How to get Spiritomb in Pokémon Go: Catch guide, Shiny odds, more

Spiritomb has always been one of the rarest Pokémon outside of Legendary and Mythical species in across all Pokémon games and Pokémon Go is no different. Historically, you have only been able to catch Spiritomb during one Pokémon Go event each year, limiting its availability and the chances to get a Shiny Spiritomb too.

When it was first introduced in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Spiritomb could only be encountered by talking to 32 people in the Sinnoh Underground, which set the bar for the Forbidden Pokémon always being locked behind a quest of sorts when available to catch.

Niantic took inspiration from that and bundled Spiritomb into specific research stories that center around the Ghost/Dark-type. 

If you want to get your hands on an Odd Keystone or even Shiny hunt a Spiritomb when it is available, here is everything you need to know about how to find and catch Spiritomb in Pokémon Go. 

How to catch Spiritomb in Pokémon Go

If you aren’t in the Halloween spirit, you should probably change that or at least prepare to get out and about during October to catch yourself a Spiritomb in Pokémon Go. 

Niantic first added Spiritomb to Pokémon Go as part of the 2018 Halloween event, and since then it has become a staple piece of featured content. Starting with the A Spooky Message Special Research in 2018, players would need to complete research tasks featuring Ghost and Dark-type Pokémon to eventually earn an encounter with Spiritomb. 

That has carried over into 2023, where Spiritomb is now available as part of the Spiritomb Limited Research story during the Halloween 2023 event. You have until Oct. 31 at 8pm local time to finish this research before it, and Spiritomb, disappear for another year. 

Spiritomb has never been available to encounter in the wild and has not been featured in Egg hatch pools or raid rotations. This means you are likely only to get one Spiritomb per year unless a different approach is taken at some point. 

Can Spiritomb be Shiny in Pokémon Go?

Shiny Spiritomb was added to Pokémon Go during the Halloween 2020 event, making it globally available to all players if they are lucky enough. 

Since you only have one opportunity to catch Spiritomb most years in Pokémon Go, Niantic has seemingly dropped the Shiny rate down. According to the SilphScience team, you have a 1/64 chance to encounter a Shiny Spiritomb instead of the base 1/500 odds that the game uses.