How to unlock Gholdengo
There is no direct purchase for Gholdengo. It appears on the Paldea banner inside the 4★ pool. The 4★ band takes 6.5% of all pulls and holds 211 partners, so one specific Gholdengo works out to about 0.0308% per draw. The 70-pull pity counter only applies to 5★ results, so Gholdengo has no floor of its own and no targeted pull. A duplicate Gholdengo refunds 120 coins at the 4★ rate.
Gholdengo stats and rank
The sheet lists Gholdengo at 109 HP, 113 speed, ×1.43 attack, ×1.03 physical and ×1.43 special, with 95 defense and 91 special defense — 550 base-stat total. On the three-stat percentile this is 80.6 out of 100, which puts Gholdengo at rank 72 of 966 and in tier S. Relative standing explains more than the total here: its strongest slot is special multiplier (97th percentile) and its weakest is physical multiplier (30th percentile), so it is a specialist rather than an all-rounder.
Best moves in Gholdengo's pool
At move level 5 the pool is led by Body Slam at 75.6 damage per 0.71s (109.3 effective DPS, ×1.03 multiplier), then Metal Claw at 37.8 damage per 0.38s (103.8 effective DPS, ×1.03 multiplier), then Hyper Beam at 126.2 damage per 1.76s (102.5 effective DPS, ×1.43 multiplier). 10 of its 17 damaging moves scale with the physical multiplier and 7 with the special one, alongside 4 support moves. Its special multiplier is the higher of the two (×1.43 against ×1.03), so special moves convert better. The top option beats the second by 5.5 DPS, which decides slot one and leaves slot two as a judgement call.
Evolution cards for Gholdengo
Its starting move, Metal Claw, evolves into Iron Head once the move is at level 5 and you hold the Power card, which boosts attack for that run. Menu upgrades use a separate system and never stand in for Power. 17 of its 21 moves carry an evolution card, across 6 distinct cards (Vigor, Sprint, Power, Reflexes, Armor and Magnet). The strongest of them is Body Slam at 109.3 effective DPS, so that is the one worth holding a card for first.
Gholdengo compared to similar partners
The two closest stat lines in the roster are Glimmora (-2 HP, +1 speed, -0.01 attack, -25 total) and Armarouge (-1 HP, -3 speed, -0.04 attack, -25 total). Against Glimmora, Glimmora is 1 speed faster and Gholdengo hits harder by ×0.01, and the rank gap is 13 places. Read those deltas as swap costs, because a gain on one line is usually paid for on another, so neither side is a strict upgrade and the move pools have to break the tie.