Welcome to the latest One More Catch weekly newsletter, offering you a guide to the week ahead in Pokémon Go.
As the 'Spring Marathon' event - with its arrival of Flittle and Timed Research for marathon visor Pikachu - draws to a close, it's time for a quieter week. Thankfully, the 'Explore, Catch, Battle' research will keep us busy ahead of Super Mega Raids and a new debut at the weekend.
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.
Events in Pokémon Go this week (18th to 24th May)
All times are at your local time, unless otherwise stated.
What to focus on this week
Here's the biggest opportunities to look out for:
Highlight of the week...
The debut of Mega Falinks on Saturday between 2pm and 5pm local time in Super Mega Raids. As a (very cool) new Pokémon it automatically makes this event worth attending, but without the stats or the moveset to make it competitive, I'm sad to report Mega Falinks doesn't have the juice. Show up for the 'dex entry, basically, and save your Raid Passes for a something more relevant over the summer.
How do Super Mega Raids work again?
A PSA: Mega Falinks appears in Super Mega Raids, a raid type where at players have to collectively switch to a Mega Evolved Pokémon to break a shield at regular intervals.
- Make sure you have a Mega Evolved Pokémon in your battle party, but not in the number one slot, so you can switch to it when you need it during the shield phase. You want to avoid a situation where it's been knocked out ahead of time, basically.
- If your Mega has been knocked out, back out of the battle by pressing the button in the top corner (you won't leave the encounter entirely), revive them, then return so you can help out the next time shields appear.
- If possible, it's worth (politely) reminding your group of these mechanics when you meet so there's no frustration mid-battle. This is a lot hard when battling remotely, of course, so if you are having difficulty with randoms online, it might be worth heading to an in-person event for these encounter types.
Mid-week...
In the Wednesday raid rotation there's Tapu Bulu and Mega Altaria. Neither are pretty special in their respective dual typings I'm afraid, and while Tapu Bulu is a great Fairy-type attacker, it's no better than other Tapu legendaries, Gardevoir, Zacian or Enamorus, some of which you might already have in your collection. Ones to skip, basically.
Don't forget...
To complete walking, running or cycling the 42km needed to complete the 'Spring Marathon' event's Timed Research. This is the only way to get the new costumed Pikachu debut, but if you miss out, there's a very decent chance it'll come back next year.
- For the first time in for ever, I wish I was fit enough to run a marathon to unlock it in one go for a fun feature, if only to put Pokémon Go's distance tracking to the test.)
Matthew Reynolds
Elsewhere, 'Explore, Catch, Battle' returns on Tuesday as part of a non-event week. This will be the second stint, and though it's possible things might be tweaked - specifically the exact bonuses and challenges involved - use this as an opportunity to get a handy XP for your preferred way of playing.
As a Go Plus-heavy player I'll likely pick Explore again, though if you're taking part in the above raid-focused activities, then Battle is also a decent shout. Here's how it looks when it lands in your Timed Research tab come 10am:
What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?
- July's Go Fest: Global is getting some 'upgraded' community meetups in locations around the world. In the UK, that means a visit to Edinburgh for "exciting on-site fun and special giveaways". I almost certainly won't be there - I'll be at my desk firing off coverage all weekend - but it's interesting to see Niantic continue to expand its in-person offerings beyond tentpole global events.
- As the biggest weekend of the year, your local community will almost certainly be meeting up, so don't worry if you can't make one of these trips.
Pokémon GO
- Wednesday was a big day for Pokémon Champions, with its first new season since its launch just over a month ago. I put together some patch notes to explain what's changed but, to be honest, there's not much behind a new Battle Pass and a rank reset. (At least there's a new trilby to earn.)
- The wait for Season M-3, where there should be more substantial changes, begins.
Matthew Reynolds
- In wider series news, The Pokémon Company has released a behind-the-scenes video of the main theme to next year's Pokémon Winds and Waves being recorded.
- In other monster tamer game developments, the next Temtem game, Temtem: Pioneers, has successfully been funded through Kickstarter. If you missed out, you can still get back the project to get early bird rewards through Kickstarter's Late Pledge feature.
- And finally, it's been a week in UK politics, meaning the arrival of Politidex, a Pokémon-style mobile game where "players can build their own rag-tag team of cabinet members and backbenchers", is perfectly timed.
- The Guardian has an interview with its creator if you want to know more, but a heads up that the game has leaned heavily on AI in its creation, which has completely stifled my enthusiasm for checking out an otherwise neat concept.
Priya Bharadia
One More Catch notes
It's been another week where I've been doing more behind-the-scenes tinkering. More on that soon, but the TLDR is I'm aiming to bring a bunch of new and pending features to fruition in time for the site's three month anniversary, which has come around surprisingly quick.
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Hope you have a great week!
