Should I Evolve My Shiny Dratini? The Complete Analysis

Yes, I strongly recommend fully evolving your Shiny Dratini to add the glittering pink Dragonair and Dragonite to your collection! While the stardust and candy costs are steep, the rewards of maxing out this rare Pokemon are well worth the investment.

As an avid Pokemon Go player and content creator at MaxRaids.com, I‘ve evolved my fair share of Dratini. So I want to provide a complete, data-driven guide to help fellow Trainers decide if taking your Shiny Dratini all the way is the right choice.

Weighing the Pros and Cons of Evolving Shiny Dratini

Evolving your Shiny Dratini has some major pros but also notable cons to weigh:

Key Pros

• Add exceptionally rare Shiny Dragonite to your Pokedex
• Chance to learn special event-exclusive moves like Draco Meteor
• Significant gains to battle performance and CP

Potential Cons

• Requires 125 Dratini candies in total
• Massive investment of stardust needed to max out
• Trading the rarer Shiny Dratini form for more common Dragonite

Let‘s dig deeper on what exactly it takes to evolve and power up a Shiny Dratini, so you can decide if you have the resources.

Candy and Stardust Cost Analysis

I‘ve compiled the data in this handy evolution and power up cost table below:

As you can see, evolving a Dratini to Dragonite takes a whopping 125 candies total.

And maxing out to Level 50 requires anywhere from 82,000 to 440,000 stardust depending on your current level.

That‘s a ton of investment! But in my opinion, deeply worth it for adding both shine Dragonair and Dragonite.

Now let‘s analyze some alternative approaches if you don‘t have those resources yet.

Smart Alternatives to Costly Immediate Evolution

Just because you don‘t have enough to evolve now doesn‘t mean you won‘t get there eventually! Here are some smart interim steps while building up candy and stardust:

Wait for a Special Evolution Event

I highly recommend waiting for an event that gives Dragonite an exclusive move upon evolution (like December 2022‘s Draco Meteor). This saves your FOMO and gives you an edge in battle!

Set Dratini as Your Buddy

Putting Shiny Dratini as your buddy Pokemon is a reliable way to earn candy over time as you walk. Be patient and in a few weeks you‘ll have a Dragonair.

Keep Unevolved as a Flex

I won‘t blame you if you want to keep your rare Shiny Dratini unevolved for a while to show off. Shinies are uncommon enough as is without factoring in first stage evolutions!

So while powering up right away would be amazing, it‘s smart to bide your time and use these interim strategies if needed.

Now let‘s get into the nitty gritty of whether to evolve or power up first when you do have enough resources…

Should You Evolve or Power Up First?

A common question I see is if you should evolve Dratini first or power it up before evolving?

My clear advice: evolve first, then start powering up.

Evolving a Pokémon first is almost always more cost effective long term.

Here is a comparison of the two approaches:

As the table shows, powering up before evolving can double your stardust cost to get a max Dragonite!

The candy cost is the same either way. But stardust is far more scarce and valuable. So optimize your investment by evolving first.

Now let‘s get into which moves you want your shiny Dragonite to know…

Ideal Movesets for Shiny Dragonite

In terms of moves, the Community Day exclusive Draco Meteor is the ideal charged move for Dragonite in most battle scenarios.

The best fast move pairing is Dragon Tail for STAB damage. This table summarizes the optimal movesets:

Having Draco Meteor makes your Dragonite a top counter for raid battles like Giratina and Rayquaza. And in PVP, Hurricane gives needed coverage.

Now let‘s analyze whether Shiny Dragonite is useful enough to justify the evolution investment…

Is Evolving Shiny Dratini Ultimately Worth It?

The ubiquity of Dragonite in Raids and battle leagues shows that investing in a strong Dragonite is well worth it.

And when you factor in the excitement and rarity of a Shiny, it makes powering up your Shiny Dratini an incredible long-term goal.

Let‘s analyze from both usefulness and collectability standpoints:

Battle Usefulness

In terms of battle utility, maxing out Dragonite gives you an elite PVE raid attacker and PVP Master League threat:

• 9th best counter vs. Legendary Raids like Giratina, Rayquaza
• #8 ranked Master League PVP threat score (according to PvPoke.com)

Shiny Collectability

As a shiny hunter myself, I also factor in long-term collectability value:

• Chance of catching wild shiny Dratini is roughly 1 in 500
• Dragonair and Dragonite cannot be found in the wild shiny
• High social cache and trade value as one of the most coveted shines

So all signs point to powering up your Shiny Dratini being well worth the rewards over the long haul.

I hope this complete analysis gives you the confidence and data needed to decide your shiny‘s destiny. Whatever you choose, may your journey training Dratini be epic and sparkly!

Sources

• PvPoke.com – Battle data
• GamePress – Raid counter rankings
• SilphRoad – Shiny research