 Latias, one of the Eon Duo dragons will be making her return to raid battles this weekend. Read the official announcement here: Challenge Latias in this Special Raid Weekend. The event time is as follows:
We assume (although it is not confirmed) that Palkia will still be in raids alongside Latias, like how Cresselia was still available during the Lugia and Ho-Oh weekend. We will confirm this and update as soon as the event drops on Friday. The real incentive for this event is, of course, a new shiny! Latias’ shiny variant is pretty amazing, so let’s take a look at her:  Beautiful and yellow with light green accents, very easy to spot!
Taking on this raid boss will not be easy, so consult our Latias raid guide for full details on how to take her on. She has plenty of viable counters, but in short, Latias is weak to bug, dragon, dark, ghost, fairy, and ice. It is a hard call to say if Latias will be duoable, but the signs point to no. At the very least, it is a medium hard/difficult trio, depending on the boss move set. Remember to always judge the number of players needed by their individual counters. Take advantage of the weekend, however much free time you have to raid, to gather up a group and go for the shiny. Latias may not be the strongest dragon-type out there, but that shiny makes it all worth it! As of right now, the current boxes are not the best deal for raid passes, so it will be best to hold off and see if a better box appears after the Valentine’s Day event ends on the 21st. If we do get a new box, we will have a better judgment at that time whether it would be more beneficial to buy the box, or to buy raid passes one by one for a better value. It has also been confirmed that Latios will be receiving his own special raid weekend at some point in the future, so you will have the chance to grab both Eon dragons, and possibly with luck, both of their shinies!
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This Saturday, 23rd February, research rewards will grant the long-awaited Clamperl for three hours only (10am to 1pm here in the UK). The clam-like Pokémon is one of the last left unreleased from Gen 3, skipped at the time because of its tricky evolution mechanic.
As with Feebas Day, you'll be catching Clamperl by completing research tasks, rather than by finding it in the wild. Unlike with Feebas Day, themed spawns will provide increased chances of catching water-type Pokémon like Krabby and Wailmer (both Shiny-possible) as well. Double Stardust for water-type catches will also be in effect. And by hunting down a new Pokémon to gain candy for its two evolutions, there will be less of the disappointment seen on Feebas Day when finding yet another non-shiny. There's no word on whether Clamperl itself will be Shiny, although Niantic has since clarified how it is handling Clamperl's evolution mechanic - and that the Pokémon will be available in the wild afterwards if you can't make the event. In the regular Pokémon games, Clamperl will evolve into either Huntail or Gorebyss depending on which one of two evolution items it is holding. In Pokémon Go, its evolution will simply be random (which saves on bag space for unwanted evolution items, but may require you trade if you get too many duplicates). Key to this event being a success, in my mind, is how straightforward the research tasks will be - and that's something we won't find out until the day. But with Clamperl needing plenty of candy for evolutions and Niantic openly saying it has listened to feedback from Feebas Day to revamp the concept, it seems likely things will be a lot more manageable this time around. Here's Pokémon Go community manager Liz George, responding to a fan on Twitter last night:
 Trainers, last night was quite eventful! The 0.135.0 update started rolling out and was quickly pulled back, but the cat was already out of the bag, as the handful of early birds got their hands on the update and uploaded the new loading screen. We strongly recommend that you don’t download the update using any unofficial channels, as Niantic has currently disabled the 0.135.0 version from logging in and accessing the game. Within the last hour, at least, 0.135.0 has been re-released and it seems to be working accordingly.
Without much ado, here’s the new loading screen coming in 0.135.0: The new loading screen features Smeargle (!!!), Mr.Mime and a few other smaller Pokemon in the background. We are not certain when or how Smeargle will be introduced, but we’re incredibly excited that Niantic is finally mentioning it! By the looks of it, the recent “splatter brush marks” on Pokemon GO’s social media were not accidental, and this wallpaper is the new part of the puzzle. But that’s not all that was found in 0.135.0… Team Change medallion? A new item was discovered in the network traffic and it’s apparently named “Team Change medallion”! The Team change medallion is purchasable once every 365 days and allows the user to switch team allegiance in Pokemon GO. Be aware that 365 days is according to the leak, and these numbers are always subject to change before they go live. Pokemon GO team change is one of the most requested features of all time, on par with “skip raid lobby timer” feature request. It’s still not clear when the item will be obtainable, but at least we know that the visual assets are in the game client. The team change medallion’s description states that it’s a store item, which means you will probably a fair amount of Poke Coins to change teams. A word of warning from the GO Hub team Players have reported that they are unable to login with the 0.135.0 game client. Niantic has disabled 0.135.0 logins and you are required to use 0.133.1 in order to play. This may be an inconvenience for those who went on with the update, but you should be able to downgrade easily via your platform’s app store. This is not the first time an unstable update was released, but it is the first time in recent memory that “higher-than-forced” version game clients were prevented from accessing the game’s servers. Keep your hype in check, but it looks like Niantic is trying hard to keep a secret. Let’s see what transpires out of all of this.  In the lovey-dovey spirit of Valentines, augmented reality monster catching game Pokémon Go is making pink coloured monsters appear more often.
Game maker Niantic says until Feb 22, 5am local time, pink coloured Pokémon like Clefairy, Hoppip and Luvdisc will pop up in the wild, while Chansey and Porygon will appear more frequently in Raid Battles. Certain pink Pokémon will hatch more frequently from 7km Eggs. The game encourages users to walk by making it a game mechanic, where users have to reach certain amount of walking to hatch rare Pokémon from eggs. A few more rewards include making Lure Modules – which make users more attractive to wild Pokémon – last six hours instead of 30 minutes, while all monsters caught will earn players double the candy. There will also be a Community Day event this weekend, featuring ice-type Pokémon Swinub which can learn the exclusive charge attack Ancient Power. Evolving Swinub to its ultimate version Mamoswine will require the special item Shinnoh Stones, so Niantic is making them easier to collect with up to five to be earned by having player-versus-player battles and an additional five by battling the Team Leaders. Catching Pokémon during the event on Sunday 11am-2pm Malaysian time will also net the bonus of triple the Stardust. In conjunction with the event, a new feature will also be rolled out: stat boosts. "Starting this Saturday during Swinub Community Day, certain Charge Attacks will have a chance to trigger stat boosts in Trainer Battles. "These stat boosts will persist on the affected Pokémon until they either faint or are switched out of battle," says Niantic, on its Pokemon Go blog. The first moves to receive this update include Ancient Power, Ominous Wind and Silver Wind, where the Pokémon using the attack stands a chance to raise its Attack and Defence temporarily. Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2019/02/15/pokemon-goes-pink-for-valentines/#9opymGWX8gEyIgp2.99  The Pokemon Go Valentine's event was confirmed in the Pokemon Go newsletter on February 7. Bonuses, date and time for the Valentine's day event have now been confirmed.
Pokemon Go Valentine's Event As previously stated, and unsurprisingly so, the 2019 Valentine's event features several pink Pokemon. These are Clefairy, Hoppip and Luvdisc as more regular spawns. Additionally, Chansey and Porygon will appear more frequently in raid battles. Usually special events don't differentiate between increased spawns and raid battles. As a result this is a feature we could see in future events. The Pokemon with increased spawns are from each of the first three generations of Pokemon, respectively. Meanwhile, Chansey and Porygon are both from the original Kanto region. Consequently, the Valentine's event won't introduce any new gen 4 Pokemon directly. The bulk of the event was previously leaked below. Bonuses The Valentine's event includes the following bonuses:
Date and Time The Pokemon Go Valentine's day event has already started. Officially, it started at February 13, 1pm PST. That's 9pm GMT and 4pm EST. The event will finish February 21, 1pm PST. Once again that will be 9pm GMT and 4pm EST. Therefore, the duration of the event is eight days. In comparison, the previous event, the Lunar New Year, lasted nine days. Concurrent Pokemon Go Events The increased schedule of events for Pokemon Go in 2019 means a lot of them are running concurrently. The Valentine's event will run alongside the shiny Meltan event and the upcoming February Community Day.  Mystery Box
Officially, the mystery box in Pokemon Go is a legendary artefact. Its actual purpose is to facilitate the capture of the newest Pokemon to the series, Meltan. After receiving the mystery box (we'll cover how to get it below) you will need to open it to activate it. This will result in Meltan appearing around you. The box will remain open for 30 minutes, in which time an average of 20 Meltan will appear. How To Get the Mystery Box In order to obtain the mystery box, you will need to link your Pokemon Go game to Nintendo Switch's Pokemon Let's Go. This is the latest mainline Pokemon Game to appear on Nintendo's traditional handheld consoles. Naturally, the requirement of needing to link up to Pokemon Let's Go encourages trainers to play Pokemon's other, current, flagship game. More specifically, you will receive the mystery box upon transferring a Pokemon from Go to Let's Go. Once received it is in your inventory forever! How To Use the Mystery Box When you first receive the box, using it is as simple as going into your items and opening it. The box will stay open for 30 minutes. However, once this time runs out, you won't be able to open it for another week. Furthermore, once the timer goes to zero, indicating you can open it again, you will need to transfer another Pokemon to Let's Go. The same process occurs every time you want to capture some Meltan. You should capture as many as you can if you want enough Meltan candy to evolve one into Melmetal. While it is usually a week you have to wait to have another go at catching Meltan, this time frame has been reduced for the current Pokemon Go special Meltan event. All the details regarding that event are discussed below. How To Use the Mystery Box When you first receive the box, using it is as simple as going into your items and opening it. The box will stay open for 30 minutes. However, once this time runs out, you won't be able to open it for another week. Furthermore, once the timer goes to zero, indicating you can open it again, you will need to transfer another Pokemon to Let's Go. The same process occurs every time you want to capture some Meltan. You should capture as many as you can if you want enough Meltan candy to evolve one into Melmetal. While it is usually a week you have to wait to have another go at catching Meltan, this time frame has been reduced for the current Pokemon Go special Meltan event. All the details regarding that event are discussed below. Meltan Meltan and Melmetal are respectively that 808th and 809th Pokemon in the entire series. Additionally, Meltan can be traded between Pokemon Go accounts can be sent to Let's Go to use within that game. Another thing to note is once the mystery box is activated you will be the only Pokemon Go player that the Meltan appear for.  Pokemon Go's next Community Day is quickly approaching. The event is scheduled to take place around the world this Saturday, February 16, and now developer Niantic has shared a few more details about it, including what special event-exclusive move players will be able to learn this time.
As previously revealed, the featured Pokemon for this month's Community Day will be Swinub, a Ground/Ice-type originally from Gold and Silver. If you manage to evolve it into its final form, Mamoswine, up to an hour after the event ends, the Pokemon will know the Rock-type attack Ancient Power. You don't need to catch a Swinub during the Community Day in order for it to learn Ancient Power, but it does need to evolve by the end of the event. While Swinub and its first evolution, Piloswine, were introduced in the series' second-generation games, Mamoswine wasn't added until the Gen 4 installments Diamond and Pearl. In those titles, Piloswine would only evolve into Mamoswine after learning Ancient Power; in Go, however, the Pokemon evolves with a new evolutionary item called the Sinnoh Stone, which can be earned through Trainer Battles. To make it easier to get a Mamoswine, Niantic is giving players a chance to earn up to five Sinnoh Stones by battling other trainers during the Community Day, as well as an additional five by battling the Team Leaders. As an added bonus, you'll also get triple the normal amount of Stardust for capturing Pokemon during the event. In addition to the upcoming Community Day, a special Meltan event is currently underway in Pokemon Go. Through March 4, players will have a chance of encountering Shiny Meltan each time they open the Mystery Box in Go. Moreover, the time you need to wait to open the Mystery Box has been reduced by three days, allowing you to find Meltan much more quickly than before.  A special Pokemon Go Valentine's Day event is coming soon. This has been confirmed in the most recent Pokemon Go newsletter. Leaks may have revealed the event's full details, however.
Valentine's 2019 Event - What's Confirmed? Details for the 2019 Pokemon Go Valentine's event remain sparse. Other than its existence, the Pokemon Go newsletter confirmed that the event will feature several various pink Pokemon. Pokemon Go events usually feature several bonuses. These range from XP boosts, increases lures, Stardust bonus, increased Pokemon spawns and more. While the bonuses for the Pokemon Go Valentine's Day Event 2019 have yet to be confirmed, a leak may have revealed what to expect. Pokemon Go Valentine's Leak Firstly, the event is slated to start February 13. This would make sense as the current Pokemon Go Lunar New Year event finishes on that day. The leak states the event will finish on February 21. The Valentine's 2019 event bonuses are supposedly the following:
The increased Pokemon spawns also coincide with the official announcement whereby they are all pink. In 2019 supposed leaks are plentiful. However, StardustPokmnGO has been proven right on multiple occasions before. With that said this doesn't mean it's correct. Official confirmation of what the event entails will no doubt be coming very soon. Valentine's Day Gen 4 In addition to the above details, it is entirely possible new gen 4 monsters will be released to Pokemon Go. Two Pokemon that would fit the criteria of being pink and loosely link in with Valentine's day are Mime Jr and Happiny. These Pokemon are the respective baby evolutions of Mr Mime and Chansey.  Palkia, the legendary WATER and DRAGON type Pokémon with the ability to distort space, has officially been released in Pokémon GO.
Although Palkias’ stats are truly legendary (pun intended), its movepool is not looking too hot for either PvE (gyms and raids) or PvP. Let’s see where it stands in the current metagame and how it can be effectively used. Palkia’s Best Moveset Palkia can learn Dragon Breath and Dragon Tail as fast moves, and Hydro Pump, Fire Blast and Draco Meteor as charge moves. Dragon Breath is an amazing fast move for PvP battles. In fact, it’s the best dragon type fast move for that purpose. However, it’s worse than Dragon Tail for raids and gym battles. If you want a raid attacker or a gym sweeper, Dragon Tail is your best bet, as it’s the best dragon type fast move in the game for raids and gym battles. Regarding its charge moves…
With that said, its best moveset for raids & gym battles is Dragon Tail and Draco Meteor. For PvP battles, go with Dragon Breath and Draco Meteor. If you want to invest in a second charge move, Hydro Pump is a better option and benefits from STAB. However, if you’re short on stardust and rare candy, there are better options to consider spending your resources on. Palkia as a Dragon Type You have probably seen Palkia in the Palkia raid counters infographic. Even though it might seem that Palkia performs extremely well as a dragon type by looking at those infographics, there are a couple of things you should know before jumping into conclusions. First of all, Palkia’s amazing typing only makes it vulnerable to DRAGON and FAIRY type moves. Unlike most of the other top-tier dragons, Palkia has no double weaknesses and takes neutral damage from ICE type moves. Furthermore, it resists STEEL type moves and double resists FIRE and WATER type moves. That’s the main reason why Palkia ranks really high as a counter to itself when the raid boss does NOT have Draco Meteor. If the Palkia raid boss has Draco Meteor, it performs more or less like Salamence, but significantly worse than Rayquaza. In fact, its Time To Win (TTW) is more or less 100 seconds higher than Rayquaza’s, and 60-70 seconds higher than Dragonite’s. Even Latios, Salamence and other non-dragon types such as Gyarados, Togekiss or Gardevoir perform better against Draco Meteor. Thus, Rayquaza still reigns supreme as the best dragon type Pokémon in the game (for gyms & raid battles), and Palkia can be used as a decent alternative, last-slot anchor or as a powerful dragon type attacker if it offers a better set of resistances against a particular raid boss when compared to the other dragons. Palkia’s performance as a water type attacker will not be discussed in-depth as Kyogre will always outperform it. Furthermore, Palkia is unable to learn any water type fast move in GO and there is not a single move in its movepool from the main series games that is a water type fast move in GO. Palkia in PvP Vs. Other Dragons Let’s keep this simple, Giratina is the dragon type king of PvP as of now. It has an excellent moveset for PvP and incredible bulk. Its TDO is off the charts, and Palkia can’t top that. However, it’s not a bad Pokémon either. This section recaps the outcome of several battle simulations obtained with the excellent PvP battle simulator in pvpoke.com. Palkia vs. DB/DC+AP Giratina Palkia cannot win against Giratina in equal conditions. In fact, if Giratina has at least one shield, Palkia will not be able to take it down. Draco Meteor takes forever to charge up, and Dragon Claw can easily burn the opponent’s shields. In a battle where no charge moves are fired off and both parties just use Dragon Breath, Giratina will win (not by much, but still win). Palkia vs. DT/OR+AP Rayquaza Rayquaza only wins against Palkia when Palkia does not have any shields remaining. Rayquaza’s Outrage will fire off before Palkia’s Draco Meteor, and that’s a huge advantage when Palkia is not able to shield up. In any other scenario, Palkia wins this matchup. Palkia vs. legacy DB/DC+OR Dragonite Legacy Dragon Breath Dragon Claw Dragonite is a beast in PvP too. In fact, this matchup is quite similar to the first one analyzed. If Dragonite has any shields remaining, it’s game over for Palkia, and even if Dragonite is not able to shield up, it might finish off Palkia right before it is able to fire off a Draco Meteor. Why is the outcome slightly different this time if compared to the Giratina analysis? Mainly because of Dragonite’s greater offensive power. Palkia vs. DB/DC+SB Latios This is a really tight matchup. In fact, the simulator results suggest that they tie in most scenarios. However, if Palkia does NOT have any shields left, Latios can easily take it down with Dragon Claw. Palkia vs. DB/OR+T Latias If they both have either 1 or 2 shields, they will probably tie. If no shields are used, Latias wins as it is able to fire off Outrage sooner than Palkia is able to fire off Draco Meteor. If Latias has one less shield but it is able to use it when Palkia uses Draco Meteor, they will also tie. Other scenarios (lead, late sweeper, etc.) The main problem with Palkia is that it generally needs to use one more shield than the opponent or to face a shieldless opponent in order to beat it. All of its charge moves have very large energy requirements and in PvP that can hinder your performance significantly. It has some interesting favorable matchups, but after analyzing its performance against the main threats in the master league, we can conclude that its release will not be a game changer as there are better options to do its job. Conclusion To sum up, Palkia is a strong Pokémon that can fill an empty slot in any dragon type attacking lineup if needed. The main problem is that it’s not as strong as it could be. Palkia has a lot of potential, as it has impressive stats and the ability to learn Outrage and its signature move, Spacial Rend. However, these moves were not included in Palkia’s current movepool, which hinders its performance significantly. It seems that (yet again) we’ll have to wait and see if they become available in the future as exclusive moves… Furthermore, its awesome typing makes it vulnerable to just dragon and fairy type moves, and unlike most of the other top-tier dragons, Palkia has no double weaknesses and also takes neutral damage from ice type moves. In fact, it can be used quite effectively as a great attacker in Palkia raids, especially if the raid boss does NOT have Draco Meteor as its charge move. Palkia is a great Pokémon. The main problem is not that it’s bad, but the fact that it could be way better with the right moves. Its attack stat is just 4 points below Rayquaza’s and it has a better set of resistances, but its current movepool holds it back from being a TOP-tier attacker in the game.  Last night something strange happened with raid bosses and the raid boss pool changed four times in a row, bringing a lot of confusion. Luckily it seems to have stabilized now and features mostly Pokemon that are useful as Palkia counters.
Here are our raiding recommendations for February:
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