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Riolu and Lucario arrived in Pokemon GO in October 2018, and their golden Shiny color variations arrived a few years later during the Sinnoh Celebration event in 2020. Since then, the two creatures have been hard to come by, especially in their shiny colorations. However, determined trainers still have the ability to obtain both Pocket Monsters in their shiny forms with a little foreknowledge.
Thanks to recent changes made to Pokemon GO after Fashion Week 2023, now is a great time to snag a Shiny Lucario, and Shiny Riolu may also return in short order.
Since that's the case, it isn't a bad time to examine the methods of acquiring both Shiny creatures.
How to get Shiny Riolu in Pokemon GO
Currently, the only way to acquire a Shiny Riolu in Pokemon GO is to hatch it from eggs. Depending on the current state of the egg pool and the existence of any ongoing events, Riolu has been hatchable from many different egg distances, including 2-km, 7-km, and 10-km eggs. Its most recent appearance was during Halloween 2023 from October 19-26, when it was hatchable from 7-km eggs.
Unfortunately, at the moment, Riolu isn't available to hatch as part of the Season of Adventures Abound egg pool. This leaves players with two options: they can either wait for another event that includes Riolu among egg hatches, or they can trade for a Shiny Riolu that has already hatched.
Trading for a Shiny Riolu should cost Pokemon GO trainers quite a bit of Stardust, depending on the Friend Level of the player they're trading with. The rates can be found below:
- Good Friends - 1,000,000 if Shiny Riolu is unregistered in both players' Pokedexes, 20,000 if players both have a registered Shiny Riolu.
- Great Friends - 800,000 unregistered, 16,000 if both players have Shiny Riolu registered.
- Ultra Friends - 80,000 unregistered, 1,600 if both players have Shiny Riolu registered.
- Best Friends - 40,000 unregistered, 800 if both players have Shiny Riolu registered.
It should be noted that if players intend to hatch a Riolu, it has a 1/64 chance of hatching as a Shiny unless an ongoing Pokemon GO event like Riolu Hatch Day boosts the rate.
How to get Shiny Lucario in Pokemon GO
Wild encounters
Although Lucario doesn't ordinarily spawn in the wild in Pokemon GO, it can appear during certain events, including GO Fest. During GO Fest 2023, trainers were able to catch Lucario in the wild and encounter its Shiny variant as well. However, outside of these in-person events, Niantic has yet to introduce a proper wild spawning mechanic for Lucario or its Shiny form.
3-star raids
After Pokemon GO's Fashion Week 2023, the raid lineup was changed to represent a new collection of bosses. Fortunately, trainers can currently battle Lucario in 3-star raids and have a roughly 1/128 chance to find its Shiny after defeating it. This opportunity won't be around forever, so players will want to seize the moment before the raids presumptively change again on November 23, 2023.
For 3-star Lucario raids, players will want to counter it by using Fire-, Ground-, and Fighting-type moves/Pokemon. These will deal super effective damage to Lucario as a Steel/Fighting-type, giving trainers the ability to complete the raid quickly and try it again as long as they have raid passes to burn.
Evolution
Arguably the most straightforward way to obtain Shiny Lucario is via evolution. By feeding a Shiny Riolu 50 candies, it will evolve into a Lucario while keeping its Shiny coloration. The tricky part of this method is that players will already need to have acquired a Shiny Riolu to evolve.
Fortunately, once players have one, they can set Shiny Riolu as their Buddy Pokemon and walk around with it to gain candies. Using items like Rare Candies is also incredibly helpful.
Players are also free to continue hatching Riolu from eggs when it is available to do so, as each hatch will provide a candy bonus as well.
Wanting the same in the latest Gen IX titles, check out our how to get Shiny Lucario for free in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet guide.
