This week in Pokémon Go (23rd Feb to 1st March): Kalos going on

Welcome to the first One More Catch weekly Pokémon Go newsletter - glad to have you on board!

It’s a very busy week with the arrival of 'Road to Kalos', a throwback event with spawns and encounters based on a different generation every day. All this leads to the global leg of Go Tour: Kalos at the weekend, where we'll see the global debut of Super Mega Raids.

Not only that, but Friday is Pokémon Day. There’s an announcement-packed Pokémon Presents stream at 2pm UK / 9am EST / 6am PST, and as it’s the franchise’s 30th anniversary, expect The Pokémon Company to go all out.

It's heavily expected to reveal new mainline games and the 10th generation of Pokémon. In anticipation, and to celebrate One More Catch’s launch, I asked some of the biggest Pokémon fans I know what they want to see.

Until then, here's a snapshot of everything coming in Pokémon Go, and how to get the most from it.

(P.S. The headline relies on Kalos being pronounced 'Kah-loss', so that it sounds like 'lots', as in 'there's lots going on', which there is this week. Anyway, onwards!)

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

Monday 23rd February

• 'Road to Kalos' event begins - starts at midnight
  • 'Road to Kalos' Go Pass releases at 10am, through event bonuses such as ½ Egg Hatch distance start at midnight (see our dedicated 'Road to Kalos' guide for a full breakdown)
  • Free Beedrill Mega Evolution tutorial
• The 'Road to Kalos' event Kanto Pokémon today include:
  • New wild spawns (starters Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and more)
  • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Red’s hat, Pikachu wearing Leaf’s hat
  • Five-star raids: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres
• Max Monday - 6pm to 7pm
  • Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle
  • Chansey is in heavy rotation in Max Battles otherwise
• Raid Hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres

Tuesday 24th February

• Spotlight Hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Totodile, 2x Catch Stardust)
• 'Road to Kalos' event continues (Johto, day two)
  • New wild spawns (starters Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, and more)
  • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Ethan’s hat, Pikachu wearing Lyra’s hat
  • Five-star raids: Shadow Lugia, Shadow Ho-Oh
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Shadow Lugia, Shadow Ho-Oh
• Go Battle League change - 9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST
  • Great League, Ultra League, and Master League: Mega Edition

Wednesday 25th February

• 'Road to Kalos' event continues (Hoenn, day three)
  • New wild spawns (starters Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, and more)
  • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Brendan’s hat, Pikachu wearing May’s bow
  • Five-star raids: Primal Kyogre, Primal Groudon
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Lunala, Primal Kyogre, Primal Groudon

Thursday 26th February

• 'Road to Kalos' event continues (Sinnoh, day four)
  • New wild spawns (starters Turtwig, Chimchar, Piplup, and more)
  • Raids work a little differently today, rotating between two sets of Pokémon:
    • Rotation one
      • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Lucas’s hat, Pikachu wearing Dawn’s hat
      • Five star raids: Dialga, Palkia
    • Rotation two
      • One-star: Pikachu wearing Rei’s cap, Pikachu wearing Akari’s kerchief
      • Five star: Origin Forme Dialga, Origin Forme Palkia
• Raid hour, with Pokémon swapping at the half hour mark - 6pm to 7pm
  • First half: Dialga, Palkia
  • Second half: Origin Forme Dialga, Origin Forme Palkia

Friday 27th February

• 'Road to Kalos' event continues (Unova, day five)
  • New wild spawns (starters Snivy, Tepig, and Oshawott, and more)
  • Raids rotate again today between two different sets of Pokémon:
    • Rotation one
      • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Hilbert’s hat, Pikachu wearing Hilda’s hat
      • Five-star raids: Reshiram, Black Kyurem
    • Rotation two
      • One-star: Pikachu wearing Nate’s visor, Pikachu wearing Rosa’s visor
      • Five-star: Zekrom, White Kyurem
• Raid hour, with Pokémon swapping at the half hour mark - 6pm to 7pm
  • First half: Reshiram, Black Kyurem
  • Second half: Zekrom, White Kyurem
• And don’t forget the Pokémon Presents stream at 2pm UK / 9am EST / 6am PST

Saturday 28th February

• ‘Go Tour: Kalos Global’ day one - 10am to 6pm
  • For paid ticket holders, this includes Special Research around Pokémon X and Y, Furfrou, and Shiny Diancie
• In raids:
  • One-star raids: Pikachu wearing Calem’s hat, Pikachu wearing Serena’s hat (new debuts), Honedge
  • Five-star raids: Xerneas, Yveltal
  • Mega Raids: Every Mega Evolution will reappear as part of an hourly schedule throughout the weekend
  • Super Mega Raids: Mega Victreebel, Mega Dragonite (new debuts)
  • Shadow Raids: Shadow Regigigas
• Shiny debuts: Honedge, Hawlucha, and Klefki
• “Increase chance” of shinies for all players: Costumed Pikachu, Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie in the wild, Honedge in raids, and across the board in 2km and 10km eggs
  • Paid Go Tour: Kalos ticket holders also get an “increased chance” of shinies across the board
• Snapshots: Latias “may appear” today

Sunday 1st March

• ‘Go Tour: Kalos Global’ day two - 10am to 6pm
  • Super Mega Raids: Mega Malamar (new debut), Mega Dragonite
  • Barring any surprises, it’s set to be otherwise the same as the above, except the Mega Raids schedule
• Snapshots: Latios “may appear” today
• While Go Tour’s Timed Research ends at 6pm, you’ll be able to change Furflou trims until midnight

Opportunities this week

That’s a lot to take in, and since ‘Go Tour: Kalos Global’ at the weekend has its own whirlwind schedule, we’ll focus on the run up between Monday to Friday for the sake of brevity and focus. (We’ll have some dedicated ‘Go Tour: Kalos Global’ guides going up on Saturday, and we’ll send out a newsletter with a round-up then.)

• Left as a surprise until the day itself, this week's Max Monday, teased to feature "different Pokémon", is in fact Kanto starters Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Not particularly exciting, especially as Chansey - a much more desirable Pokémon as evolution Blissey is a superb tank for Max Battles - has come back into heavy rotation this week. As of this morning there's plenty of Dynamax Chansey spawns, so consider this week a good opportunity for more XL Candy to boost it up.
• Otherwise, the 'Road to Kalos' event is the big draw this week, and it can be approached one of two ways: it’s either a useful opportunity to fill missing Pokédex entries and gather resources to help power up some seriously powerful Pokémon, or a completionist’s nightmare, where particularly everything has a Special Background and can be shiny. I highly recommend taking the former mindset, as the odds of getting everything in a single catch, such as a shiny Pokémon with a Special Background (plus the moves and stats you want) are incredibly, incredibly low. Instead, relax, prioritise on strengthening your Pokémon teams, and see any rare finds as a bonus.
• With that in mind, I’d recommend the following:
  • Monday and Tuesday’s one-star raid encounters (Pikachu wearing Red’s hat, Leaf’s hat, Ethan’s hat and Lyra’s hat) are all new debuts to Pokémon Go. The rest of the week’s Pikachu encounters are also useful if you missed them on their first appearance.
  • Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre (basically Mega Evolutions of these Legendaries) are essentials to have in your collection if you don’t have them already, or want an excuse to get more XL Candy to power them up further. Also, unlike most Mega Evolutions, each provides XP and Candy catch bonuses for multiple types when active, making them very useful even outside of battle.
  • Thursday’s Origin Forme Dialga, Origin Forme Palkia and Friday’s Black and White Kyurem raids are also top-tier Pokémon, but know the moves which enable Adventure Effects and Kyurem Fusing respectively only have a chance of appearing.
  • I’m not only to usually advocate for Pokémon Go’s pricey tickets, but if you are planning to play a lot this week, then the Deluxe track of the ‘Road to Kalos’ Go Pass - adding further increases to Scatterbug appearances, 2x Egg Candy and XP, and bonus XP and Stardust from Raids - is probably worthwhile. Beyond bonuses, there’s rewards such as a Lucky Trinket and some Zygarde Cells in the offing, too. Our 'Road to Kalos' guide breaks this down a little further so you can make an informed decision.
• Finally, if you have a 'Go Tour: Kalos Global' ticket (for the weekend, not to be confused with the week-long Deluxe Pass for 'Road to Kalos') then Mega Evolution progress will be boosted by six times, starting on Monday.
  • This is useful to help prepare counters for Super Mega Raids at the weekend. As such, the following are worth prioritising:
    • Mega Rayquaza or Mega Gardevoir (for Mega Dragonite)
    • Mega Pinsir or Mega Heracross (for Mega Malamar)
    • Mega Rayquaza or Mega Charizard (for Mega Victreebel)

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

Here's a quick round-up of what you might have missed from the world of Pokémon in the past week:

• As mentioned, Pokémon Day on Friday is where we’ll see a bunch of new announcements (including, for Pokémon Go players, the likely first details of next week’s new season). Much is under wraps, but one thing that has been confirmed are Switch versions of Game Boy Advance’s FireRed and LeafGreen, releasing as soon as the day’s Pokémon Presents presentation wraps.
  • Local wireless play and (since removed mention of) Pokémon Home support aside, these seem like pretty no-frills ports, but everyone I know who played these back in the day is delighted they’re making a comeback on modern hardware. As a huge fan of the original Red and Blue games, I can’t wait to finally try these versions myself, even if my Analogue Pocket has been an option all along.

• The biggest Pokémon Go news is the confirmation of (the much datamined) Link Charges and (the amusingly named) Super Mega Evolutions. We’ll break these down in dedicated guides soon, but it’s essentially another currency for an even more challenging Raid, where an ‘enraged’ mechanic requires everyone to have at least one Mega Evolution in their party to continue battling as normal. Mega Evolutions themselves also get the ‘Forever Buddy’ treatment in having an even higher Mega Level termed ‘Super Max’, though these will be rolled out on a per Pokémon basis: the weekend’s debuts of Mega Victreebel, Mega Malamar, and Mega Dragonite are first up.
  • Link Charges are yet another currency to keep on top of, and though it’s framed as giving players options (you can also use Premium Battle Passes instead locally if you prefer), we don’t yet know how readily available they will be. I also dread to know how many Mega Raids we’ll need to Super Max everything in our collections, though hopefully the Mega Energy that’s been gathering dust over the years should get us some of the way there.
  • Either way, all this is likely because Mega Mewtwo and Mega Zygarde will be so powerful and sought after, so a more elaborate Raid structure had to be put in place to justify them. By the time these two arrive (while technically unconfirmed, they recently showed up in datamines), we’ll have a full sense of how these new mechanics shake out.
• There’s a blog post listing upcoming changes for Go Battle League to make matches more reliable and predictable. It’s pretty detailed, but this paragraph sums it up best: “For experienced players, this means cleaner timing, more dependable swap interactions with Charged Attacks, damage registering predictably, and fewer moments where outcomes feel unexpected. For all players, it means battles that more accurately reflect skillful play.”
  • It’s all intended to shore up the battle experience, basically, especially where “small inconsistencies could have an outsized impact” in high end play. It’s gone down positively with players on paper, and we’ll find out more in practice as it launches first “in different regions” starting this month.
• Finally, if you haven't already, be sure to redeem the code TH4NKY0UF41RYMUCH this week for the free 'Very Fairy Timed Research' quests, where you'll encounter a Sylveon at the end.

We'd usually then end this newsletter with a catch up (pun intended) of what's been going on with the site, but not only has this week’s newsletter run on far too long already, the only news to share is... One More Catch has launched!

Thanks for being one of the first readers to this fledgling publication, and be sure to check out our launch suite of features if you haven’t already. If you like what you see, you can show your support by subscribing for extra features (starting at just £1 a week, and that’s before a 10% off launch promotion across all tiers until 9th March).

Even sharing this newsletter with your friends is a huge help - it's free after all! - as word of mouth helps massively, especially in these first few days and weeks.

That's it from me. Hope you have a great week!