Pokémon Go Legendary Pokémon had been hotly anticipated for some time, eventually arriving a full one year after the game released.

Fans of the classic games will remember them fondly - from the flying trio Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres to the elusive Mewtwo and Mew in Red, Blue and Yellow to Gen 2's Gold, Silver and Crystal, Legendary beasts Raikou, Entei, Suicune, and beyond.

These are amongst the game's rarest creatures, and can be caught from multiple sources - from Raids, the Legendary Lunch Hour event to Field Research rewards - depending on the month in question.

Giratina counters, other Legendary Pokémon currently available in Pokémon Go

Legendaries are primarily caught in Raid battles, and much challenging than standard encounters, so will require as many players as possible to take them down.

Living in major cities with gyms at popular landmarks will naturally attract players without organising before hand - just look out for the blue and white Egg, and get there for the countdown, and provided you are in a popular spot, other players should be there waiting for it to begin.

Otherwise, joining Facebook or Discord groups for your town or area is a popular way to organise groups. In battle, you essentially want to field powerful Pokémon with strong opposing Types.

You can also get Legendaries by completing a week's worth of Research quests. Like Legendaries in Raids, these rotate regularly, and focus on previously released Legendaries for those who missed them. Both types are listed below.

Pokémon Go Legendary Lunch Hour time and details

In March, a new event was trialled in Pokémon Go - the Legendary Lunch hour. For one hour, there were increased Legendary Raids to complete, allowing you to schedule some dedicated battling time in the diary.

The next time Legendary Lunch Hour returned in April, it was at the following times:

• The Legendary Lunch Hour date is Wednesday, April 10th.
• The Legendary Lunch Hour time 12pm to 1pm local time - meaning no matter where you are in the world, it'll be for one hour starting at midday.

All Gyms with no active raids or scheduled EX Raids will have an Egg appear at 11:50am, which will all hatch into Giratina, and be available for an hour.

How to catch Legendaries and how to unlock Legendary Raids in Pokémon Go
Ninatic finally unlocked Legendary Pokémon in Pokémon Go following Pokémon Go Fest. Summer 2017 saw Legendary birds Moltres, Articuno and Moltres come and go, with Legendary beasts Raikou, Entei, Suicune here for Autumn - and the start of a Gen 3 Legendary rollout over the winter, starting with Groudon.

Though they are similar to standard Raid Battles in many ways, there are several differences in both their appearance and capture:

• Legendaries are only be available via Legendary Raids, the highest difficulty of Raid Battle - although they're now beginning to reappear as Research Breakthrough Rewards for completing Field Research Quests, too.
• While regular Raids appear at random, Legendary Raids appear for set periods of time. For example, in Autumn 2017, the Legendary beasts Raikou, Entei and Suicune rotated between regions each month. Before that, Legendary Birds debuted for one week at a time over summer 2017. You can read the current active Legendaries later in the article.
• EX Raid Battles see certain elusive Legendaries, such as Mewtwo, require an EX Raid Pass invite before you can participate. To get an invite, you must beat a Raid Boss at that Gym before the EX Raid appears, as well as several other requirements discussed in our Raids article.
• Legendary Raid Pokémon have the highest CP of any Raid creature. For example, Articuno was at 37,603, Moltres at 41,953, Zapdos at 42,691, Lugia at 42,753 and MewTwo at a staggering 49,430.
• Once the battle is over, the Legendary still must be captured like any other Raid, though the capture rate is lower.
• Once you have captured the Legendary, you cannot use it to defend Gyms - but they can of course attack with them in subsequent Raids.
• The Buddy Distance for Legendaries is 20km per one Candy - so we'd recommend using Rare Candy rewards from Raid battles as a way to easily power them up.

How to capture Legendary Pokémon

Like other Raid encounters, once a Legendary's defeated you have to then catch it. This is difficult seeing as, according to research available from Pokémon Go community The Silph Road, your chances are pretty slim.

• The base catch rate for Legendary Pokémon, aside from Mewtwo, is currently 3% - meaning with no modifiers of any kind, throwing the ball straight, not using any berries and not even getting a "Nice" throw, you have a 1 in 33 chance of catching the Pokémon - not great odds.
• There are several ways of increasing your chances - Golden Razz Berries and Curveballs (when you spin the PokéBall before releasing your throw) drastically increase your chances, whilst Nice, Great, and Excellent throws increase those chances further respectively, and there's also a small bonus for having a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medal (see more in our guide to Pokémon Go Catch Bonuses).
• A Golden Razz Berry, Curveball, and Excellent throw, with a Gold medal for that Legendary's Type, give you a 24% chance of catching the Legendary - meaning one in roughly four throws like this will catch it, which is much better considering the roughly 5-13 balls that will be available!
• Mewtwo's base catch rate is currently a 6% chance - meaning it's considerably easier to catch than the other legendaries, and actually easier than some Tier 4 Raid bosses, too!

With the above in mind, what can you do to increase your chances of catching Legendary Pokémon? It's recommended you:

• Attempt Curved and Nice, Great or Excellent throws (landing the ball in the centre of the circle - the smaller the better)
• Using a Golden Razz Berry between every catch attempt
• Level up as many relevant Catch Bonus medals as possible to Gold by catching wild creatures of the same Type
• As well as increasing the chances of individual throws, you want to have as many attempts as possible by earning more Premier Balls for the catch phase. One way is to target a Gym controlled by your team (which can be somewhat out of your control), and another is dealing a high amount of damage. It's worth noting your contribution is wiped out when your team faints, so you want to keep them alive for the entire fight, and one way of doing that is bring high defense tank creatures (Snorlax and Blissey) so you can absorb a lot of damage.
• Finally, you want to land as many Premier Balls you can. Legendaries and other high level Raid creatures attack very regularly, and since they are immune during these attacks, you can waste a lot of opportunities simply trying to land a single ball. While these attacks are random, there is a way to avoid them; by observing these attacks, and throwing the ball before the animation ends, the ball will land in the vulnerable window between attacks.

​The history of Legendaries in Pokémon Go

Before we even heard their presence was confirmed in the big Gym rework, we already knew the various Legendaries were in the game.

Their absence in the game led to plenty of speculation, particularly with one of the strongest and most famous Legendary Pokémon - Mewtwo - being the focus of one of the game's first trailers, showing crowds of people teaming up to fight it, whittling down its health as a timer ticks down before capturing the Pokémon in a packed Times Square, suggesting that Mewtwo and other Legendaries could be unlocked through public events rather than random encounters.

That's since been confirmed of course - but it's interesting Mewtwo pops up again at the end of the trailer... maybe that's the Legendary Raid that needs to be tackled in Chicago?

As for Gen 2's Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-oh and Celebi, they've appeared in datamining efforts, too, with their stats showing up alongside the likes of the birds, Mew and Mewtwo.

These stats reveal them to be among the best Pokémon in our Pokémon Go tier list, with Mewtwo and Ho-Oh having some of the highest base attacks in the game, more so than existing creatures Alakazam and Dragonite.

The datamine also revealed that these creatures have no capture rate at all, so perhaps that lends itself to the theory that Legendaries will automatically be caught after defeating them in a Legendary Raid?

We knew for some time that Legendaries were coming, but what's the story, and how did we get to this point?

When did we think Legendaries were coming? The Legendary teases:

In an interview with Wired Germany (via Den of Geek, Niantic CEO John Hanke said "with certainty that we will see [legendaries] more this year" - so that at least narrowed it down to 2017!

That seemed to have been corroborated by the latest trickle of information, where Niantic suggested that "Legendary Pokémon and battles between players" were set to arrive some time this summer.

Whether this was going to happen at the same time as the implementation of the new Raids feature or a little while after was unknown, although things certainly did at least appear to be tying together quite nicely at that point.

The first Legendary Pokémon spotted in Pokémon Go - but how did it appear?

Back in early August of 2016, before any of this official news was even close to being announced, a player topped a Gym in Ohio with an Articuno, which is said to be the first Legendary appearance in the game. Multiple players verified the sighting, but how the player got the creature is in question. Amazingly, the owner claimed she received the Pokémon as part of an apology from developer Niantic after contacting them via email about an issue.

Other possibilities could be an exploit that has edited the creature's data to appear in the game, an error that has seen one spawn accidentally, or a glitch turn another Pokemon into the famed Legendary, similar to a case reported by a user who had their wild Caterpie transform into a Charizard once in their possession.

What else we know about Legendary Pokémon in Pokémon Go

Finally, it's also worth pointing out - for history's sake, at the very least - that all this time there's been a hunt of Legendary Pokémon in plain sight, with users who have progressed to level 5 and interacted with a gym find themselves invited to one of three teams - Team Instinct, Team Mystic, or Team Valor - which are shown to be tied to Zapdos, Articuno and Moltres respectively. Could participating in teams play a part in how you unlock these particular Pokémon? It could still be the case that those Legendary Birds are tied to special Team-specific Raids at some point down the line.

The addition of Pokémon Go's Buddy system also paves the way for players to earn Candy and power up rare creatures without the need to catch any more - perfect for ultra rare Pokémon such as Legendaries. Meanwhile, the eventual arrival of Ditto - which was just as elusive as the Legendaries for sometime - is at least a sign that Niantic have been slowly working their way towards introducing all of the game's missing Pokémon.

In the meantime, an upcoming update will introduce Pokémon trading to help flesh out the gaps in your Pokédex, and our Pokémon Go guide, tips and tricks page to pick up a few pointers you might not know.​

If you didn't get to catch a Shiny Meltan when it first appeared in Pokemon Go back in February, you'll soon have another chance to add the special Pokemon to your collection. Niantic is holding an encore Meltan event beginning today, April 24, which means players around the world will have another opportunity to capture the Shiny form of the Mythical Hex Nut Pokemon. But you'll need to act quickly, as the event will only be around for a limited time.

Unlike other Pokemon, Meltan will only appear in Pokemon Go if you've opened the Mystery Box, an item you get in the mobile game after you've transferred a Gen 1 Pokemon to Let's Go Pikachu or Eevee on Nintendo Switch. Typically, the Mystery Box will close after 30 minutes, and you'll need to wait seven days before opening it again; during the Meltan event, however, you'll be able to re-open it after three days, allowing you to find Meltan much quicker than usual.

You'll also have a chance of encountering a Shiny Meltan each time you open the Mystery Box. You can tell the Shiny variant apart by its darker head and blue tail. If you manage to catch a Shiny Meltan and evolve it into Melmetal, it'll retain its Shiny coloration. However, you'll only be able to find Shiny Meltan until May 5, so you'll want to act fast if you're hoping to get one. You can read more on how to catch the Mythical Pokemon in our guide.

Meltan isn't the only Shiny Pokemon appearing in Pokemon Go soon. To celebrate the inaugural Safari Zone event in Singapore, the rare Gen 2 Pokemon Shuckle will be appearing around the world from April 20-21. During that time, players will also have their first chance to find Shiny Shuckle. Shiny Latios is also available as part of a special Raid event, which is set to end on April 22.

Not long after the Meltan event ends, Niantic will be holding Pokemon Go's next Community Day. That event is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 19, and this time around the featured Pokemon will be Torchic, one of the three starters from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. You'll also be able to earn triple the usual amount of Stardust for every Pokemon you catch during May's Community Day.

There are only a few hours remaining in Pokemon Go's Eggstravaganza event, which means time is running out to catch a Shiny Buneary. The event is scheduled to end at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET today, April 23, making this your last opportunity to find the Shiny Pokemon in the wild and hatch more baby Pokemon from Eggs. However, Buneary isn't the only Shiny appearing this week; Shiny Meltan is also set to return for a limited time beginning April 24. The original story follows.

A new in-game event is underway in Pokemon Go. With Easter just around the corner, Niantic has brought back the game's annual Eggstravaganza for another year until April 23, giving players around the world a chance to hatch more baby Pokemon, complete Egg-themed Field Research, and even catch an adorable new Shiny.

Throughout the Eggstravaganza, you'll be able to hatch Pichu, Smoochum, Magby, and other baby Pokemon from 2 km Eggs. You'll also receive twice the normal amount of Candy for every Egg you hatch, allowing you to power up your Pokemon more quickly. On top of that, Incubators will be two times as effective during the event, and Lucky Eggs will last twice as long as normal.

​In addition to those bonuses, you'll be able to get special Field Research tasks revolving around Eggs from Poke Stops. The bunny Pokemon Buneary will also appear in the wild more frequently throughout the Eggstravaganza, and you'll have your first chance to come across its Shiny form. You can read more on the Pokemon Go website.

The Eggstravaganza isn't the only event occurring in Pokemon Go this week. The Legendary Pokemon Latios has also returned to the mobile game for a special Raid event. The Dragon/Psychic-type will appear as a Raid boss until April 22, and you'll even be able to find its Shiny form. You also still have a few more days to catch Origin Forme Giratina, which is set to leave Raid Battles on April 29.

Niantic has plenty of other events lined up for Pokemon Go this year. The developer is holding three Pokemon Go Fests in Chicago, Germany, and Asia this summer. In the meantime, the game's next Community Day event is scheduled for May 19, although no other details for it have been announced just yet.

​If you missed your first chance to catch Shiny Meltan, players will be able to catch the shiny form for a limited time starting April 24 - May 5. Meltan will only appear in Pokemon Go if you have opened the Mystery Box, an item that you get after transferring Gen 1 Pokemon to Let's Go Eevee or Pikachu. With this event, you'll be able to re-open the Mystery Box after three days instead of the usual seven, allowing for more chances to catch Meltan.

Hello Trainers, today’s post is about a Pokémon with no less than 18 current formes. One for each Pokémon type, Arceus. Only the elusive Unown has more than this, topping the charts at 26. This is not including shiny versions of course.

What makes this Pokémon different, however, is that it is a Mythical, and therefore only likely to be released via a Story or an EX Raid. With 18 formes available we have to ask several questions as to how we would obtain each one.

We know that the Pokédex has been overhauled to give us the breakdown of all these different versions, so they should be on the horizon.

Background and Lore
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Why does Arceus have so many formes? These formes are based around a mechanic introduced in the main series. Each Pokémon type has a corresponding “Plate,” when held by a Pokémon, boosts a damaging move of that type by 10%… or when held by Arceus will turn it from its default NORMAL to the corresponding Type… and as a nice side effect becomes immune to that type’s damaging moves. In Generation 7 each Plate was replaced by a Z-Crystal to give the same effect.

Example : Arceus + Grass Plate = GRASS-type Arceus, Immune to all GRASS attacks.

What is Arceus and why does it have this unique setup?

Well, Arceus is thought to have created the Sinnoh region and possibly the entire Pokémon world, the lake guardians Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit; and the creation trio Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.

If you follow the lore beyond what’s learned in Generation 4, Arceus is also the origin of Mew, Humans, and everything between.

Arceus in EX Raids?

Arceus has 18 formes, all color variations on a theme. If Niantic were to follow the method of release like that of Deoxys, to change formes periodically, that would be 17 changes after the initial introduction. If we take two known time-frames, we can extrapolate how long each Arceus forme would be active… in theory.

EX Waves are generally released every 7-8 days
EX Raids change every year
52 ÷ 18 = 2.8 and a bit
3 x 18 formes = 54 weeks

As Deoxys started in October 2018, we would end up with a cycle that would look something like the below.

We could then trade for any versions we happen to be missing. Although, this does give us a much smaller window to obtain one of each compared to Deoxys. This writer, for example, only has 3x Deoxys at the time of writing.

A 4-week phase, as an example, would be 72 weeks of Arceus… I think that might be a bit much.

An Arceus Story?

As Arceus is a Mythical Pokémon, it seems logical that a story mode would be introduced for us to obtain it. With the number of formes, it presents, there are a few questions as to how to gather all of them.

Would the Arceus from the story mode be released with just a single forme or with a random forme as its final reward?

If the reward was random would we be able to trade it for our missing formes? As I am sure many of you realize, Mew and Celebi cannot be traded.

If the reward was singular would other versions be released over time via research, other stories, or raids?

Item(s) to Change Arceus’ Forme?

As we have detailed, to change in the main series you would use a special item to change Arceus’ forme. Could a consumable become available to change Arceus from one version to another? If introduced via a story mode, the parts leading to the encounter could reward such items. 

The downside of this would be item bloat for our bags and how to obtain more after the original story. Perhaps a single item to change to a random forme, rather than 18 different ones.

Another possibility would be to spend candy on changing its forme randomly. Instead of the Evolution Button, we have a Forme Button. Rare Candy could then be converted to Arceus Candy and used to fuel the change.

Arceus in Standard Raids?

Assuming that story mode is off the table, or only viable for the first capture, could Arceus be added to the regular raiding distribution?

Could NORMAL Arceus be added via story, but the other 17 be added to Tier 5 eggs as a month-long event? Would this lead to Arceus overload?

If released via Tier 5 Eggs then Weather could determine which options are available to you… this would mean it was always Weather Boosted, which seems suitable given its role as the creator of the Pokémon Universe.

As a more “out there” option, could Arceus be added as a Rare hatch from Tier 5 Eggs as a persistent, ongoing entry?

For a suggested example, let us say a Regigigas event is live and featuring in Tier 5 Eggs, a small percentage of those eggs could be Arceus… let’s say 5-10% with a random forme. This would only be introduced after a suitable period after the Story mode had been completed.

An even more “out there” option would be to add a new egg type; I’ll call it a Tier 6 Raid. Always in the game, always able to spawn, hatches Arceus…. maybe also a way to re-introduce Mewtwo and Deoxys to the game once retired from EX Pass.

Arceus as Breakthrough Rewards?

Could formes be added as a Breakthrough? It’s possible but would be a lackluster addition. Perhaps the previously mentioned consumable could be a Breakthrough Reward.

Let’s Wrap this Up
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We have many options, but with so many versions it’s hard to nail it down to just one. Of course, it is entirely possible that different formes will be given various methods to obtain if a consumable was not available. Weather, Time of Day, Season, Geo-location could all be used to trigger a change in its encountered forme.

I look forward to reading your comments on this and see if anyone has come up with an alternative suggestion on how Arceus will bless us with its presence.

Pokemon Go's April Community Day may have only recently ended, but Niantic is already looking ahead to next month's event. The developer has now shared the first details for May's Community Day, which is scheduled to take place around the globe on Sunday, May 19.

As usual, next month's Community Day will run for three hours, from 3-6 PM local time. During that window, players will be able to earn triple the usual amount of Stardust for every Pokemon they catch, and any Lure Modules that are used will remain active for three hours.

The featured Pokemon this time around will be another Gen 3 starter: Torchic. Throughout the Community Day, the Fire-type Pokemon will spawn in the wild more frequently than it normally does, making it much easier to add some to your collection. Going by previous Community Days, you'll likely also have your first chance to capture a Shiny Torchic.

​Finally, if you manage to fully evolve a Torchic into Blaziken up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it'll learn a special, as-yet-unannounced event-exclusive move. Niantic typically reveals what the special move is the week of the event. You can find more details about next month's Community Day on the official Pokemon website.

In the meantime, there are a few other big events going on now in Pokemon Go. First, the Legendary Eon Pokemon Latios returned for a special week-long Raid that's scheduled to end on April 22. Niantic is also holding the annual Eggstravaganza event until April 23, which gives you more chances to hatch baby Pokemon and even capture a Shiny Buneary.

Niantic has kicked off a new in-game event in Pokemon Go. The annual Eggstravaganza returns for another year from April 16-23, giving players everywhere a chance to hatch more baby Pokemon, complete Egg-themed Field Research, and even catch a new Shiny.

Throughout the Eggstravaganza, you'll be able to hatch Pichu, Smoochum, Magby, and other baby Pokemon from 2 km Eggs. You'll also receive twice the normal amount of Candy for every Egg you hatch, allowing you to power up your Pokemon more quickly. On top of that, Incubators will be two times as effective during the event, and Lucky Eggs will last twice as long as normal.

​In addition to those bonuses, you'll be able to get special Field Research tasks revolving around Eggs from Poke Stops. The bunny Pokemon Buneary will also appear in the wild more frequently throughout the Eggstravaganza, and you'll have your first chance to come across its Shiny form. You can read more on the Pokemon Go website.

The Eggstravaganza isn't the only event occurring in Pokemon Go this week. The Legendary Pokemon Latios has also returned to the mobile game for a special Raid event. The Dragon/Psychic-type will appear as a Raid boss until April 22, and you'll even be able to find its Shiny form. You also still have a few more days to catch Origin Forme Giratina, which is set to leave Raid Battles on April 29.

Niantic has plenty of other events lined up for Pokemon Go this year. The developer is holding three Pokemon Go Fests in Chicago, Germany, and Asia this summer. In the meantime, the game's next Community Day event is scheduled for May 19, although no other details for it have been announced just yet.

Pokémon Go Lucky Pokémon is another type of Pokémon to look out for - joining Shinies and Forms such as Alolan Pokémon.

While the aforementioned types only fill out your Pokédex, Lucky Pokémon status also provides a direct benefit - allowing that creature up at a much cheaper cost than regular Pokémon.

Meanwhile, there is the addition of Lucky Friends, which acts as another way for you to send and receive Lucky Pokémon.

How to get Lucky Friends in Pokémon Go

Lucky Friends is a special friendship status that guarantees you a Lucky Pokémon.

Becoming Lucky Friends in Pokémon Go works as follows:

• There is a chance of being Lucky Friends when you are Best Friends with someone.
• When you are Lucky Friends with someone, the next trade you make will result in both becoming Lucky Pokémon.
• You have attempt per day at becoming Lucky Friends by performing one of the following actions - opening a gift, teaming up in Raids or Gym battles, or engaging in a Trainer Battle (essentially, anything that would usually result in leveling up your Friendship).
• If successful, the game will notify that you are Lucky Friends, and it will say as such in your Friends listing.
• Once the trade is completed, you will return to being 'regular' Best Friends again.

Other things to know about Lucky Friends includes:

• You can become Lucky Friends with a Best Friend more than once, though not more than once per day.
• The chances of becoming Lucky Friends, at least in the early stages, appear to be around 5% according to reddit.
• The Lucky Friends status seems to last for as long as you next trade - so feel free to continue sending and receiving Gifts or engaging in Trainer Battles until you next meet up and can trade. It does not expire that day.
• It is possible to have more than one Lucky Friend active at once. (Thanks blackpudding2000 on reddit for confirming).
• At the feature's launch, there was an issue where some Lucky Friend trades don't result in Lucky Pokémon - this has now been fixed.

What are Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon Go?

Lucky Pokémon is a special status, separate to Forms or Shinies, that Pokémon can have attached to them.

If a Pokémon is Lucky, then the Stardust required to power it up is reduced by 50%. The feature is particularly welcome as Stardust is one of the more scarce resources in the game, especially at high level play, allowing creatures to reach maximum CP at a lower cost.

Additionally, the number of Lucky Pokémon you have caught will appear in the Pokédex (alongside 'seen' and 'caught') as well as the Pokémon stats screen, with a unique background.

How to get Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon Go
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Lucky Pokémon come from the game's trading feature. When you trade, there's a chance both creatures will have the Lucky status afterwards.

The success rate isn't yet known, but the longer the Pokémon has been in storage - in other words, the longer you've owned the Pokémon - the higher the chances of it becoming Lucky by the end of it.

So if the Pokémon are from when the game launched in 2016, your chances of them being Lucky will be much higher than if they were caught this year. (It can actually be a 100% chance - read the following section to see how.)

If they are caught at different periods, it's suspected the game will take the average age of both creatures in the trade as the calculation, as either both will or won't be Lucky together.

That's not to say a freshly caught Pokémon can't be Lucky - members of the community have been successful with trading recent catches. But the older it is the better, and since you can only trade one of a specific Pokémon, you want those chances to be as high as possible.

How to get guaranteed Lucky Pokémon in Pokémon Go

In September 2018, developer Niantic made some changes to increase your chances of receiving Lucky Pokémon.

If you have discovered less than 10 Lucky Pokémon, then a Pokémon in your inventory caught in July or August 2016 (in order words, when the game first launched) will 100% become Lucky after a trade.

To clarify, if either trainer has had less than 10, then both creatures in the trade will be Lucky. So in theory, even if you have more than 10, if you can find others with less than 10, you can keep getting guaranteed Lucky Pokémon. Thanks to the Silph Road reddit for clarifying this!

It should also be noted as part of this change, all Lucky Pokémon stats have became now stronger. They were previously started from around the 10/10/10 mark, and it's now increased to 12/12/12 (the highest you can get is 15/15/15).

Otherwise, the other method is being Lucky Friends with the player you are trading with.

What else you need to know about Lucky Pokémon

There are a few other small details to know about Lucky Pokémon:
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• Lucky Pokémon have high IVs, starting from 12/12/12 for HP, Defence and Attack. This means you can turn a rubbish Pokémon into a more competitive one!
• There doesn't appear to be a cap on how many Lucky Pokémon you can get in one day. Originally there was thought to be, but reports from the Silph Road suggest either a cap was lifted or it was incorrect information.
• Searching 'Lucky' in your Pokémon collection will reveal your Lucky creatures at a glance
• Pokémon can be both Shiny and Lucky

As the world of Pokémon is expanding, so is the Pokémon GO Community. With over 3 million daily active players globally, it has the most significant player base out of all AR games. Countless new friendships and beautiful moments have been created along the way. The Community is a big player here, and it’s impact and power is undeniable. Therefore, having a healthy Pokémon GO Community is very important to create a fun environment and experience for everyone. Unfortunately, there are still some troubles that stand in the way. This in-depth article is meant to face existing problems, and how to possibly solve them.

Creating A Healthy Pokémon GO Community

First of all, let’s talk about the importance of having a (local) Pokémon GO community. One of the core aspects of the game is social interaction, which means meeting new people and creating new friendships.

When playing solo worked out pretty well in the past, it’s not the ideal style of gameplay nowadays. With the introduction of Raids, and more recently Friendship, Trading, and Trainer Battles, Niantic started focusing a lot more on social gameplay. Being part of a Community is a big help in all of this. Most Communities have a local group chat (Discord, Whatsapp, Telegram, Messenger, …) which brings numerous benefits. From posting and planning Raids to sharing a high-IV spawn, and maybe the most important thing, creating new friendships. All of this is possible through a Community. Unfortunately, as stated above, not everything about a Pokémon GO Community is sunshine and rainbows.

Helping New Trainers

Every day, new Trainers start their journey to become the very best. But as new features come out, it becomes harder and harder for some to keep up with it. We try to offer as many guides to help everyone along the way, but there are several ways you can offer help yourself. Creating a healthy Community based on friendship and fun makes playing Pokémon GO a lot more enjoyable.

One of the troubles new Trainers run into, is not being accepted in an already existing local community. Many communities have existed for a while now, which in some cases makes it difficult to fit in. However, it’s important to accept new members, as a growing community is beneficial for everyone involved.

A lot of people find it disturbing to have to ‘hold someone’s hand’ while playing the game. Please remember that we all started like this, and we all had to learn from each other! Therefore, we strongly suggest to embrace those new to the game, and help them where needed. Whether they’re children, adults, or someone of an age much wiser than your own, everyone deserves to be a part of this wonderful game, and it’s Community.

Dealing With Team Rivalry

It’s undeniable, Pokémon GO can be a pretty competitive game. In the end, we all strive to be the very best like no one ever was. Besides trying to have the best and most powerful collection of Pokémon, competition in Pokémon GO translates itself mostly in terms of Gym Battles. Taking Gyms from rival Teams is essential gameplay, as everyone wants that 8 hours and 20 minutes of Gym time to receive those precious 50 Pokécoins.

While Team Rivalry adds some spark to the game, it can (and in many cases will) cause a lot of problems. People often get angry and aggressive at each other because they got kicked out of a Gym. This is where respect comes in (we’ll dive deeper in on that later).

Having a sort of Team rivalry is good and is even necessary, but respecting each other is still more important when you’re trying to create a healthy Pokémon GO Community. An excellent way to prevent internal issues is by making fair agreements about your local Gyms. We already published an article on Gym Etiquette in the past, which may inspire you and give you tips!

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

You have to admit, the late and great Queen of Soul said it best but, Respect is probably the most fundamental aspect of the Pokémon GO Community. Every interaction you make is based on respect to each other and your surroundings. Creating a healthy Pokémon GO Community will only work when there’s mutual respect. When it comes to online respect, having moderators/administrators in your local groups is a must. Many problems can be solved by analyzing the situation and talking to each other.

Being friendly isn’t hard, and by doing so, you create a fun and healthy relationship. It’s ok to laugh with one another, but keep it polite. If someone has a question, answer it instead of hating on it. We are all different, and not everyone knows the same information of stays as up-to-date as others. Respect that and help each other out, it will be worth it.

Besides being respectful to fellow Trainers, you should also respect your environment. You’ll visit many places on your journey, and whether new or familiar, they all deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. With the upcoming/ongoing Earth Day Campaign, now is a great moment to show off some love for your surroundings!

Whether you are a passionate Pokémon lover, a casual player or just someone who likes to throw balls at virtual creatures, we all have our place in the Pokémon GO Community. To end with a cliché: Spread Love, Not Hate. Share your passion, create friendships, treat each other with respect and enjoy playing the game we all love.

Stay safe Trainers. May your catches be shiny, your hatches perfect and your trades Lucky. But most importantly: may your Community be healthy.​

Trainers, rejoice! Salamence’s CD Exclusive move is Outrage! As shared by Niantic, Salamence evolved during the April Community Day will know Outrage as a special move. Outrage was the one thing that Salamence lacked in order to perform shoulder to shoulder with Dragonite as the best non-legendary Dragon-type attacker.

Rayquaza is still the king of Dragon-types, but Salamence’s is such a sweet mix of higher DPS and a tad lower TDO compared to Dragonite that we think players won’t even care what’s on their team. Outrage is simply an amazing move set for raids, especially combined with a hard-hitting move like Dragon Tail.

One note tho… as you will see on our Salamence database page, technically Draco Meteor still has a higher DPS and TDO metric than Outrage. Although this is mathematically correct, Outrage is a better performer in raids simply because you can activate Outrage more times than Draco Meteor (on average).

More information about Bagon Community Day is available here: Bagon Community Day is Coming Apr. 13, 2019!

The Fly Controversy

Leading up to this announcement, there was a ton of discussion whether or not Salamence will learn Fly or Outrage as its CD exclusive move. Fly was the “canon and lore friendly” option, with Salamence’s Pokedex description going as far as saying:

By evolving into Salamence, this Pokémon finally realizes its long-held dream of growing wings. To express its joy, it flies and wheels all over the sky while spouting flames from its mouth.

We even warned our readers, not to over-hype Outrage in case Fly turns out to be the CD exclusive, but we’re happy to see it didn’t end up that way!