Shiny Mankey, evolution chart, 100% perfect IV stats, and Annihilape’s best moveset in Pokémon Go

The Pig Nose Pokémon has come out swinging for Mankey Community Day in the world of Pokémon Go - the first for this Pokémon!

It’s a real shame that last month was Sewaddle, of all things, and we get the cool Ghost-type just after Halloween. 'Wait,' we hear you say, 'Mankey isn't a Ghost-type!'. You would be technically correct (the best kind of correct) to say that, but we are alluding to Annihilape, Mankey’s final Evolution as of Gen 9.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Primeape (the previous final evolution) got so dang mad it died and came back as a Ghost. Did this make it any less angry? Take a look at it and you tell us...

Annihilape is pretty hot in Go Battle League. That said, it’s pretty annoying to get hold of, thanks to its Adventure Together requirement of defeating 30 Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon. Fortunately, this requirement is being massively nerfed for this event, so if you want to become besties with the punchy monkey, this is the time to bag yourself one.

But first, what is a Community Day? For the uninitiated, this is a reoccurring Pokémon Go event that celebrates a specific Pokémon, while boosting shiny rates and offering an exclusive move, along with a whole host of other bonuses!

Mankey will be popping up en masse throughout the event, this is the best chance we've had for catching an Mankey with 100% perfect IV stats and, if you achieve this feat, it’s a good idea to know its evolution Annihilape’s best moveset.

Even if you’re not fussed on this month’s Community Day Pokémon, there are a multiple other bonuses that may get you out and about, including triple catch XP bonus!

On this page:

• Mankey 100% perfect IV stats
• Mankey evolution chart: What do Mankey and Primeape evolve into?
• Annihilape’s moves and best moveset recommendation
• What do shiny Mankey, Primeape and Annihilape look like?
• Other Mankey Community Day bonuses

Mankey 100% perfect IV stats

This month’s Community Day is a great opportunity to catch a Mankey with perfect IV stats.

'Perfect' means two things in Pokémon Go, depending on how you plan to use a given Pokémon. First, there’s the maxed out, 100% IV version, which is the 15/15/15 you’re looking for your 4* Pokédex, raids and Master League. Yet, because of how CP is calculated using three stats, a perfect IV Pokémon is generally only ever the best version of itself in the Master League.

Of course, you can’t see the IV of a Pokémon without catching it first, but with a little research beforehand, you can quickly spot a perfect Mankey based on the CP alone.

If you’re at Level 30 (or above), you’ll ideally be looking for the following CPs for a perfect 15/15/15 Mankey:

The wild CP value aligns with your Trainer Level until you reach Level 30 and, due to the majority of the player base now being above this level, we’ve kept to these values for the sake of simplicity. These values will, however, be different if you’re currently below Level 30.

Mankey evolution chart: What do Mankey and Primeape evolve into?

Believe it or not, Mankey is loosely based on a real-life animal. We say loosely, as neither the southern pig-tailed macaque nor the snub-nosed monkey is quite as aggressive. Nor did either evolve to wear boxing gloves and shackles, surprisingly enough.

Another cool bit of trivia is that Mankey is actually the counterpart to Meowth, similar to Magmar and Electabuzz, or Scyther and Pinsir. Both evolve at the same level (28) in the main-series games, they have similar colouring and they are version-exclusive opposites. Meowth clearly got a better deal from its agent, becoming one of the main mascots thanks to the likes of Jessie and James. Mankey, however, is mostly lost to the annals of Pokémon history.

Or it was. Mankey evolves into Primeape - historically (though non-canonically) the reason why Poké Balls were invented, according to the anime. However, the invention of Poké Balls has since been clarified in Pokémon Legends Arceus. Design wise, Primeape is like Mankey, but bigger, angrier and punchier.

But Primeape is not the punchiest boi. Use Rage Fist 20 times and then level it up in the main-series games and you will get Annihilape. Basically, it got so angry it died, but instead of going to heaven, it hung around so it could punch things even harder.

You can read more about Mankey’s evolution line in their official Pokédex entries below:

Mankey: It lives in groups in the treetops. If it loses sight of its group, it becomes infuriated by its loneliness. It is extremely quick to anger. It could be docile one moment, then thrashing away the next instant.

Primeape: It becomes wildly furious if it even senses someone looking at it. It chases anyone that meets its glare. Some researchers theorize that Primeape remains angry even when inside a Poké Ball.

Annihilape: When its anger rose beyond a critical point, this Pokémon gained power that is unfettered by the limits of its physical body. It imbues its fists with the power of the rage that it kept hidden in its heart. Opponents struck by these imbued fists will be shattered to their core.

That last bit is dark and we love it. The most telling Pokédex entry, however, is Primeape’s in Pokémon Sun, which reads: 'It has been known to become so angry that it dies as a result. Its face looks peaceful in death, however.'

Rest in peace, angry buddy.

Mankey evolves into Primeape with 50 Mankey Candy in Pokémon Go. Primeape, in turn, evolves into Annihilape with another 100 Mankey Candy, after you have defeated 30 Psychic or Ghost-type Pokémon.

However, during this event (and until 10pm local time on Community Day), you can instead evolve Primeape after catching just 20 Fighting-type Pokémon while Primeape is your buddy. This is significantly easier, since Mankey is a Fighting-type Pokémon.

November’s Community Day event runs between 2pm and 5pm (local time), so you'll have three hours to gather as much Mankey Candy as possible, to ensure you can fully evolve it!

If you're hurting for Candy, use Pinap Berries and Silver Pinap Berries to double the amount of candy you earn from catching, and make sure to have a Fighting-type Pokémon mega evolved - Mega Lucario, Mega Lopunny or Mega Blaziken will do fine. As always, there are plenty of options at this point so use whatever works for you!

Annihilape’s moves and best moveset recommendation

Both Primeape and Annihilape are pretty decent in Go Battle League, with both ranking highly in Great League and Ultra League, and Annihilape being top-tier in Master League, too. The best thing is that one of the recommended moves, Rage Fist, is today's featured Attack. Evolve your Mankey during the event (or up to five hours afterward) to get a Primeape or, if you've evolved Primeape itself, an Annihilape (respectively) that knows the Charged attack Rage Fist.

In Great League, you're looking for a 2/15/15 Mankey that will evolve into a 1499 CP Annihilape at Level 17. Running Counter, Rage Fist and Close Combat, we have a spammy and dynamic Pokémon that lays down tremendous Fast Move and Shield Pressure. Annihilape was previously an absolute demon in this league, but has fallen slightly down the rankings in the past few months.

You can look forward to beating the stuffing out of Shadow Drapion, Dunsparce, Gastrodon, Dewgong and (importantly) Clodsire. You will lose to Azumarill, Mandibuzz, Malamar, Shadow Feraligatr and Talonflame, however. Bear those match-ups in mind as you build your team.

In Ultra League, you’ll want a Level 28.5 Annihilape (2492 CP, 0/15/15) if you want to shine. Or tell your opponent to shine. Both work, unless you're the Prime Minister of Japan...

In terms of match-ups, you're looking at wins against Shadow Drapion, Lickilicky, Virizion, Guzzlord and Tentacruel. Losses will come from Clefable, Skeledirge, Talonflame, Giratina Altered and Cresselia.

What’s really exciting is that Annihilape is actually reasonable in Master League - it's a top-two Fighting-type and a top-five Ghost-Pokémon in today’s meta.

So what will a perfect 15/15/15 at Level 50 get you for your investment? A 3695 CP Shadow Annihilape beats Melmetal into the ground, for a start, along with convincing wins against Dusk Mane Necrozma, Dialga, Yveltal and Rhyperior. It's not all gravy though - expect instant losses against Giratina Origin, Xerneas and Mewtwo, and slower losses against Dawn Wings Necrozma and Zygarde Complete.

If you want to see Annihilape’s full move set, here it is:

Annihilape Fast Moves

• Counter (Fighting)
• Low Kick (Fighting)

Annihilape Charged Moves

• Close Combat (Fighting)
• Night Slash (Dark)
• Ice Punch (Ice)
• Low Sweep (Fighting)
• Shadow Ball (Ghost)

Annihilape Legacy Charged Moves

• Rage Fist (Ghost)

The Max Out Season is here and includes a new global event, Wild Area. The Harvest Festival event has returned!You can now catch Dynamax Pokémon through Max Battles. First, however, you need to visit Power Spots to collect Max Particles and complete the To the Max! quest.Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

What do shiny Mankey, Primeape and Annihilape look like?

As with all Kantonian Pokémon, there is a shiny Mankey in Pokémon Go. In this case, shiny Mankey joined the game in March 2019 as part of the Battle Showdown 2019 event!

As you can see below, shiny Mankey falls to the curse of bad Gen 1 shinies. Like its brother in arms, Machop, the devs looked at it and clearly said 'Ok, but what about if we make it nauseating green?'

Shiny Primeape, is somehow worse. This time, all they did was lightly nudge the green saturation slider and call it a day. It’s like how an engineer will just add another camera to the back of an iPhone and pat themselves on the back.

So, what about the newfangled shiny Annihilape?

They simply upped the blue saturation slider from near zero to around 10%. Shiny Annihilape is a smoky indigo colour, which isn't bad - at least now your perfect shiny Primeape can evolve into something that doesn’t look totally awful too bad...

Thanks to Reddit users Reddit user Kelven91 and JEREMIE for the handy previews.

Remember, if you catch a shiny Mankey and want to evolve it into a shiny Primeape and then a shiny Annihilape during event hours, it will learn the exclusive move Rage Fist during both evolutions. If you want to do this, we recommend waiting until the end of the event before evolving your shiny Mankey. You never know, the next one you catch could be a perfect shiny Mankey!

Other Mankey Community Day bonuses

Community Days in Pokémon Go always come with a string (shot) of bonuses, and Mankey Community Day is no different.

Some of these bonuses are always the same - like increased spawns and increased shiny rates. However, there is a rotating set of other bonuses that come with Community Days, such as double or triple catch Candy, Stardust or XP.

A full list of Mankey Community Day bonuses can be found below:

• Increased spawns
• Increased shiny rate
• Double catch Candy
• Double chance to receive Candy XL from catching Pokémon (for trainers Level 31 and up). This stacks with your Mega Evolution bonus, so if you have an active Level 3 Mega Evolved Pokémon, you will have whatever 'double excellent chance' works out to be!
• Triple catch XP
• 3-hour Incense duration (not including Adventure Incense)
• 3-hour Lure duration (not including Golden Lures)
• Photobombs - Take a snapshot of your buddy to earn a surprise encounter with Mankey (and increase your Cameraman medal) up to five times during the event.
• Field Research - Spin Pokéstops to get event-exclusive tasks, similar to previous Community Day events. This is likely to be 'Catch 3 Mankey' for a couple of Great Balls or Ultra Balls, Stardust, or a Mankey encounter.
• Special Research - For $1.00 (or the equivalent pricing tier in your local currency), you can take part in the exclusive Mankey Special Research story.
• Stickers - Get event-themed stickers by spinning Pokéstops, opening Gifts and from the in-game shop.
• One additional Special Trade can be made for a maximum of two for the day (until 10pm local time).
• Trades made will require 50% less Stardust (until 10pm local time).
• Exclusive move - Evolve Mankey or Primeape during the event or up to five hours afterward to get a Primeape or Annihilape (respectively) that knows the exclusive attack Rage Fist (until 10pm local time).
• Primeape raids - After the three-hour Community Day event ends, Trainers will be able to take on four-star Raid Battles. Defeating Primeape will cause more Mankey to appear in a 300m radius around the Gym for 30 minutes. (Note: Remote Raid Passes cannot be used for these raids, and the Pokémon that spawn will have the increased shiny rate that they did during the three-hour Community Day window!)

Hope you enjoy Mankey’s Community Day, and good luck finding a perfect shiny!