This week in Pokémon Go (16th to 22nd March): Just a Blip

Welcome to the latest One More Catch weekly newsletter, offering you a guide to the week ahead in Pokémon Go.

Just as the 'Pokémon Pokopia Celebration' draws to a close, an event familiar to seasoned players - 'Bug Out' - returns with a trio of new bug-type Pokémon and a shiny debut. Meanwhile, a replay of three Field Research-focused favourites feature at the weekend.

So here's a snapshot of everything coming in Pokémon Go in the coming days, the biggest opportunities available, and a roundup of Pokémon news you may have missed.

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This week in Pokémon Go (16th to 22nd March)

All times are at your local time, unless otherwise stated.

Monday 16th March

• 'Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event' ends - 8pm
  • This is the final day to track down costumed Ditto, the Pokopia Special Background on select Pokémon, and complete event-specific Collection Challenges and Timed Research
• Fast-Track Monday - midnight to midnight
  • Gathering points in monthly and event-specific Go Passes (such as from catching Pokémon, hatching Eggs, and completing Raids) are doubled
• Max Monday - 6am to 9pm
  • Additional Power Spots appear throughout the day, all of which refresh more regularly
  • Falinks is the highlighted Pokémon this week, though "different Dynamax Pokémon" will also appear today

Tuesday 17th March

• 'Bug Out' event starts - 10am to Monday, 23rd March at 8pm
  • Blipbug and evolutions Dotter and Orbeetle debut
    • Blipbug confirmed to be found in one-star raids, free reward in the 'Bug Out' Go Pass
  • Shiny Sizzlipede debuts
  • New Go Pass for £5 / $5: features encounters with "event-themed Pokémon" including Blipbug, and rewards XP, Lure Modules and other common items
    • Progression unlocks a 2x XP bonus on Nice Throws or better, and 2x catch Candy (increasing to 3x in the Deluxe track)
  • Pokémon attracted to Lure Modules will change as the event progresses. Changes take place at 10am local time (except on the 23rd, which ends at 8pm), and all have a chance to be shiny:
    • Tuesday 17th to Thursday 19th: Paras, Sizzlipede
    • Thursday 19th to Saturday 21st: Cutiefly, Sizzlipede
    • Saturday 21st to Monday 23rd: Combee, Sizzlipede
      • Paras, Cutiefly, and Combee from Lure Modules all have an increased chance to be shiny
  • Raid refresh
    • One-star: Blipbug
    • Three-star: Pinsir, Scizor, Kleavor (all three have a chance of being shiny)
  • New Field Research
  • New wild spawns, including Caterpie, Dwebble, Sizzlipede, Nymble, and an uncommon chance of finding Scyther

• Showcase Tuesday - 10am to 8pm
  • Showcases will feature "up to 20 different categories" today
• Go Battle League change - 9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST
  • Master League, Jungle Cup: Great League Edition

Wednesday 18th March

• 'Bug Out' event continues
• Raid refresh (the below will appear in raids until next Wednesday)
  • Five-star: Zamazenta (Hero of Many Battles)
  • Mega Raids: Mega Slowbro
  • Shadow Raids at weekends throughout March: Shadow Latias
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Zamazenta (Hero of Many Battles (can be shiny)

Thursday 19th March

• 'Bug Out' event continues (Lure Modules now attract Cutiefly, Sizzlipede)
• Go Battle Thursday - midnight to midnight
  • Up to 4x Stardust rewards when winning matches, with the number of sets you can play per day increasing from 5 to 10

Friday 20th March

• 'Bug Out' event continues
• Friendship Friday - midnight to midnight
  • Up to two Special Trades, increased chance of a Lucky Trade, up to 10% reduction in Stardust cost, and guaranteed 2 Candy XL per trade (all in-person trades only)

Saturday 21st March

• 'Bug Out' event continues (Lure Modules now attract Combee, Sizzlipede)
• 'Replay: Water Research Day' event - 2pm to 5pm
  • Field Research tasks will reward Lotad, Feebas, or Clamperl (all have an increased chance of being shiny)
  • £1.99 / $1.99 Timed Research with extra Lotad, Feebas, and Clamperl encounters from completing Field Research
  • Wild spawns include Magikarp, Chinchou, and Mareanie

Sunday 22nd March

• 'Bug Out' event continues
• Double-Time Sunday - midnight to midnight
  • Regular Incense and all Lure Modules durations are doubled (this does not include Daily Adventure Incense)

Opportunities this week

Here's the opportunities to be aware of when playing this week:

• The focus of the week is the 'Bug Out' event, and includes the debut of Blipbug, Dottler and Orbeetle. As they stand, they won't really impact the meta, so see them primarily as 'dex entries.
  • Orbeetle has a (cool UFO) Gigantamax which will come to Pokémon Go in time, though early signs suggest it won't be particularly useful there either.
  • Blipbug is primarily locked behind one-star raids, meaning you'll have your work cut out to evolve it to Orbeetle (which requires 125 Candy in total). There is a Blipbug encounter in the free Go Pass track, and while it's entirely possible there will be more in Field Research, but we won't know until the event rolls out. Either way, encounters are limited.
    • To help with your Blipbug Candy gains for this and other bug-type Pokémon, remember to have a relevant Mega Evolution active. Go for Mega Beedrill, Pinsir, Scizor, Heracross, or Primal Kyogre.

• If you want something more practical to chase, shiny Sizzlipede also debuts this week, and features in each of the rotating Lure Modules throughout the event.
• Saturday's 'Replay: Water Research Day' tasks you with completing Field Research for encounters with a small pool of Pokémon (Lotad, Feebas, and Clamperl) with increased shiny rates.
  • This is one of my favourite event formats, where walking from PokéStop to PokéStop and clearing Field Research as you go gives the afternoon a nice momentum.
  • Feebas and Clamperl are both on the uncommon side, so it's a good opportunity to catch their shiny versions if you missed their respective Research Days back in 2019. If you are playing, it's worth getting the £2 / $2 Timed Research for extra encounters, which also offer the same increased shiny rate.

• A reminder that Zacian is in raids until Wednesday, where it'll then swap over to Zamazenta. These are very powerful Legendaries when you have enough Crowned Energy to transform them, though you can only get that resource during certain events. But it's a good opportunity to try and get one with good stats now, as well as more Candy / XL Candy to help power it up when the time comes.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

Here's a catch-up on news from Pokémon Go and the wider world of Pokémon:

• A controversial change is the 'flattening' of shiny rates of certain Pokémon in the wild since the arrival of the 'Memories of Motion' season this month. The TLDR is all wild Pokémon now have shiny odds of 1/512, compared to the 'permaboost' of certain rarer creatures, which had a much more generous 1/64 shiny chance.
  • This reddit thread details the issue. As noted, it appears that the Lake Trio and Galarian Birds are unaffected, but otherwise anything that had a shiny boost in the wild is no more.
  • As for why this is happening, Niantic has refused to say beyond a 'we do not discuss shiny odds as a matter of policy' comment to IGN - and is a disappointing change for shiny hunters, especially as rare Egg or Raid-only Pokémon that temporarily show up in the wild during events will now have harder shinies to find.
• Like me, you're starting to see your first Forever Friends this past few weeks, and if you were wondering if becoming Forever Friends a second time will give you another 150,000 XP, Monoskimouse on The Silph Road confirms that's the case.
  • This means if you keep sending Gifts to friends once you become Best Friends, you'll get a 150k bump in XP every ~90 days, as well as the ability to Remote Trade once more. It's another reminder that the Friends feature is a quietly powerful way to level up, so make sure you send Gifts regularly to take advantage of it.
• Spotlight Hour is back... sorta. After the weekly event was removed as part of the Daily Discoveries shakeup, Spotlight Hours will reappear during next week's 'A Shockingly Good Time' event, with a different electric-type Pokémon highlighted between 6pm and 7pm from 31st March to 6th April.
  • I'm still disappointed Spotlight Hour Pokémon (and their bonuses) aren't a regular feature, and I don't know why Niantic didn't communicate they might appear in events going forward instead, but I'm glad they're back in some form.

• In other news, Niantic Spatial (the company spun out from Niantic during the Scopely sale) is using the years' worth of crowdsourced data from Pokémon Go and Ingress activity to help a robot startup make more precise deliveries in urban areas. "It turns out that getting Pikachu to realistically run around and getting Coco’s robot to safely and accurately move through the world is actually the same problem,” CEO John Hanke told MIT Technology Review.
  • If you were wondering why Pokémon Go has been pushing those 'scan a PokéStop' Field Research tasks all this time, this is almost certainly the reason.

• Finally, Pokémon Pokopia is not only one of the best-reviewed Pokémon games, it's now one of the best-selling spin-offs in the series, generating 2.2 million sales in just four days, according to VGC. Not bad for Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive.

One More Catch notes

One More Catch is now three weeks old! Here's a quick round-up of site updates since the last newsletter:

• At the tail end of last week, I published a piece for paying subscribers on how, amongst a period of increasing monetisation, a Go Plus device remains the single best purchase you can make in Pokémon Go. It went down well with the fine folks on reddit (700 upvotes!), and hopefully you'll enjoy reading it too:

A Go Plus remains Pokémon Go’s single best purchase

In a period of increasing monetisation, a Go Plus remains the best investment you can make in Pokémon Go.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

• Pokémon Pokopia is currently seeing its first ever event, 'More Spores for Hoppip'. It's running for only a limited time, but the good news is you can unlock pretty much everything in just an afternoon of play - hopefully a sign that these events are just as chill as everything else in the game. A full guide can be found here, and the big draw - adding Skiploom and Jumpluff to your Pokédex - can be seen in the following video:

• I teased some minor tweaks for the site in last week's newsletter, but due to some hurdles I won't bore you with (I'll likely save it for Behind the Catch later this month) they are on pause for now. I'm also working on a couple of researched pieces which will hopefully be rolling out in the coming weeks: expect those in your inboxes and on the site when they're ready.

Though the 10% off forever launch promotion is over (thanks to everyone who showed their early support!), you can still subscribe for just £4 a month to unlock exclusive pieces like the aforementioned Go Plus feature, the ability to comment, and much more:

That's it from me - I'm looking forward to catching one (1) Blipbug and calling it a day, and failing miserably at finding a shiny Sizzlipede. Such is my luck. Hope you have a great week!