Pokémon Spotlight Hour will feature a different Pokémon and a special bonus for one hour at 6:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday during the month of January. Barboach Spotlight Hour takes place on January 23rd, 2024, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm local time, with a bonus of 2x XP for evolving Pokémon.
This Spotlight Hour is the fourth January 2024 Pokémon spotlight, and it is especially interesting as Barboach can be shiny! In other words, it’s a great time to evolve any trash ‘mon in your storage before you transfer them.
Trainers who plan to participate should be prepared with a Mega Pokémon to maximise candy gains per Barboach caught. Here’s everything you need to know!
Barboach Spotlight Hour
Bonuses
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You will get 2x XP for Evolving Pokémon
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Shiny Barboach and its evolutions are available in Pokémon GO
Note on XP Bonus
If you do not want to catch the featured Pokémon or do not have enough Barboach candy saved, you can make use of the 2x Evolution XP bonus by evolving any saved Scatterbug, or opening a Mystery Box or Coin Bag! This is a great opportunity to evolve any Pokémon for XP before clearing out your storage. The old-school grinders will remember the days of saving Pidgey and other low cost evolutions for this sort of spotlight hour, and it can be a good way to grind XP with a lucky egg on.
This event takes place during Raging Battles GO Battle week, Machop is the cheapest evolution costing 25 Candy a pop. Scraggy and Mankey follow suit with 50 Candy each. It may be worth saving THESE for some extra cheap evolution XP.
Barboach
Barboach is a Water and Ground-type Pokémon. Barboach is weak to Grass-type moves. Barboach has a Max CP of 925 in Pokémon GO, it is weather boosted by Rainy and Sunny weather, and it was originally found in the Hoenn region. Shiny Barboach is available in Pokémon GO.
Barboach evolves to Whiscash with 50 Barboach Candy.
| Regular | Shiny | |
| Barboach |  |
 |
| Whiscash |  |
 |
| LVL | CP | LVL | CP | LVL | CP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 CP | 2 | 36 CP | 3 | 61 CP |
| 4 | 85 CP | 5 | 110 CP | 6 | 135 CP |
| 7 | 159 CP | 8 | 184 CP | 9 | 209 CP |
| 10 | 234 CP | 11 | 257 CP | 12 | 280 CP |
| 13 | 304 CP | 14 | 327 CP | 15 | 351 CP |
| 16 | 374 CP | 17 | 397 CP | 18 | 421 CP |
| 19 | 444 CP | 20 | 468 CP | 21 | 491 CP |
| 22 | 514 CP | 23 | 538 CP | 24 | 561 CP |
| 25 | 585 CP | 26 | 608 CP | 27 | 631 CP |
| 28 | 655 CP | 29 | 678 CP | 30 | 702 CP |
| 31 | 713 CP | 32 | 725 CP | 33 | 737 CP |
| 34 | 748 CP | 35 | 760 CP | 36 | 772 CP |
| 37 | 783 CP | 38 | 795 CP | 39 | 807 CP |
| 40 | 819 CP | 41 | 829 CP | 42 | 839 CP |
| 43 | 850 CP | 44 | 861 CP | 45 | 871 CP |
| 46 | 882 CP | 47 | 893 CP | 48 | 904 CP |
| 49 | 914 CP | 50 | 925 CP |
The following Pokémon will grant you extra bonuses when catching Barboach if they are Mega/Primal evolved.
A Note on Mega Catch Bonus
While a Pokémon is Mega-Evolved, additional XP and Candy is granted when catching a Pokémon that shares a type with it, or for any raid boss caught. These do not stack with each other. Additionally, High and Max Level Mega-Evolved Pokémon grant an increased chance to obtain Candy XL when catching a Pokémon that shares a type with it.
PVP
Even with the extreme weakness to Grass, Whiscash finds himself close to the top of the Great League. In evaluating Whiscash for PvP, the sheer amount of HP in addition to a solid movepool rank it as one of the finest in the Great League. For the purpose of PvP, Whiscash is a 4 out of 5. He is a much needed Pokémon for your PvP arsenal!
Whiscash has the uncommon typing of Water and Ground, making it a viable Water-type Pokémon against Electric-types. Whiscash is doubly weak to Grass though, which can spark fear when a Frenzy Plant Venusaur or Sceptile comes into play. He also maintains a huge health pool for the Great League and is backed by an impressive movepool.
Whiscash didn’t have Scald in its kit before, to begin with. And now not only does it have access to it but Scald does more damage now AND has a higher chance of debuffing your opponent’s attack stat. This seems to have made Whiscash the de-facto WaterGround type “mudboy” of choice. Beating the previous favorite Swampert in terms of usage in both Stuttgart and San Antonio. This is no doubt in part due to its relatively more bulk and super spammy kit.
PVE
Whiscash is not a viable option for Raids in the current Meta. Although his stamina can keep him out for a while, other Ground-types like Golem, Groudon and Garchomp outrank him by a large margin. Water-types like Gyarados and Kyogre dish out a ton more damage. These are just a few of the alternatives for Raids as Whiscash is beat by many, many other Pokémon in that respect. He is much more relevant in PvP for the time being.
