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This week in Pokémon Go (29th June to 5th July): Anniversary celebrations begin

The upcoming schedule and what to focus on - including Mega Lucario and Sobble Community Day - plus news from the week.

Mega Lucario, Gimmighoul and Sobble in front of a polygonal shape and a textured background.
Mega Lucario, Gimmighoul and Sobble. Credit: One More Catch (via Niantic / The Pokémon Company)

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

As I put the finishing touches to this newsletter, Europe's heatwave is starting to subside, much to the relief of everyone. Just in time, too: Pokémon Go's 10th Anniversary plans kick off this weekend with the first event of many celebrating the game's decade-long run. The week is also looking pretty busy until then, with the latest Explore, Catch Battle event from Tuesday, a powerful Mega returning to raids on Wednesday, and a Community 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.

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Events in Pokémon Go this week (29th June to 5th July)

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

Date

New events and updates

Regular events

Monday 29th

Flying Taxi event ends (8pm)

• Final chance to complete Go Pass and get Super Rocket Radars, and make use of featured wild spawns, including Squawkabilly

Max Monday (Dynamax Pidove focus)

Tuesday 30th

Choose Your Path: Charged Embers (10am to Friday, 3rd July)

• Choose a path quest between multiple bonuses

Showcase Tuesday

~

Go Battle League refresh (9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST)

• Great League

• Summer Cup: Great League Edition

Wednesday 1st

Raid refresh (until Sunday, 5th July)

• Five-star: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres

• Mega Raids: Mega Lucario

~

Shadow raid refresh (until 4th August)

• Five-star: Shadow Palkia

Raid Hour (6pm to 7pm)

• Five-star: Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres

Thursday 2nd

N/A

Go Battle Thursday

~

Spotlight Hour, 6pm to 7pm

• Pidgey

• 2x Evolution XP

Friday 3rd

N/A

Friendship Friday

Saturday 4th

10th Anniversary Party event (until Monday, 8pm)

• Gimmighoul holding a 10th anniversary coin debuts, may have Special Background and be shiny

• 4x XP and Stardust Catch bonus, shiny boost to event-themed Pokémon (including hat-wearing Pokémon)

• £1.99 / $1.99 Timed Research with a Gimmighoul encounter, Super Incubator, and more

~

Sobble Community Day (2pm to 5pm)

• Increased Sobble spawns and shiny catch rate

• Themed Field Research, £1.99 / $1.99 Special Research

• 2x Catch Candy, ¼ Egg Hatch Distance bonus

• Lure Module bonus until 9pm

N/A

Sunday 5th

N/A

Scenic Sunday


What to know about this week

Here's the biggest opportunities and observations for the days ahead:

Highlight of the week

'Choose Your Path: Charged Embers', the latest Explore, Catch Battle event where you choose between one of several playstyles for a related bonus and Timed Research, runs from Tuesday to Friday this week.

The last one of these, 'Fossil Fun', saw players choose from a whopping six choices every day (and a smaller number of users only get three choices for the entire week), so assuming it'll work similarly, is a nice freebie to wake up to each morning, even if I'll most certainly be choosing the halved Egg Hatch Distance perk to make the most out of my Timed Incubator.

Anniversary celebrations begin (but don't get too excited)

Saturday is the start of Pokémon Go 10th's Anniversary events, with the '10th Anniversary Party' event running until Monday. It's not much to get excited about: among the return of hatted Pokémon we're caught many times over, there's the debut of a Gimmighoul with a 10th anniversary coin, which is essentially a replay of last year's 9th anniversary coin costume.

Gimmighoul with a 10th anniversary coin in front of a polygonal shape and a textured background.
Gimmighoul with a 10th anniversary coin. Credit: One More Catch (via Niantic / The Pokémon Company)

It's the first event in for ever with a £1.99 / $1.99 Timed Research ticket, which I'm tempted to pick up partly for the easy background Gimmighoul encounter, but mostly because it's not a £5 / $5 Go Pass for once. The event is pretty uninspired overall, but thankfully, the weeks either side of Go Fest: Global have much more going on. More on that in next week's newsletter.

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