Welcome to the latest One More Catch weekly newsletter, offering you a guide to the week ahead in Pokémon Go.
It's a busy period ahead. We tick another unreleased Pokémon off the list in the form of Orthworm, there's three shiny Steel-types to chase, and have a shadow Pokémon-heavy second half of the week with a 'Taken Over' event and a Raid Day on Saturday.
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.
This week in Pokémon Go (27th April to 3rd May)
All times are at your local time, unless otherwise stated.
What to focus on this week
Here's the biggest opportunities to focus on this week:
Big addition this week...
Gen 9's Orthworm, rolling out as part of Tuesday's 'Steeled Resolve' event, will appear in three-star Raids and - what is rare for a new debut - can be shiny. You can usually solo three-star Raids with half-decent counters (go for Fire-, Ground- or Fighting-Types) to save you on Remote Raid Passes, by the way.
- As for whether it's any good, it appears to have some application in Go Battle League, going by this analysis on reddit, as well as having fans in Pokémon Champions, if you fancy catching one and transferring one over via Pokémon Home. Speaking of Home...
For new or lapsed players...
Shiny Meltan is once again available from Mystery Boxes for a limited time (until the end of 'Steeled Resolve' on Monday). You can get a Mystery Box by sending a Pokémon to Pokémon Home or Let's Go Pikachu / Eevee on Switch, ushering in 30 minutes of Meltan spawns to your location, similar to how an Incense works.
- There's also a reduced cooldown during the event, and though the official comms doesn't mention how long, 24 hours is a safe bet.
- Shiny aside, this is an excellent opportunity for any Steel or Mythical-catching based objectives you might have, as well as an easy way to fully max out a Pokémon since each Meltan will drop XL Candy by default.
Don't stress about...
...getting a shiny Varoom, which appears in 12km eggs (these dropped by Go Team Rocket Leader encounters) starting from Thursday's 'Taken Over' event. Unless the odds change, Varoom is fairly uncommon to find, so good luck getting a shiny on top of that. I'd personally wait for a possible wild spawn in a future global event myself.
Elsewhere, don't worry about missing out on Shadow Entei during Saturday's Raid Day. This is a strong but not super top-tier Fire-type attacker in a category where there's similar non-Legendary Megas or Shadows (e.g. Charizard, Blaziken, Chandelure, Delphox) that will be easier to find and fully power up This makes it a nice to have, basically.
Megas for the best Candy bonus...
Having a Mega Evolution active is an easy way to get bonus Candy for each catch, as long as you line up the right Mega Evolution type to the week's activity.
With a Steel-type focused event all week, you want to Mega Evolve Aggron, Lucario, Marwile, Metagross, Scizor or Steelix most days.
If you are doing Shadow Entei Raid Day, then switch to those with a Fire-type bonus, such as Blaziken, Camerupt, Charizard, Groudon or Houndoom to squeeze out a little more valuable Entei Candy.
- Remember, if you are purely after extra Candy from raid catches, then remember any type will do - it doesn't have to match.
And also...
Less of an opportunity and more of a PSA, but it appears that the 'Taken Over' Special Research is no more, going by the event blog, with the Super Rocket Radar (which allows you to encounter Giovanni) instead being rewarded by completing the week's Go Pass (one for free, and another from the Deluxe track).
- We won't know this for sure until Thursday, but consider that another streamlining of Pokémon Go staples this season which I imagine most players won't be happy with. Though, for those just after a Special Rocket Radar, these will be easier to unlock in theory, even if you can only do so when the Go Pass is active.
What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?
Here's a catch-up of the past week's news from Pokémon Go and the wider world of Pokémon:
- An update on the recent story that a Pokémon Go player was disqualified for a "unsportsmanlike" celebration during a regional contest: the decision has been upheld, with tournament organisers Play! Pokémon releasing a statement explaining the decision in more detail, saying it wasn't just about the celebration. Aftermath has a full report if you want to read more:
Nathan Grayson
- In upcoming in-game event news, the month of May has been fully outlined, which includes the debut of Gen 9's Flittle and Espathra as part of the 'Spring Marathon' event, and a Deino Community Day Classic.
- A handful of event dates leading as far as August have also been announced, including a yet-to-be-announced Community Day on 4th July. Frigibax is a near-cert for the June Community Day, so look forward to that.
- Moving away from Pokémon Go, Pokémon Champions got an update to address a handful of launch issues, but the Switch 2 dock issue - which sees the game run a lower resolution in TV mode until you remove the console from the dock and reinsert it again - remains unfixed.
Matthew Reynolds
- In Pokopia land, Sableye is being added to the game on Wednesday, 29th April as part of the 'Sableye's Gem Hunt' event. All signs suggest it'll be very similar to the 'More Spores for Hoppip' event in its execution, in that you'll be running around Dream Islands and collecting resources to trade for exclusive items.
- In Pokémon Home, completing all three Pokémon Legends: ZA Pokédexes now rewards you with a shiny Volcanion:
- Moving away from Pokémon entirely, Peridot - a game not part of the Scopely acquisition alongside Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now and Pikmin Bloom - will be closed down by Niantic Spatial later this year.
- A virtual pet simulator by the creators of Pokémon Go should have been a bigger deal, really - but I suspect launching the same week as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a huge focus for everyone in the games press, didn't help matters. If you were a player, you have until August before your digital creatures are gone for good.
Matthew Reynolds
One More Catch notes
Here's a quick round-up of other site posts, updates, and publication-related musings:
- As teased in last week's newsletter, I haven't been able to post much about Pokémon Champions lately because... I knocked my Switch 2 into the bath. I wrote a quick blog about the extraordinarily stupid turn of events, and learned more about the fickle nature of cloud saves along the way:
Matthew Reynolds
- Exciting news for business types: One More Catch is now posting to LinkedIn! As with the announcement of Threads last week, this is a mirror of (most) posts seen on Bluesky, but is designed to give readers more ways to follow site posts and other updates beyond this newsletter. Any follows would be welcome.
One More Catch
- Finally, a quick thanks to the Hanafuda Report for the recent One More Catch shoutouts - if you are looking for a snappy digest of Nintendo news and stories, then I highly recommend signing up. I've enjoyed seeing it land in my inbox in recent weeks, and I think you will too.
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Hope you have a great week!
