This week in Pokémon Go (27th July to 2nd August): Events no more

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

Phew! After a busy event-filled week, we now have an off week with nothing much happening. On the bright side, that means Explore, Catch, Battle returns to take the spotlight, and there's a few lowkey debuts to get mildly excited about until things pick up again next week.

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 (27th July): A previous version of this article mentioned the Go Pass: August launching this Tuesday - when it's actually launching next week. Apologies for the inclusion!

Events in Pokémon Go this week (27th July to 2nd August)

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

What to know about this week

Here's what jumps out to me this week:

Choose a Path returns

The 'off week' event, Choose a Path - also known as Explore, Catch, Battle - returns on Tuesday with Fairy Trail.

Assuming it works the same as the recent Fossil Fun and Charged Embers editions, this presents you with six choices every day, each with a different bonus and a different set of Timed Research to complete. You can change your pick each day to suit whatever your focus is, with the Timed Research rewards offering encounters with the highlighted Type - this time being Fairy Pokémon.

There's two new debuts

After a new Pikachu and shiny legendary last week, there's a couple of new forms this week.

One is Dynamax Feebas as part of Max Monday (meaning we also get Dynamax Milotic if you evolve one), and the other is shiny Gigantamax Rillaboom during Saturday's Max Battle Day, which is an excellent Grass-type attacker in Max Battles (that can also be used in raids if you're after a strong Grass-type there, too.)

So nothing truly new for the regular 'dex, but for Dynamax and shiny hunters, there's something to target this week. (Also, the Gigantamax encounters will reward a whopping 25k Stardust - or 37.5k Stardust with a Star Piece - if you needed a reason to show up to your local community meet.)

UK players get more free Timed Research

After the National Trust Timed Research earlier in the month, UK-based players will also receive Summer Quest Timed Research to celebrate an event in Shoreditch, London from Saturday. And as with the National Trust collab, those who go along locally will also get an extra set of Timed Research.

The in-person stint is for the weekends of 1st to 2nd and 8th and 9th of August, whereas the UK-wide Timed Research lasts until the end of the month. You can see more on the official blog.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

Here's a roundup of the biggest stories from the week:

• Dataminers have unearthed a feature that adds a Pokémon's Local Background or Special Background to your Trainer profile. It's reportedly in the game's code right now, but has yet to be activated.
  • This has been long requested by players, and as a Local Background sicko, I'm quite excited to see this added to the game myself. There are reportedly restrictions of what is eligible, however, so hopefully our favourite backgrounds will be supported.
  • As for when it'll arrive, it might be a while: features get added to the code regularly and can take months to debut, may roll out in stages, or not at all. (The Explorer Gadget is an example of something that debuted for some players earlier this year, but are still waiting on a formal announce for!)

• For in-game news, the August event schedule has been released. The headlines are the debut of shiny Lunala (joining Gen 7's Solgaleo, which saw its shiny debut last week) and Dynamax Magikarp, the return of regionals Uxie, Mespirit and Azlef in raids, and the confirmation of a PokémonXP and 2026 Worlds event at the end of the month.
  • You can see the line-up below:

• The Video Game History Foundation has unearthed a load of E3 materials. There's lots of cool stuff in there, including Pokémon's first appearance during the 1998 show, which someone has clipped into its own video:

One More Catch notes

Last weekend, I visited a National Trust property to investigate the Pokémon Go collaboration running until September. It's a simple but very effective means to get people going to their local sites, especially with the addition of bonus Timed Research for each month you visit.

Here's a guide to locations (including a community-made map, so you can better see how close your local property is) and a breakdown of how it all works:

Pokémon Go National Trust locations, Timed Research rewards

There’s three sets of Timed Research - and 27 Location Backgrounds - to collect this summer.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

I also managed to record the opening hour of Aniimo's closed beta, the monster taming game coming to consoles and PC later this year, which I rather enjoyed my time with:

Otherwise, the site's been mainly focused on guides around recent in-game events (including Willow's Birthday Research and Ozone Ascent) while I catch up on some freelance work elsewhere. For the week ahead, I do have the next edition of Behind the Catch ready to go for Great Supporters and higher - expect it in your inbox on Wednesday or Thursday.

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, and as a way to show your support for the newsletter and site in general.

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Hope you have a great week!