Gastly Spotlight Hour (October 2025): Last Minute Guide

Gastly

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 October. Gastly Spotlight Hour takes place on October 29th, 2026, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm local time, with a bonus of 2x XP for evolving Pokémon. 

This Spotlight Hour is the final October 2026 Pokémon spotlight. It’s a great time to evolve any trash Pokémon in your storage before you transfer them. 

Trainers who plan to participate should be prepared with a Mega Pokémon to maximise candy gains per Gastly caught. Here’s everything you need to know!

• If you want further information about Spotlight Hours, check out our comprehensive guide.

Gastly Spotlight Hour

Bonuses

Note on XP Bonus

If you have a friend that you can trade with, you can get extra XP by trading your caught Gastly before evolving to make use of the free evolution if traded!

If you do not want to catch the featured Pokémon or do not have enough Gastly 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 and evolving those!

Gastly Fact Sheet

Gastly is a Ghost and Poison-type Pokémon in Pokémon GO. As a Ghost and Poison-type Pokémon, Gastly is weak to Dark, Ghost, Ground, and Psychic-type moves.

Gastly’s maximum Combat Power stat is 1390 CP, and its best Pokémon GO moves are Lick and Dark Pulse. Gastly encounters are boosted during Fog and Cloudy weather. Shiny Gastly is available! ✨

Gastly	25 Candy	Haunter
Haunter	100 Candy 0 Candy if traded	Gengar
Gengar	200/40 Mega Energy	Mega Gengar

Shiny Gastly

Shiny Gastly can be pretty subtle – look out for its cloud turning a blue colour!

—	Regular	Shiny
Gastly	Gastly	Gastly
Haunter	Haunter	Haunter
Gengar	Gengar	Gengar
Mega Gengar	mega Gengar	mega Gengar

Gastly CP and IV Chart

Mega Pokémon that boost Gastly

The following Pokémon will grant you extra bonuses when catching Gastly 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.

Is it worth evolving Gastly?

PVP

With such a strong moveset that became even grander with the addition of Shadow Punch during Gastly Community Day, Gengar is a legitimate threat in PvP that can spook out many heavyweights in this meta 👻

🔵 Great League – The wide coverage of Gengar’s excellent Ghost-type moves makes it pretty resourceful in the Great League. Note that it absolutely needs Shadow Punch, since the 35 energy move helps it bait shields 🔰

🟡 Ultra League – This is Gengar’s best PvP showing and it relies heavily on baiting opponent’s shields while dealing high damage. Moreover, Shadow Ball ensures a scary nuke move when shields are down 😎

However, the prominence of Giratina (Altered) and Cresselia, as well as other Ghost and Psychic types, makes it a difficult day at the office for Gengar 🫣

This requires you to create teams that are heavily inclined towards protecting Gengar against its weaknesses, often causing inconvenience. In a nutshell, it fares extremely well against a lot of matchups but suffers otherwise.

🟣 Master League – Gengar is unfortunately dampened by inferior stats and performance when compared to the usual suspects in the Master League.

PVE

The fan-favorite Gengar is a hard-hitting monster in Pokémon GO, and the ultimate definition of a glass cannon 👊

Blessed with the best Ghost-type moves in the game, this icon can do wonders with its tremendous damage output as long as you are able to dodge properly 👀

It’s the top Ghost-type attacker when excluding Legendaries, Ultra Beasts, Megas, and Shadows. So, 100% worth raising a high IV Gengar for your team 💯

⚔️ Raids – Gengar’s real issue is that its Ghost/Poison typing makes it weak to Ghost as well as Psychic type attacks, two types it counters 🤕

That said, dodging is the key to Gengar’s success, and if you can master that, your Gengar is a top-notch threat even in neutral matchups.

It also has a Mega Evolution with an astronomically high ATK, taking Gengar’s shenanigans to another level.

Gigantamax Gengar is also a great option for many Dynamax/Gigantamax Max Battles. While you can’t evolve Gastly into a Gengar that can Gigantamax, it is worthwhile grinding for the many candies it takes to level up those Max Moves.

🛡️ Gyms – Gengar’s low bulk hinders its viability as a Gym Defender, although it can surprise Fighting-type attackers thanks to its high resistance 👊

Infographic