The Pokémon GO Holy Grails: What r/pokemongo Really Considers the Rarest
"What is considered the holy grail of Pokémon GO?"
That's the question a player dropped into r/pokemongo a few days ago: which Pokémon in your collection is the best, most popular, or coolest to own?
We read through the top-voted replies — the highest pulled 700+ upvotes — and noticed something: the community's "holy grail" has almost nothing to do with the meta battle tier list. It's about rarity. Below we rank the community consensus by upvotes and break down why each grail is actually hard to get.
What Actually Makes a GO "Holy Grail"?
Every grail the players name boils down to one of four rarity vectors:
- One-time event exclusives — miss the window and it's gone (clone Pokémon, apex birds).
- EX Raid invite-only — you can't just walk in and battle it (Armored Mewtwo).
- RNG ceiling — a 100% IV shiny (shundo), or the reverse, a 0% IV (nundo).
- Long grind — powering one Pokémon to max level and max moves (Gholdengo, Max-move Charizard).
The Community's Holy Grail Ranked
1. Armored Mewtwo
The most-named #1 grail. It first dropped through 2019's EX Raids (invite-only), with a different look and move pool from the regular Mewtwo. Multiple highly upvoted players list it as "the one I want most," and one returning player put it plainly: "I wasn't around when Armored Mewtwo came out, and it's the one I want most." Whether it will return is still an open question (unverified).
2. Shiny / Gmax Charizard
"The Pokémon with the most unlocks you can have." A 595-upvote reply paints the form collectors drool over: a lucky hundo + shiny + Gigantamax, all three Max moves maxed, both Mega forms unlocked, plus Mega 3. The catch is that it stacks four layers of RNG and resource grind at once — shiny, lucky, Gmax, and Max-move levels.
3. Clone Pokémon (2020 Pokémon Day)
The 2020 Pokémon Day limited return: cloned Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, plus an Armored Mewtwo. One-time only and carrying the special "clone" tag, it's a textbook event exclusive. Plenty of players treat "clone starters + Armored Mewtwo" as the ultimate bundled collection.
4. Apex Lugia & Ho-Oh
A special form from the Go Fest 2022 finale encounter, tagged "Apex." The players who have one were almost all the hardcore crowd that paid for the global Go Fest that year, so circulation is tiny (exact year unverified).
5. Shundos and Event Pikachu
A perfect shiny (shundo) is already the RNG ceiling, and event Pikachu stack another layer of rarity on top:
- Pikachu Libre: requires reaching Legend rank in the GO Battle League.
- Detective Pikachu: a 2019 crossover event.
- One Piece hat Pikachu: a crossover collab variant.
As u/Both_Establishment43 put it, shiny fragment-hat Pikachu, the original Detective Pikachu, clones, apex Lugia/Ho-Oh, and Armored Mewtwo are "the top ISO grails for most."
6. Nundos and Shnundos (0% IV)
The reverse grail. One player found just five 0-IV Pokémon out of 40k caught, and a shiny + 0 IV is even more absurd. It isn't strong — it's just rare enough to become a meme.
7. Shiny Bidoof
The community's feel-good award. No practical value whatsoever, but the subreddit broadly agrees "it should be a holy grail" — the meme is the value.
Honorable Mentions
- Gholdengo: the 999-coin grind is called the ultimate flex (whether it's obtainable in GO is unverified).
- Launch-day starters: starters caught on launch day in 2016, called "the rarest in the game."
- Shiny Wobbuffet: a pure nostalgia pick.
Can You Still Catch Them?
Roughly two buckets: clone Pokémon and apex birds are largely vaulted one-time event rewards (whether they return is unverified); Pikachu Libre can still be ground out through battle ranks; and shinies are pure luck plus account age. Treat any rerun schedule as official-announcement-only (unverified).
Build Your Own Grail List
Whether you chase an Armored Mewtwo or a single Shiny Bidoof, the fun of collecting is "I had that one." If you prefer classic Pokémon you can pick up and play immediately without rolling the dice, the GBA originals like Pokémon LeafGreen and Pokémon FireRed are ready to play the moment you open them on OldGame.io — browse all Pokémon games →.
Play Classic Games. No Downloads. Just Play.
Want something more retro? Check out the best classic games, voted by 193 players →, or read our Pokémon Emerald beginner's guide →.
