Shiny Ponyta, evolution chart, 100% perfect IV stats and Rapidash best moveset in Pokémon Go
How to get the most out of Ponyta’s Community Day!
If you think friendship is magic - especially when it involves ponies with fire for hair - you are going to love September’s big event in Pokémon Go! This month sees Ponyta Community Day, bringing you not one, but two flavours of pony! That’s right, but Kantonian and Galarian Ponyta are reigning supreme today!
The horse too hot to trot has two forms - the original Fire Horse original from Kanto and its Galarian Cousin, the Unique Horn Pokémon. Both Ponyta and Galarian Ponyta share Ponyta Candy as their resource, but to make the most of this event, you should pick which Pokémon you really want to focus on, since they have different typings and different uses in Pokémon Go.
This page focuses on the original Kantonian Ponyta. If you would prefer to focus on the one that looks like it has candy floss for a mane, check out our Galarian Ponyta page.
But first, what is a Community Day? For the uninitiated, this is 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!
Ponyta will be spawning en masse throughout the event, this is the best chance we've had for catching an Ponyta with 100% perfect IV stats and, if you achieve this feat, it's a good idea to know its evolution Rapidash'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 double catch candy and triple catch Stardust bonuses.
On this page:
Ponyta 100% perfect IV stats in Pokémon Go
This month’s Community Day is a great opportunity to catch a Ponyta 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 Ponyta 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 Ponyta:
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.
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 defence, the highest-level Pokémon in these leagues tend to have low attack and high defence.
If you want to run Rapidash in Go Battle League (you shouldn't), you're looking for different stats:
- A perfect Great League Rapidash is 0/13/15, reaching 1499 CP at Level 23
- A perfect Ultra League Rapidash is 0/15/14, reaching 2495 CP at Level 47
- A perfect Master League Rapidash is 15/15/15, reaching 2782 CP at Level 50
- Incinerate (Fire)
- Fire Spin (Fire)
- Low Kick (Fighting)
- Drill Run (Ground)
- Fire Blast (Fire)
- Flame Charge (Fire)
- Heat Wave (Fire)
- Scorching Sands (Ground)
- Ember (Fire)
- Wild Charge (Electric)
- Increased spawns
- Increased shiny rate
- Double catch Candy
- 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!
- Triple catch Stardust
- 3-hour Incense duration (not including Adventure Incense)
- 3-hour Lure duration (not including Golden Lures)
- Photobombs - Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Ponyta (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 Ponyta' for a couple of Great Balls or Ultra Balls, Stardust, or a Ponyta encounter.
- Special Research - For $1.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency), you can take part in the exclusive Ponyta Special Research story.
- 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 two for the day (until 10pm local time).
- Trades made will require 50% less Stardust (until 10pm local time).
- Exclusive move - Evolve Ponyta during the event or up to five hours afterward to get a Rapidash that know the exclusive attack Wild Charge (until 10pm local time).
- Ponyta raids - After the three-hour Community Day event ends, Trainers will be able to take on four-star Raid Battles. Defeating Ponyta will cause more Ponyta to appear in a 300m radius around the Gym for 30 minutes. Note: Remote Raid Passes cannot be used for these raids, and the Pokémon that spawn will have the increased shiny rate that they did during the three-hour Community Day window!
Ponyta evolution chart: What does Ponyta evolve into?
At a glance, Ponyta, the Fire Horse Pokémon, is pretty on the nose. It's a pony, but it’s a Fire-type Pokémon, so its mane is made of fire. However, this trope of a fiery horse is one that dates back pretty far and is shared across multiple different regions. Helios had a fiery steed and the Kirin of Japanese mythology has been depicted with a fiery mane.
Ponyta evolves into Rapidash with 50 Ponyta Candy in Pokémon Go. Rapidash is like Ponyta, but bigger and a unicorn. This is not to be confused with the Unique Horn Pokémon, which is Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash. We see what you did there, Game Freak... Talking of bad puns, nobody is winning any money for guessing where the name Rapidash comes from.
If you want to read more about these two majestic Pokémon, their official entries are as follows...
Ponyta: About an hour after birth, Ponyta’s fiery mane and tail grow out, giving the Pokémon an impressive appearance. Its legs grow strong while it chases after its parents. It runs all day in fields and on mountains.
Rapidash: It has astounding acceleration. From a standstill, it can reach top speed within 10 steps. It gallops at nearly 150 mph. With its mane blazing ferociously, it races as if it were an arrow.
Presumably, that means Rapidash can't turn. Truly it is the Zoolander of Pokémon - pretty, but ultimately useless, and has trouble turning left.
September's Community Day event runs between 2pm and 5pm (local time), so you'll have three hours to gather as much Ponyta Candy as possible, to ensure you can fully evolve it!
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 Fire-type Pokémon mega evolved - Mega Charizard, Mega Blaziken or Primal Groudon will do fine, but there are plenty of options at this point so use whatever works for you!
Rapidash's moves and best moveset recommendation
Rapidash is pretty naff in Pokémon Go. It does best in Ultra League, but you're better off running the likes of Talonflame, which is actively good.
If you absolutely feel the need to run Rapidash in Go Battle League, you’re looking at the moves Incinerate (Fast), Wild Charge (Charged) and Flame Charge (Charged). It’s moveset that helps you build momentum, thanks to the fact that Flame Charge buffs your attack with each one you use, and the Fast move pressure is a bonus, but remember that this glass cannon doesn’t last to the late game, especially thanks to the Community Day move Wild Charge being a self-debuff, dropping your defense by two stages.
In Great League this means wins against Talonflame, Jumpluff, Mandibuzz, Malamar and Azumarill. Talonflame aside, that's not much to write home about... Losses come from Dunsparce, Shadow Feraligatr, Gastrodon, Shadow Machamp and Clodsire, which are far more meta relevant.
Ultra League, where Rapidash performs best, is where you can beat Cobalion, Talonflame, Cresselia, Virizion and Skeledirge. Losses will come from Greninja, Swampert, Golisopod, Giratina Altered and Lickilicky.
With a CP cap of 2782, you do not want to run Rapidash in Master League.
If you want to see the full move set, here it is:
Rapidash Fast Moves
Rapidash Charged Moves
Rapidash Legacy Fast Moves
Rapidash Legacy Charged Moves
The Dual Destiny Season is here! It brings the Holiday Part 1 event with it. You can now catch Dynamax Pokémon through Max Battles. First, however, you need to visit Power Spots to collect Max Particles and complete the To the Max! quest. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.
What do shiny Ponyta and Rapidash 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.
Shiny Ponyta was trotted out in November 2018, as part of the Ingress Prime celebration, and it looks absolutely excellent.
As you can see below, shiny Ponyta is a pretty cool one, with the body going for a more golden-cream colour, and the fiery mane being blue! We love it when they lean into real-world colour shifts, like Grass-types turning autumnal, and we love it when they turn up the heat on Fire-types.
Shiny Rapidash is still excellent, but it's a slight shame that the mane is more lilac, rather than the deep blue that Ponyta enjoys. Still, it’s a gorgeous shiny, and we hope you get to add it to your collection if you’re still missing it!
Thanks to YouTuber RaZzi for the handy video.
If you want to evolve shiny Ponyta, and want the exclusive move, we recommend waiting until after the event, where you will have until five hours (until 10pm local time) to evolve and gain its exclusive move. This way you'll have ample time to, hopefully, catch a couple of shiny Ponyta, along with enough candy to evolve them, without having to worry about sorting through your collection at the same time.
Other Ponyta Community Day Bonuses
Community Days in Pokémon Go always come with a string of bonuses, and Ponyta 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 Ponyta Community Day bonuses can be found below:
Hope you enjoy Ponyta's Community Day, and good luck finding a perfect shiny!