This week in Pokémon Go (23rd to 29th March): Slim Pik-ings

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

Be careful what you wish for. After lamenting how busy the game was between 'Go Tour Kalos' and the '30th Anniversary' celebrations just a few weeks ago, we're now at the other end of the spectrum with no week-long event to speak of. There's things happening, of course - including two new Max Battle Pokémon - but if you were considering a brief break, now's the time.

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 (23rd to 29th March)

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

Monday 23rd March

• 'Bug Out event' ends - 8pm
  • Final day to encounter Blipbug in one-star raids, progress the 'Bug Out' Go Pass (you usually have a few extra days to claim unlocked rewards), and take advantage of highlighted Lure Modules spawns
• 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
  • Legendary Regice is the highlighted Pokémon this week (a Dynamax debut), though "different Dynamax Pokémon" will also appear today

Tuesday 24th March

• Despite Pokémon Go's new routine seemingly establishing an event every Tuesday, there's nothing happening this week. (I guess there's always Go Battle League?)
• Showcase Tuesday - 10am to 8pm
  • Showcases will feature "up to 20 different categories" today
• Go Battle League change - 9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST
  • Great League, Ultra League, Master League

Wednesday 25th March

• Raid refresh (the below will appear in raids until next Wednesday)
  • Five-star: Regieleki
  • Mega Raids: Mega Houndoom
  • Shadow Raids at weekends throughout March: Shadow Latias
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Regieleki (can be shiny)

Thursday 26th March

• 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 27th March

• 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 28th March

• 'Gigantamax Pikachu Max Battle Day' event - 2pm to 5pm
  • All Power Spots will feature Gigantamax Pikachu (new debut, cannot evolve, can be shiny) which refresh more regularly
• Max Particle collection limit increases to 1,600, with an 8x increase in Max Particle collection from Power Spots
• Remote Raid limit increases from 10 to 20 (starts midnight UK on Saturday, or 8pm Eastern Americas / 5pm Pacific Americas on the Friday)
• Up to three Special Trades
• Event ticket for £4.99 / $4.99 with 1 Max Mushroom, 25,000 XP, 6,400 Max Particles rewards and a 2x XP Max Battle bonus
• Other Max Particle bonuses - midnight to 5pm local time
  • 2x Max Particles from walking, with 1/4 distance required

Sunday 29th March

• Remote Raid limit increase ends (4am UK on Sunday, 11pm Eastern Americas / 8pm Pacific Americas on Saturday)
• 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

With no event this week, the focus turns to battling to keep us busy. There are two Max Battle debuts - Dynamax Regice and Gigantamax Pikachu - and the return of Regieleki and Mega Houndoom from the middle of the week.

• Dynamax Regice is a legendary encounter, and as such, is challenging to take down, especially since you can only use four players. Though it can be soloed with the right team and use of a Max Mushroom, that isn't the norm - you'll need a co-ordinated group to beat it.
  • Either way, going by this reddit thread by TrueNourishment, Dynamax Regice isn't much to write home about in the meta, especially if you already have a decent Dynamax Blissey or Zamazenta, so don't worry if you miss out.
• On Saturday is Gigantamax Pikachu. Like Gigantamax Meowth before it, this is really just for the Pokédex entry, as it has little utility in battle. And also like Gigantamax Meowth, there's a decent chance this 'middling' Gigantamax will be a lot more difficult than it seems, so make sure you have a large enough group (at least 10 players) to have a shot.

• While Max Battles are a bit of a bust this week, raids actually are worth paying attention to. From Wednesday, Regieleki returns to the game, and is a pretty potent electric-type attacker with its exclusive move, Thunder Cage, topping the damage charts in terms of non-shadow Pokémon. Mega Houndoom, which also shows up from Wednesday, is well up there as a dark-type attacker. Both are worthwhile if you are looking for a potent electric- or dark-type, in other words, and both have a chance of being shiny if you're planning to battle them en masse.
• Finally, the elephant in the room is without an event this week, what will we be catching in the wild? It's a good question. It's the first decent non-event stretch since the Kanto-heavy season started, and the official site lacks the spawn details you'd expect from a season page.
  • The best I could find was a crowdsourced thread of spawns on reddit, but the list is too vast to really know what to expect. The upshot is this week is a good time to find regionals, so if you're on holiday right now, you've timed things perfectly - otherwise if you're playing at home, it might be worth stocking up on local regionals for Remote Trades with distant friends.
  • No event also means seasonal Field Research gets more prominence than usual: this Silph Road megathread can explain what's out there.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

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

• Looking ahead, April's events have been mostly revealed, including a Tinkatink Community Day, the return of (regular) Kyogre and Groudon in raids, and a date for the next 'Taken Over' event (particularly useful if you're looking to remote Frustration from any shadow Pokémon).
  • The vague Max Battle Day slot on 25th April is said to be a 'Go Bigger Replay' event, which sees the return of Gigantamax Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise in Max Battles.

• A big talking point over the past week is how Pokémon Go data is being used by Niantic Spatial - the company spun out from Niantic during the Scopely sale - to help make more precise robot deliveries. Clarifications have been issued to various outlets since the announcement, and as suspected in the last newsletter, it's using data from Pokémon Go's optional 'scan a PokéStop' uploads than moment-to-moment gameplay. (Thanks to Euronews for this particular confirmation.)
• In wider news, a Nintendo Switch 2 update improves Switch 1 game performance in handheld mode by using the game's docked settings instead. While Scarlet and Violet and Legends: Z:A already have bespoke Switch 2 editions, the likes of Legends: Arceus and Sword and Shield now reportedly look much sharper with the mode enabled. I never got round to finishing either, so may dip into both in the weeks and months ahead. Here's VGC with how to unlock the feature.

One More Catch notes

Here's a quick round-up of site updates since the last newsletter:

• On Friday, I published a list of every unique Pokémon not currently available in Pokémon Go. Even with leaving unreleased forms of existing Pokémon, missing Gigantamax and Mega Evolutions off the list, there's 82 Pokémon we're waiting on, including some of the most unusual creatures in the series to date. This image-heavy guide took some time to put together, so hope you enjoy, and I plan to keep it up to date as entries are scratched off the list:

All Pokémon currently unavailable in Pokémon Go

A superhero dolphin, a prehistoric Jigglypuff, and the god of all Pokémon await.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

• Players have reached the latest step in Go Tour Kalos Masterwork Special Research 'Sparkle and Shine', and yes, there's more timegating, meaning the trend of forcing players to really work for their shiny mythicals has not been bucked.
• One More Catch is now one month old! Genuinely can't believe it's been out there for four whole weeks. I want to thank the many fellow independent publications who have given shoutouts since launch - it's genuinely been so heart-warming to see such support.
  • The latest is from Hit Points, whose readers (including you!) can take advantage of a certain lapsed launch discount by clicking through to the comments. Make sure you read the piece about DLSS 5 itself, though: Nathan is on brilliant form as always.

I also want to thank you, early reader, for signing up to the site and reading this newsletter. News of the publication is operating entirely through word of mouth, so if you have any friends who would find this weekly digest useful, please forward it on - and if you can spare a few quid or bucks to support it, subscribe with the below button to get exclusive bonus articles and extra site functionality:

That's a wrap on this week's edition. As for myself, I quite fancy getting a decent Regieleki (I'm a sucker for new additions to legacy lines of Pokémon - you can imagine how I felt about Gen 4's many Kanto evolutions) and trying to catch a Gigantamax Pikachu for the 'dex entry before promptly giving up.

Hope you have a great week!