How to Get Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon GO

Niantic has officially unveiled Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon GO, sparkly versions of regular Pokémon that can be leveled up more quickly than their standard counterparts. If you’re anxious to add some Lucky Pokémon to your Pokédex, follow this guide to find out the best way to increase your chances of getting a Lucky Pokémon for yourself once the update rolls out for everyone in Pokémon GO. 

How to Get a Lucky Pokémon

According to a recent blog post from Niantic, there is a chance that Pokémon can turn into sparkly Lucky Pokémon when traded in Pokémon GO. Lucky Pokémon come with the added bonus of requiring less Stardust to power up, which means that Trainers can increase the CP level of Lucky Pokémon more quickly. It appears that trading is the only way to get a Lucky Pokémon at this time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t improve your odds of obtaining these glittery variants for your collection.

Niantic revealed that the longer a Pokémon has been sitting in a Trainer’s storage, the higher the likelihood of it transforming into a Lucky version upon being traded. So, to increase your chances of getting a Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon GO, your best bet is to convince a friend to trade one of their Pokémon that they’ve held onto for a long time. They may ask you for the same, so be ready to dust off one of your older Pokémon that you’ve had stored up for a while to trade with them in return. 

If you have yet to exchange Pokémon with friends and aren’t sure about how the process works, then check out our Pokémon GO Trading Guide to learn more about how to trade in Pokémon GO.

While it seems that storage duration has something to do with getting Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon GO, we don’t know if there is a specific length of time that triggers the creation of a Lucky or if Pokémon type has something to do with it as well. “Whether or not being in storage causes Pokémon to become Lucky Pokémon remains a mystery, but be sure to stay posted for more results from the professor’s research,” said Niantic. 

Once you have obtained a Lucky Pokémon, it will be tracked by your Pokédex, where you can view its capture rate and encounter statistics. Stay tuned for more details on how to get Lucky Pokémon over the coming weeks.

The new update also introduces a few changes to Gifts in Pokémon GO, namely that Gifts now come with a chance of containing Stardust, which comes in handy for Trainers trying to power up their Pokémon fast. Gifts will also grant XP to the Trainer giving the Gift, so there’s more incentive to exchange Gifts with friends in Pokémon GO.

It’s important to note that the Lucky Pokémon update is not available yet in Pokémon GO, according to Niantic. Once the update rolls out for all users, players will be able to start trading for Lucky Pokémon in the game, but until then, hang onto your oldest Pokémon so you are ready to go when the time comes.

Check out our other Pokémon GO guides for more tips and tricks, such as how to increase your Friendship level in Pokémon GO.