Spotlight Hours in Pokémon GO: A Guide
Spotlight Hours in Pokémon GO are weekly events that give Trainers a chance to focus on a single featured Pokémon for one hour. With increased spawns and special bonuses like extra Stardust, XP, or Candy, Spotlight Hours are a great opportunity to level up, hunt Shinies, and strengthen your team.
Fun fact: Spotlight hours used to feature ONLY Pokémon. It did not include featured bonuses. However, in April 2020, the Pokémon GO team decided to combine both the featured Pokémon and the featured bonus into one weekly event. It has since followed this model.
Before April 2020, featured bonuses was available during what was called Mystery Bonus Hour. The Mystery Bonus hour was held every Thursday from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. The featured Pokémon were available during what was called Pokémon Spotlight Hour.
Spotlight Hours in Pokémon GO: Weekly Schedule
The Spotlight Hours do occur every Tuesday, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time. Each Spotlight hour features different Spotlight Pokémon and different bonuses. The hours are rotated monthly.
Here, you will find the past and upcoming Spotlight hours, the featured Pokémon, the featured bonuses for each hour, and what to do to maximize the featured bonuses. These are presented for each month.
January 2026 Spotlight Hours
The table below shows the details you need to know for January 2026. Remember that each hour is on Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time.
| Date | Featured Pokémon | Featured Bonus | Must use Item | Pokémon to Mega Evolve or Primal | Adventure Effect to Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 6 | Barboach | 2x XP for catching Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Mega Swampert | White Kyurem’s Ice Burn |
| January 13 | Mareep | 2x XP for evolving Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Mega Manectric | Dialga’s Roar of Time |
| January 20 | Hatenna | 2x Candy for transferring Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Mega Latios | Palkia’s Spacial Rend |
| January 27 | Foongus | 2x Stardust for catching Pokémon | 2x Star Piece | Mega Venusaur | Palkia’s Spacial Rend |
December 2025 Spotlight Hours
The table below shows the details you need to know for December 2025. Remember that each hour is on Tuesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time.
| Date | Featured Pokémon | Featured Bonus | Must use Item | Pokémon to Mega Evolve or Primal | Adventure Effect to Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2 | Cranidos | 2x Candy for transferring Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Mega Aerodactyl | Palkia’s Spacial Rend |
| December 9 | Shieldon | 2x XP for catching Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Mega Lucario | White Kyurem’s Ice Burn |
| December 16 | Mienfoo | 2x Candy for catching Pokémon | Pinap Berry per catch | Mega Blaziken | Black Kyurem’s Freeze Shock |
| December 23 | Spheal | 2x XP for evolving Pokémon | 2x Lucky Egg | Primal Kyogre | Dialga’s Roar of Time |
| December 30 | Delibird | 2x Stardust for catching Pokémon | 2x Star Piece | Mega Salamence | Palkia’s Spacial Rend |
READ ALSO: Adventure Effects in Pokémon GO
To do before each Spotlight hour
- Candy for transferring bonus: Create a “transfer” tag. Look through your Pokémon storage for all the Pokémon (and duplicates) you do not need. Add them to the tag. Let these be the first you transfer when the hour starts. Select all Pokémon in that ‘transfer’ tag and mass transfer the ones you can. You can then spend a few more minutes transferring shinies individually.
READ ALSO: Pokémon GO Search Strings to Mass Transfer everything but PVP IVs Pokémon
- XP for evolving bonus: Create an “evolution” tag. Look through your Pokémon storage for all the Pokémon that require a small amount of candy for evolution. Add them to the tag. Let these be the first you evolve as soon as the hour starts. Likewise, you should keep newly debuted Pokémon and evolve them during this hour. You can find these new Pokémon using the search string evolvenew
- Stardust for catching bonus: Stack up to 100 Pokémon that will give you more Stardust when caught. You can stack these Pokémon from Field research encounters if you do NOT catch them immediately after completing the Field Research. You can open the stacks one after the other and catch the Pokémon as soon as the hour starts.
READ ALSO: Pokémon Stardust Catch Value in Pokémon GO
These are the details, including the tips you need to make the most of every spotlight hour in Pokémon GO. I hope you will consider these when playing the next Spotlight hour.
All my best wishes.
