How to get a red Gyarados in 'Pokémon Go': Guide to evolving or catching the shiny Pokémon

As part of Pokémon Go's week-long Water Festival, players have reported seeing shiny Pokémon start appearing. Specifically, Niantic has included gold Magikarp and red Gyarados in the game. So if you're looking to take a break from catching Totodiles and Omanytes or wearing a fancy Magikarp hat to try and catch one of these rare variants, we've got all the info you'll need to track them down.

Pokémon Go Red Gyarados: How to get a red Gyarados

The easiest way to catch a red Gyarados in Pokémon Go is not to catch one at all — instead, hunt down all the Magikarps you can find, who are seeing an increased spawn rate as a result of the Water Festival. There's a chance that these Magikarp will be shiny when you get into a battle with them, and they'll retain their shiny status once you evolve them into a Gyarados, as you can see from this (admittedly very loud) video a player posted to the Silph Road subreddit. 

Sure, racking up the required 400 Magikarp candies it'll take to evolve your shiny gold Magikarp into a red Gyarados isn't the most timely way to get a red Gyarados, but it's guaranteed to work. Plus you can buddy up with your shiny Magikarp for free candies while you walk.

You could also presumably try to hunt down a wild Gyarados and hope the game's algorithms have mercy on you, but thus far there haven't been any confirmed reports of players encountering a shiny Gyarados in the wild. That's not to say it's not possible, just that Gyarados spawn rates are pretty low to begin with. 

You could always try to use the Global Nest Atlas to see if there are any Gyarados nests in your area. However, considering that Nest Migration 17 only just occurred, a lot of nest locations are speculations at best right now.

So if you're looking for a red Gyarados, you're probably best off catching a shiny Magikarp and evolving it. But if you're dead-set on re-enacting the Lake of Rage encounter from Pokémon Gold and Silver, you could always try to stick close to your nearest body of water, which will probably increase your chances of running into water types. Happy hunting.

More Pokémon Go guides, tips and tricks

If you're booting up the game for the first time in a while to get ready for Gen 2, be sure to check out Mic's guides on how to get stardust, how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, the kind of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, how to create new PokéStops, how to maximize your chances of catching Pokémon and how PokéStops distribute Pokémon eggs. Also check out how to catch Gen 2 baby Pokémon, our analysis of post-balance update Chansey and Rhydon and everything you need to know about finding the long-awaited Pokémon Ditto.