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Where & When To Spend Rare Candy In Pokémon GO

Despite its name, Pokémon GO trainers who completing multiple raids per day and regularly win in GO Battle League may notice their Item Bag begin to fill up with Rare Candy. This is one of the most useful items in the game, as feeding it to a Pokémon will transform the Rare Candy into that Pokémon's candy, allowing trainers to power it up. With so many options, though, and already three different Legendary (and Mythical) Raid Bosses planned for August so far, picking which Pokémon to feed may pose a challenge. Bleeding Cool is here to help you with our current Rare Candy guide.

Should I spend Rare Candy on Legendary Pokémon?

Yes! Legendary Pokémon are the best option for Rare Candy, because unlike wild Pokémon or Egg hatches, the only way to get more Candy for them is to raid… which costs money. Legendaries are also very unlikely to be caught without a Golden Razz Berry, which makes the Pineapp Berry method (which doubles catch Candy) a risk. Still, though, Pokémon GO now has a host of Legendary Pokémon… but which one is worth your investment? Here are the top five.

• MEWTWO: One of the top attackers in the game, Mewtwo is a Psychic-type Pokémon with an incredibly diverse array of moves. Niantic also rarely reintroduces Mewtwo, so it is the safest Rare Candy bet in the game.
• KYOGRE: Kyogre is an incredibly powerful Water-type Pokémon, and was just featured at GO Fest… meaning it won't likely return to raids for some time. Kyogre is best with two Charged Attacks, spicing its moveset up with the Electric-type attack Thunder to complement its normal Water moves.
• GROUDON: Great against Fire and Steel-type Pokémon alike, the Ground-type king, Groudon, comes into play against many of the raid bosses. If you want to hit Metagross hard and solo an Alolan Raichu, a powered-up Groudon is a terrific choice.
• RAYQUAZA: It just came back into raids, but Rayquaza remains the top Dragon-type attacker. If you can't do upwards of fifty raids, you won't be able to accrue enough Rayquaza candy to power up this dual Dragon and Flying-type to its top potential.
• DIALGA: Another Dragon-type, yes… but Dialga is unique in that it hits hard with Dragon moves, but it's dual typing of Steel makes it the only Dragon-type in-game that is not weak to Dragon attacks. This makes it the best Pokémon to use against Dragons in Tier Five raids.

In addition to the above, note that Shadow Pokémon have a 20% attack boost. If you have, for example, an amazing Shadow Entei from Giovanni, or a top-tier Shadow Moltres from GO Fest 2020, those are going to be unparalleled attackers and are also well-worth your Rare Candy.

What non-Legendaries are a good Rare Candy investment?

The best bet for using Rare Candy on non-Legendary Pokémon is to assess how you play and how often you will encounter this Pokémon in the wild. There are many rare Pokémon in the game, so if you either hatch or catch a high-IV spawn of the following creatures, they'd make a great investment:

• GIBLE: Infamous as having a run as the rarest spawn in the game, Gible was more readily available during GO Fest… but was still not the easiest to come by. Gible's ultimate evolution of Garchomp dominates as a Dragon/Ground-type.
• DEINO: As a Dragon/Dark-type, Deino has its Shiny form coming out for Dragon Week, but is a difficult-to-find spawn for even dedicated players. Deino evolves at its third-stage into Hydreigon, which will often be listed at the top of Raid Counters.
• AXEW: Essentially the new Gible, this pure Dragon-type is taking over the title as the rarest spawn and hatch in the game. Its final evolution of Haxorus is dominant, and is a Pokémon any player wants on their team.
• BELDUM: This may be controversial, because Beldum had a Community Day and haunted 10KM eggs for a long time. However, it has become less common in 2020 and evolves into Metagross, an absolutely essential Pokémon for any dedicated raider. With Shadow Beldum available through Sierra for most of the year, investing in a team of multiple Metagross, including a Shadow, is a great plan.
• MYTHICAL POKÉMON: Players only get one Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, and Victini so these aren't technically Legendaries… they're even more exclusive. Mew has an incredibly varied moveset, Victini is a top counter against the upcoming Raid Boss Genesect, and Jirachi's Steel-type moves are dominant. All four are smart investments.

Hold off on other rare spawns, like Porygon, which may get a Community Day.

When should I use my Rare Candy in Pokémon GO?

This depends on how you play. The above are all longterm suggestions, but if you raid a lot and bring in over 100 Rare Candies per week, you want to always have the top counters for every Legendary Raid boss. In that case, follow Bleeding Cool for our announcements and Raid Guides. Right now, for example, if you wanted to counter Rayquaza, you would want to invest in your Ice-types, such as the hatch-only Galarian Darmanitan. Looking ahead, Dark-types are best against next week's boss Deoxys, and Fire-types against the following boss, Genesect.

If your goal, though, is to build a diverse team of Pokémon to help in every situation, the above guide will help you begin.

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