How shiny trading works in Pokémon GO

Shiny Pokémon are one of the most sought-after items in Pokémon GO, and trading them comes with specific rules you need to know before offering or accepting a deal.

Shiny trades are Special Trades

Any trade involving a shiny Pokémon counts as a Special Trade. You can only do one Special Trade per day, shared across all your friends. This means if you do a shiny trade with one friend, you can't do another Special Trade with anyone else that day.

Special Trades also include trading Pokémon you haven't registered in your Pokédex, legendary Pokémon, and ultra beasts.

Stardust costs for shiny trades

• •❤️🤍🤍🤍 Good Friends (1 day) — 1,000,000 Stardust
• •❤️❤️🤍🤍 Great Friends (7 days) — 800,000 Stardust
• •❤️❤️❤️🤍 Ultra Friends (30 days) — 80,000 Stardust
• •❤️❤️❤️❤️ Best Friends (90 days) — 40,000 Stardust

Important: stats re-roll on trade

When you trade a Pokémon, its IVs are re-rolled within a range based on friendship level. The higher the friendship, the better the minimum IV floor. Best Friends guarantee at least 5/5/5 IVs on both sides of the trade.

This re-roll applies to shinies too — a shiny with perfect IVs could come out of the trade with lower IVs. Keep this in mind if the IVs matter to you.

Lucky Pokémon and shiny trades

Shiny trades can result in a Lucky Pokémon, which has reduced Stardust costs for powering up and guaranteed 12+ IVs across the board. The chance of a Lucky trade increases the older the Pokémon are — Pokémon caught in 2016-2017 have a much higher Lucky chance.