This week in Pokémon Go (17th to 23rd August): Debuts aplenty

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

For completionists, a busy week awaits. There's debuts of all kinds - unreleased Pokémon, a shiny, a Mega Evolution and Dynamax addition(s) - rolling out across multiple events throughout the week. There's a lot to keep track of, basically - which sounds like the perfect job for a weekly schedule newsletter.

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

Update (17th August): This article previously said Mega Starmie Raid Day started at 2pm, when it is the earlier time of 11am - apologies for the error.

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Events in Pokémon Go this week (17th to 23rd August)

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

Date	New events and updates	Regular events and raids
Monday 17th	Choose Your Path: Venom and Vines ends (8pm) • Final chance to make use of chosen bonus and complete challenges	Max Monday (Dynamax Magikarp debut)
Tuesday 18th	Ultra Unlock: Water Festival (10am until Monday, 24th August at 8pm) • Arrokuda, Barraskewda, and Cramorant debut • New Go Pass with 2x Catch Candy and ½ Egg Hatch Distance bonuses, Deluxe track features a Starmie backpack • New wild encounters, including increased Wiglett chance (in its biome) • Tatsugiri forms in raids • Catch bonuses increasing throughout the week, starting with 2x XP and 3x Stardust	Showcase Tuesday ~ Go Battle League refresh (9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST) • Great League • Scroll Cup: Great League Edition
Wednesday 19th	Wednesday raid refresh • Five-star: Lunala (shiny debut) • Mega Raids: Mega Swampert	Raid Hour (6pm to 7pm) • Five-star: Lunala
Thursday 20th	Water Festival bonuses change (10am) • Increases to 3x XP and 4x Stardust Catch bonus	Go Battle Thursday ~ Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) • Magikarp • 2x Catch XP
Friday 21st	N/A	Friendship Friday
Saturday 22nd	Ultra Unlock: Starmie Mega Raid Day (11am to 5pm) • Mega Starmie appearing in Super Mega Raids (new debut) • Timed Research with a Scizor encounter • £4.99 / $4.99 ticket with 14 Raid Passes, and increased Rare Candy XL chance + additional 5,000 XP / Stardust from Super Mega Raids ~ Water Festival bonuses change (10am) • Increases to 4x XP and 5x Stardust Catch bonus	N/A
Sunday 23rd	N/A	Scenic Sunday

What to know about this week

Here's what jumps out to me in the days ahead:

Many new debuts

There are a whopping six* debuts this week:

Dynamax Magikarp (Monday, during Max Monday)
Arrokuda, Barraskewda, and Cramorant (Tuesday, during the Ultra Unlock: Water Festival)
Shiny Lunala (during the Wednesday raid refresh)
Mega Starmie (during Saturday's Super Mega Raid Day)

* Seven, if you want to include Dynamax Gyarados

Arrokuda, evolution Barraskewda, and Cramorant are the big draw on Tuesday. None of these will appear in the wild, with Arrokuda featuring in Field Research, the 'Water Festival' Go Pass, and from Rainy Lure Modules.

Cramorant, meanwhile, will be found in Eggs, the 'Water Festival' Go Pass, and Go Battle League rewards. Cramorant has several forms where it's gulping down other Pokémon (including poor old Pikachu) which occur during battle, meaning there's just one variant to actually catch.

**Arrokuda and evolution Barraskewda, and Cramorant with its two other forms.** *Credit: One More Catch (via Scopely Explore / The Pokémon Company)*

In terms of getting everything else that's new, it's what you'd expect from their respective events. And remember, if you want an easier way to encounter Lunala en masse for the shiny, it'll appear during the Wednesday night raid hour.

Is Mega Starmie any good?

Legends: Z-A's best new Mega - a Starmie that sprouts a pair of legs - debuts in Pokémon Go on Saturday (11am to 5pm), but it's unfortunately not really up to snuff. It's in DialgaDex's B-tier list of Water-type attackers, and though it fares much better as a Psychic-type in the S-tier, that's a packed field, ranking 28th overall (or 11th if you discount other Megas such as Mega Mewtwo, and Shadows).

Mega Starmie in front of a polygonal shape and textured background. — **Mega Starmie.** *Credit: One More Catch (via Scopely Explore / The Pokémon Company)*

So it's decent, but nothing to worry about competitively. That said, I'll be wanting one ASAP so it can stomp around as my Buddy on the map screen.

Need Magikarp Candy?

Magikarp is the original Gen 1 Pokémon with a demanding evolution requirement (needing 400 Candy to evolve into Gyarados), and while long-time players will likely have plenty in the bank to evolve a new Dynamax version, new or lapsed players can take advantage of the Thursday Spotlight Hour where Magikarp will be the focus - alongside a 2x Catch XP bonus.

Tatsugiri is back

Tatsugiri, with its three regional forms, returns in raids for Tuesday's 'Water Festival' event. The locations are as follows, and though it's easily soloable, if you have friends in different continents, be sure to send them an invite so they can collect the set:

Curly Form (Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India)
Droopy Form (the Americas)
Stretchy Form (Asia-Pacific)

And no, it's not shiny - yet. My money would on a debut during the 2027 'Water Festival' event, but it could well be longer.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

Here's a roundup of stories from the week:

The biggest news was the '10th Anniversary Celebration' Timed Research that rewarded a Mewtwo with maxed out stats, a Master Ball, and a handful of Mega Mewtwo Energy - all for free.
- If you were wondering the reason behind this generous giveaway, it's making up for the guaranteed hundo Mewtwo given away to attendees at a 10th anniversary event in New York's Times Square last month, a move which caused complaints amongst the community.
- You have until Sunday, 6th September to claim the free Mewtwo, with the Timed Research taking just a few minutes to complete:

After being available to some players since June, we finally saw the official reveal of the Explorer Gadget on Thursday. It's still in a "phased rollout", but the announce did issue some useful clarifications to how it works - including a Trainer Level requirement (20), behaviour (it'll skip unregistered Pokémon and Mighty Pokémon), and how many catches and spins players receive per day (it matches your Trainer Level).
- I've been busy updating One More Catch's Explorer Gadget guide with how it works and how it's been rolled out so far. And, if you want a video explainer on why it's not working for you, this can hopefully help:

The Go Fest Mega Finale event at the end of the month has also been detailed. As assumed, Mega Chesnaught, Delphox and Greninja will all debut, and the likes of Mega Mewtwo and just about every Super Mega Raid to date will make a comeback. A good excuse to get various Mega Pokémon up to Mega Level 4 if you need it (which I certainly do):

Pokémon Home is getting a handful of big updates in the months ahead, including the ability to allow Pokémon caught with Safari Balls to be transferred to Pokémon Home from October.
- A catch, however, is those Pokémon will be housed inside Strange Balls once they arrive in Pokémon Home.
- Elsewhere, the Switch versions of FireRed and LeafGreen will add Pokémon Home support, while Pokémon Bank (Pokémon Home's predecessor on Nintendo 3DS) will end service from February, 2027 - giving you just a few months to transfer any Pokémon from the Game Boy Advance games onwards through to modern day generations.

In non-Pokémon news, Aniimo - the free-to-play monster catching and collecting game from Pawprint Studio that's coming to just about everything but Nintendo platforms - has a September release date. I quite enjoyed my time with it in the recent closed beta, so is one to watch:

One More Catch notes

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That's the end of this week's newsletter! As usual, we wrap with a reminder that you can subscribe to One More Catch for bonus articles, extra site functionality such as ad-free browsing, and as a way to show your support for the newsletter and site in general.

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