Rayquaza is making an appearance in Pokemon GO raids once again. With this reappearance, fans get another shot at obtaining a shiny Rayquaza — a rarer variant with a different color scheme. While shiny Pokemon can be exceedingly rare to encounter, they are best hunted for during the raids in Pokemon GO, like the one currently going on.
With the recent Weather Week event, Pokemon that usually appear during rainy or stormy weather have become common encounters. For instance, Castform, a Pokemon that physically changes along with the weather, has appeared in its rainy form. This Weather Week event caps off with Rayquaza, a member of the weather trio from Generation 3.
With much of the world still being under lockdown, Pokemon GO fans called for an ability to convert their Premium Raid Passes to Remote Raid Passes on Twitter. This would allow trainers to join the Rayquaza raid from the comfort of their own homes. To further add to the frustration of finding a shiny Rayquaza, Pokemon can appear with a range of stats with the best possible being 100 percent. A Pokemon that has both perfect stats and is a shiny variant is termed a "shundo" by some fans, being a portmanteau of shiny and hundred.
As a shiny Pokemon, Rayquaza's green color scheme is replaced by a darker grey, perhaps fitting of the stormy Weather Week event. While some fans may find this color change underwhelming, Twitter has exploded in a frenzy of excitement surrounding this raid. Whether trainers are looking to farm the shiny variant or not, they'll want to be prepared for a tough fight when they enter the raid. Having knowledge of Rayquaza's counters in Pokemon GO should help.
The Rayquaza raid in Pokemon GO is a brief event lasting just over a day that pits players against the Legendary Pokemon. To have the best chance against Rayquaza, players should try to link up with others nearby to combine their forces. In order to have more than one attempt at getting Rayquaza, players will have to purchase Premium Raid Passes. Normally, shiny Pokemon appear at about a one in 500 ratio, but when it comes to Legendary Pokemon during raids, the odds are slightly better at around one in 20. This means that some lucky players may hit a shiny Rayquaza on their first attempt.
Whether fans are successful during this week's Weather Event week or during the Rayquaza raid, there will be plenty of upcoming opportunities in April with its Legendary and Mega raids. Next month will feature the debut of Therian Forme Tornadus in Pokemon GO, with plenty of others like Mega Gengar, Mega Houndoom, and more making reappearances. Until then, fans still have a bit of time left to try for a Shiny Rayquaza.
Pokemon GO is available on Android and iOS.