How Do I Evolve Dratini Into Dragonite?

I get a little giddy every time someone asks about Dratini because it’s such a classic grindy line in the game. To evolve Dratini you need two milestones of Dratini Candy: 25 Dratini Candy to turn a Dratini into a Dragonair, and then 100 Dratini Candy to evolve that Dragonair into a Dragonite. That’s the baseline, permanent cost, so when you’re planning to make a Dragonite you should be thinking in terms of 125 total candies from scratch (or fewer if you already have some saved up or a Dragonair in the bag). Beyond those raw numbers, I like to think in practical ways to close that gap faster. Pinap berries are your best friend during catch sprees — they can double the candy you get from a catch, which makes those 25-candy jumps much less painful. I’ll toss a Pinap on anything that looks like a good catch streak, and during Community Days or other spawn-heavy events I’ll go into full Pinap mode: incense, lures, and a stack of Poké Balls. Also, transferring extra Dratini to the professor nets you candies the old-fashioned way, so don’t hoard every low-CP one unless you’re collecting dex entries or IVs. If you’re short on candies and have been playing a long time, Rare Candy can be converted into Dratini Candy — a lifesaver when you want to finish that Dragonite evolution right away. Some tournament- and event-era nuances are worth keeping in mind. Niantic sometimes runs evolutions-cost-reduction windows or bonuses that lower the required candy for certain evolutions; they’ve done this for other species during special days. Also, walking Dratini as your buddy gives steady candy over time, which is especially nice if you don’t have a huge catch streak going. I often switch buddies depending on what I want to evolve next; when I’m preparing for a big Dragonite project I’ll set Dratini as my buddy and slowly accrue the candies while I’m out doing errands or runs. I tend to plan evolutions around XP boosts: I’ll time when I finally hit that 100-candy mark for Dragonite with a Lucky Egg so I can milk the XP from mass evolves of lower-tier Pokémon too. It’s satisfying to see the CP jump and get a Dragonite with a solid moveset, but don’t forget you can reroll the moves via TM if you end up with something you don’t like. If you’re chasing a high-IV Dragonite, keep an eye on trades during events, or focus on catching and hatching as your candy sources. All that said, I still find a slow-and-steady buddy walk, mixed with aggressive catching when a nest or Community Day pops up, to be the most sustainable way to stockpile those 25s and 100s. Happy hunting — Dragonite is such a payoff, and it’s worth the tiny obsession.

On good days I plan a little Dratini mini-quest like it’s a hobby project. I usually head straight for any waterfront — lakes, rivers, marinas, beaches, and even big parks with ponds seem to be where 'Pokémon GO' likes to spawn Dratini. I’ll park near a cluster of PokéStops and walk the shoreline, because spawn points tend to concentrate around places with lots of water and public foot traffic. I also keep an eye on the in-game Nearby/Sightings and check local community maps or Discord channels for recent spawns. Using incense while walking and dropping a couple of lure modules on waterfront stops makes a huge difference. If the game is running a Dragon-type event or Community Day, that’s the best time to chase higher spawn rates and shiny odds. Eggs and research can help too — sometimes Dratini pops out of longer-distance eggs or shows up in timed field research or special Research breakthroughs. My favorite trick: invite a friend, split the cost of a handful of incense, and stroll around a pier together — it turns a grind into a fun outing.

I still get a little thrill when a wild Dratini pops up—there’s nothing like the lead-up to evolving one into Dragonite. If you want a straight-up powerhouse for raids, aim for Dragon Breath (fast) + Outrage (charged). Dragon Breath pumps out excellent DPS and charges Outrage quickly, so you melt raid bosses. If you didn’t snag Dragon Breath on Community Day, Dragon Tail is the next-best option and remains very serviceable. For IVs, perfect 15/15/15 is what collectors and raiders dream of. If you’re optimizing, prioritize Attack first, then HP and Defense; high Attack makes the biggest difference for DPS. If you’re building a gym defender instead, flip the priorities toward high Defense and HP—something like 0 ATK / 15 DEF / 15 HP (or lower attack IVs) gives better bulk for holding gyms longer. And a small tip from my own stash: keep an extra high-IV Dratini with Dragon Breath unevolved as candy/XL fodder—evolving at higher levels saves stardust later.

If you're planning a hunt for a shiny Dratini, the simplest truth is: the exact date changes every year and Niantic posts it in the in‑game news and on the official 'Pokémon GO' blog. I usually keep an eye on those channels because Community Days move around — sometimes they repeat popular Pokémon like Dratini every few years. From my experience, Dratini Community Day tends to be a weekend event and often runs for a few hours in the afternoon local time, with boosted spawns and a higher shiny rate. Before the event I stock up on Poké Balls, Incense, Lucky Eggs, and open several lures at community meetups. Also check local Discord/Telegram groups; people will share whether there are nests or hotspots nearby. If you want the exact upcoming date, open 'Pokémon GO' and tap the news/events tab or follow the official social channels — that'll give you the confirmed day and exact hour for your time zone.

I still get a tiny thrill every time a Dratini sparkle shows up in my journal — they feel special because they’re genuinely uncommon. From what the community has tracked over the years, a wild Dratini’s shiny rate is typically around one in 450 to one in 500 (roughly 0.2%) when it’s not an event. That means you can catch dozens or even hundreds before you finally see that purple shimmer. During special boosts like Community Day or spotlight hours, the odds often jump dramatically, sometimes to roughly one in 25 or so, which is why those days are prime hunting times. In my own experience, I’ve stocked up on Incense, hit a couple of nests, and spent a Community Day afternoon powering through spawns — that’s when my shiny Dratini luck actually paid off. Raids, research tasks, and special event encounters can also carry higher shiny chances depending on the promotion, so it’s worth checking event notes before you grind. Also remember that items that increase encounter quantity (like lures and incense) don’t change the shiny probability per encounter — they just give you more rolls at the chance. I usually plan a mix of wild hunting and research tasks during events; it keeps things fun and boosts the odds of finally getting that shiny Dragonite I’ve dreamed about.

Hunting down a Dratini in Galar turned into a proper little side-quest for me — the kind of thing that starts as a casual check for one spawn and ends with me looping the Wild Area with headphones on and a thermos of cold tea. If you’re playing 'Pokémon Sword' or 'Pokémon Shield' the short practical bit is: Dratini shows up in water-based spots (surf/fishing) and sometimes in Max Raid dens, and your best bets are the Wild Area’s larger lakes and the DLC zones if you’ve got them. I spent a few evenings circling the lake near the bridge and eventually found one while the rain was on; weather actually felt important for the spawns, at least in my runs. From what I noticed and what other folks in my raid group confirmed, the Lake of Outrage (the big water area in the Wild Area) is a common place to check — surf along the shorelines and try fishing different spots when it’s rainy or stormy. If you have the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra DLCs, those places add more watery nooks where Dratini and its kin can appear: ponds, beach edges, and specific Max Raid dens in those expansions pop them up more often than the smaller puddles back in the main Wild Area. I also ran into a Dratini in a Max Raid den once; sometimes event dens or the dens in the Crown Tundra will host them, so keep an eye on the overworld den icons and on community raid calendars. A few practical tips from my own fiddling: try fishing with different rods in the obvious water slots (the game’s fishing system still rewards trying different tiles), and check the weather in-game — rain increases water spawns and made my searches way faster. If you’re not into wild encounters, breeding can be the clean route: trade for a Dratini or Dragonair and breed it with Ditto (or use the daycare) to get eggs, then hatch for whatever nature you want. Also, Max Raid dens can be a surprisingly reliable source if you’re trying to target rare spawns — joining a few raids or coordinating with friends will speed this up a lot. For the impatient or collector type, trading via online communities or importing from Pokémon HOME (if you have previous saves with Dratini) saves countless hours. I eventually caught mine by chance while exploring and soloing a few dens on a rainy in-game day; the thrill of seeing that blue head bob up again never gets old. If you want, tell me if you’re hunting for a shiny or a specific nature — I’ve got a few little rituals (soft-reset spots, Raid-skip patterns) that helped me keep calm during long search sessions. Happy fishing, and may your next cast bring you a sparkle or at least a Dragonair evolution line to show off on the team.

If you're hunting for a Dragonite and hoping to get some lucky Dratini candy along the way, yes — Dratini can and does hatch from eggs in Pokémon Go, but it's a little more complicated than just tossing eggs into incubators and waiting. Over the years Niantic has shuffled which Pokémon appear in which egg distance categories, so historically Dratini has most commonly been found in the longer-distance egg pools (think 10 km eggs), though event rotations and special seasons sometimes put it into shorter-distance eggs like 2 km or 5 km temporarily. The bottom line is: Dratini hatches from eggs, but what kind of egg and how often depends on the current in-game egg pool, which changes with seasons and spotlight events. From my own walks I learned to treat eggs like lottery tickets with hints — when you tap an egg in your bag, Pokémon Go often shows a preview of the species that could hatch from that distance category. That preview is a huge help: if Dratini is listed under the 10 km preview, slot those eggs into fast incubators and get walking. Pro tip from my commute routine: stack long-distance eggs (the 10 km ones) when you can, then use your Super Incubator on them to squeeze more hatch-per-egg time out of your special incubators. Adventure Sync is your best friend for passive hatching — I’ve hatched several rare babies while biking to work or doing grocery runs simply because Adventure Sync kept counting my steps even when the app was closed. A couple of things to keep in mind so you don’t get frustrated. First, hatching odds are generally low for popular Pokémon like Dratini when they’re in the long-distance pool; you might hatch a bunch of other things before seeing one. Second, Niantic frequently runs events that bump up hatch rates or temporarily adds Dratini to shorter eggs — during one Spring event I lucked into a shiny Dratini from a 5 km hatcher and nearly fell off the curb. Third, if you want to evolve Dratini, it’s the usual candy grind: it takes 25 candies to get to Dragonair, then 100 more to reach Dragonite (so plan your candies and buddy distance accordingly). Also remember lucky eggs only double XP, not hatch chances, and star pieces only affect stardust — helpful but not the same as improving hatch odds. If you want the most reliable path: watch the in-game news and community posts for egg pool updates, save your long-distance eggs until Dratini is listed in their preview, use Super Incubators on 10 km slots, and let Adventure Sync run in the background while you go about your day. Wild spawns and Community Days are also great for getting candy and shiny chances, so combine hatch strategies with catching events. Personally, there’s still something magical about that hatch animation revealing a little blue serpent — it never stops being fun, and it’s a nice mix of patience and surprise in a game that rewards both planning and luck.

Whenever I check CP ceilings for Pokémon I like to nerd out over the math, and Dratini is a cute little number to run through. If you power a Dratini to level 50 with perfect IVs (15/15/15), the maximum CP you’ll see is 1,136. That’s the cap for a standard, non-boosted, non-shadow/purified Dratini at level 50 — and I’ll walk through how that number is reached so you can tweak it for other IV spreads or special forms. I usually break it down with the CP formula from the game: CP = floor((Attack_total * sqrt(Defense_total) * sqrt(Stamina_total) * CPM^2) / 10). For Dratini the base stats are Attack 119, Defense 91, Stamina 121. With perfect IVs you add 15 to each, so Attack_total = 134, Defense_total = 106, Stamina_total = 136. The level 50 CP multiplier (CPM) used in the formula is about 0.84029999. When you plug those numbers in, you get roughly 1,136 CP after the floor operation — that’s the max. For a quick comparison, the same perfect IV Dratini at level 40 (CPM ~0.7903) comes out around ~1,004 CP, so you can see how level 50 gives a noticeable bump. If you’re not at perfect IVs, the CP scales predictably by changing those +15 values. For example, a 0/0/0 IV Dratini (base-only stats) at level 50 will be quite a bit lower; you can plug any IVs into the same formula if you want exact numbers. Also keep in mind shadow Dratini gets a 1.2x attack multiplier in the CP formula (so its CP reads higher), while purified Dratini has a slightly different stat structure — so if you see a different CP for those forms, that’s why. Practically speaking, if you’re holding onto Dratini to evolve into Dragonair and then Dragonite, I usually recommend catching high Attack first if you care about raids and DPS, or high HP/Defense if you want a beefy buddy or gym defender (though Dratini itself isn’t a gym mainstay). I’m the kind of person who hoards candy and XLs for that one perfect mon, so I’ve leveled a few Dratini to the 50 cap just to watch the numbers climb — it’s oddly satisfying. If you want to replicate this exact math yourself, use the base stats + IVs, square-root the defense and stamina totals, multiply by the attack total, then multiply by the CPM squared and divide by 10 before flooring. There are also plenty of community CP calculators that do this instantly if you’d rather not hand-calc. Happy hunting, and if you’ve got a particularly nice Dratini I’d love to hear what you plan to do with it — evolve right away, or hoard candy for XL?