Costumed Charmander Spotlight Hour (September 2026): Last Minute Guide to Major Stardust Gains

Charmander Wearing Friede's Goggles

Pokémon Spotlight Hour will feature a different Pokémon and a special bonus for one hour at 6:00 p.m. local time on Thursday during the month of September. Costumed Charmander Spotlight Hour takes place on September 17th, 2026, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm local time, with a bonus of 2x Stardust for catching Pokémon.

This Spotlight Hour is the third September 2026 Pokémon spotlight, and it coincides with the Pokémon Horizons: The Series Celebration Event. The event introduces Charmander, Charmeleon and Charizard wearing Friede’s goggles to Pokémon GO. Trainers who plan to participate should be prepared with a Mega Pokémon to maximise candy gains per Pokémon caught. Here’s everything you need to know!

How to maximise Stardust during Charmander Spotlight Hour

Charmander is unfortunately not one of the rare Pokémon that give extra Stardust on catch – so it will grant the base rate per catch.

Here’s how much Stardust you can get during Charmander Spotlight Hour in September 2026, thanks to the 2x Stardust bonus:

Type of catch	Stardust
Regular catch	200× Stardust
Weather boosted catch (x1.25)	250× Stardust
Regular catch with Star Piece (x1.5)	300× Stardust
Weather boosted catch with Star Piece (x1.875)	375× Stardust

The best possible scenario you can have is to catch a weather boosted Pokémon with an active Star Piece. As Charmander is a Fire-type they are boosted by Sunny weather. 

To maximise Stardust caught you’ll likely want to use Great Balls to ensure the catch and use a quick catch technique. Otherwise, you could be spending too much time attempting to catch, rather than just catching.

We believe that the baseline for calculating potential Stardust during this hour should be 60 Pokémon. You should be able to get 60 Pokémon during one hour, regardless of if you are using the Fast catch trick, or just catching slowly.

Here’s how much Stardust you should be able to earn during the Spotlight Hour:

• 12,000 Stardust is your minimal Stardust goal. This means you caught 60 Pokémon, but there was no weather boost and you did not activate a Star Piece.
• 15,000 Stardust is your minimal goal if the in-game weather is Sunny.
• 18,000 Stardust is the minimal amount you are looking for with a Star Piece activated. This should be easy to get if you activate two Star Pieces, regardless of in-game Weather. Star Piece increases your Stardust gain by 50%, which is an additional 6,000 Stardust over the baseline.
• and finally… 22,500 Stardust is the amount of Stardust you will get if you catch 60 Pokémon, with a Star Piece active, during Sunny weather.

The only downside of this event is that Charmander is relatively difficult to catch, and you will probably want to use Great Balls or Ultra Balls during the event. Otherwise, you could be spending too much time attempting to catch, rather than just catching.

Charmander fact sheet

Charmander is a Fire-type Pokémon in Pokémon GO. As a Fire-type Pokémon, Charmander is weak to Ground, Rock, and Water-type moves.

Charmander’s maximum Combat Power stat is 1108 CP, and its recommended Pokémon GO moveset is Scratch / Flamethrower. Charmander encounters are boosted during Sunny weather. Shiny Charmander is available! ✨

Charmander Evolution Line

Pokémon	Requires	Evolution
Charmander	25 Candy	Charmeleon
Charmeleon	100 Candy	Charizard

Shiny Charmander

Shiny Charmander takes on a less saturated orange colour

Pokémon	Regular Sprite	Shiny Sprite
Charmander	Charmander	Charmander
Charmeleon	Charmeleon	Charmeleon
Charizard	Charizard	Charizard

Charmander CP and IV Chart

Mega Pokémon that boost Charmander

The following Pokémon will grant you extra bonuses when catching Charmander if they are Mega-evolved. 

Is It Worth Evolving Charmander

PVE

Among the most iconic Pokémon in the franchise, Charizard is a huge fan favorite that most players would be eager to use in battles.

Thankfully, it boasts a great moveset that makes this Fire/Flying-type Pokémon pretty useful.

⚔️ Raids – With Fire Spin and Blast Burn, Charizard can do quite a bit, although it’s outclassed by another starter, Blaziken.

That said, Charizard is superior to Blaziken against Bug and Grass-type Raid Bosses thanks to the resistances it gets from its Fire/Flying typing 🔥🪽

For Charizard with Dragon Breath and Dragon Claw, Raids aren’t ideal as it not only lacks STAB but this moveset duo isn’t great for PvE per se 😶

Keep in mind that its Mega Evolutions are very good in the meta, particularly the top-notch Mega Charizard Y.

🛡️ Gyms – A double weakness to Rock-type attacks and average bulk don’t make it a respectable Gym defender.

🔮 Dynamax Charizard with Fire-type moves is the top counter to any Max Battles hosting Bug, Grass, Ice, or Steel-type Pokémon. A powered-up Dynamax Charizard is also the go-to counter for Beldum Max Battles.

It should also be noted that Charizard learns Dragon Breath (a legacy move). So, it would be a top counter to beat Dragon-type Max Battles in the future 🐉

PVP

For those raising a Charizard, you can bet that it’s worth it since it has play in all three PvP Leagues 🙌

Its biggest strength is its moveset, helping it adopt two different roles in the meta. It does great as a Fire-type attacker, using Fire Spin’s neat energy gains to fire off Blast Burn as a nuke or Dragon Claw to bait shields. It’s a leading threat to Steel-type Pokémon.

It can also masquerade as a Dragon-type, taking advantage of the fact that it doesn’t take super-effective damage from its draconic opponents 🐲

🔵 Great League – Charizard is a decent addition to the Great League meta where its stats just help it squeeze out relevancy. It can pull off some wins due to the excellent offensive coverage of Fire-type attacks, but don’t expect much 🚧

🟡 Ultra League – The Ultra League is the ideal battleground for Charizard since its stats are more in sync with this meta. This helps it pose a threat to many Pokémon, as a Blast Burn can do quite a number even to those that resist it 😃

🟣 Master League – Charizard can find some use in the Master League, more so with its Dragon-type moveset. But ultimately, its insufficient offensive power and unimpressive bulk make Charizard too unreliable against this meta’s massive threats 🥵