellows for a pinkish–purple hue. This is easily the best shiny of the lot!
If you want to evolve shiny Poliwag, we recommend waiting until after the event, where you will have until five hours (until 7pm local time) to evolve and gain the exclusive moves. This way you’ll have ample time to, hopefully, catch a couple of shiny Poliwag, along with enough candy to evolve them, without having to worry about sorting through your collection at the same time. Remember, it’s a good idea to check your shiny Poliwag’s stats, because it might have perfect IVs – making it even better for battle!
Evolving a shiny Poliwag will add a shiny Poliwhirl and, if you complete the evolution line, shiny Poliwrath and Politoed to your collection. If you do fully evolve a shiny Poliwag during the event hours, the resulting shiny Poliwrath will know Counter – the Fighting-type exclusive Fast attack for this Community Day – and the Politoed will know Ice Beam, the Ice-type exclusive Charged move for this Community Day.
Other Poliwag Community Day bonuses
Community Days in Pokémon Go always come with a string of bonuses, and Poliwag Community Day is no different.
Some of these bonuses are always the same – like increased spawns and increased shiny rates. However, there is a rotating set of other bonuses that come with Community Days, such as double or triple catch Candy, Stardust or XP.
A full list of Poliwag Community Day bonuses can be found below:
- Increased spawns
- Increased shiny rate
- 1/4 hatch distance
- 3-hour Incense duration (not including Adventure Incense)
- 3-hour Lure duration (not including Golden Lures)
- Double chance to receive Candy XL from catching Pokémon (for trainers Level 31 and up). This stacks with your Mega Evolution bonus, so if you have an active Level 3 Mega Evolved Pokémon, you will have whatever 'double excellent chance' works out to be!
- Photobombs – Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Poliwag (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 Poliwag' for a couple of Great Balls or Ultra Balls, Stardust, or a Poliwag encounter.
- Special Research – For $1.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency), you can take part in the exclusive Poliwag Special Research story, Slippery Swirls.
- Stickers – Get event-themed stickers by spinning Pokéstops, opening Gifts and from the in-game shop.
- One additional Special Trade can be made for a maximum of three for the day (until 10pm local time; this includes the extra you get from the Hidden Gems season bonus).
- Trades made will require 50% less Stardust (until 10pm local time).
- Exclusive move – Evolve Poliwag during the event or up to five hours afterward to get a Poliwrath/Politoed that knows the exclusive attack Counter/Ice Beam respectively (until 10pm local time).
- Poliwhirl raids – After the three-hour Community Day event ends, Trainers will be able to take on four-star Raid Battles. Defeating Poliwhirl will cause Poliwag to appear in a 300m radius around the Gym for 30 minutes. Note: Remote Raid Passes cannot be used for these raids, and the Poliwag that spawn will have the increased shiny rate that they did during the three-hour Community Day window!
Hope you enjoy Poliwag’s Community Day, and good luck finding a perfect shiny!
