This week in Pokémon Go (30th March to 5th April): Lightning strike a pose

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

The 'Memories in Motion' season continues to be true to form by focusing on prior Pokés over new debuts. The recently scrapped Spotlight Hour sorta returns as part of an electric-type event, Fashion Raid Day features (perhaps one too many) costumed Pokémon, and there's a small Easter-themed celebration - but only if you're in Europe.

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 you may have missed.

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This week in Pokémon Go (30th March to 5th April)

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

Monday 30th March

• 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
  • Woobat is the highlighted Pokémon this week, though "different Dynamax Pokémon" will also appear today

Tuesday 31st March

• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event starts - 10am to Monday, 6th April at 8pm
  • New wild spawns, including Pikachu, Chinchou, Dedenne and Pawmi
    • An increased chance of encountering shiny Pikahu, Chinchaou and Dedenne
  • The return of Spotlight Hour between 6pm and 7pm throughout the event, with each day focusing on a different electric-type Pokémon
    • Tonight's featured Pokémon is Mareep
  • New Field Research
  • New Go Pass for £5 / $5: features encounters with Raichu, Chinchou, Dedenne, Pawmi and "even more" electric-types on the Deluxe pass, and a variety of items in both tracks
    • Progression unlocks 2x Incense duration and 2x Catch Candy (plus 2x Catch Stardust in the Deluxe track)
• 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, Electric Cup: Great League Edition

Wednesday 1st April

• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event continues
  • Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) - Pikachu
• Wednesday is April Fools' Day. There is usually something happening in Pokémon Go to celebrate, but at the time of writing we don't know what.
  • (Pure guesswork, but perhaps the Pikachu appearing in Spotlight Hour is involved?)
• Raid refresh (the below will appear in raids until next Wednesday)
  • Five-star: Regidrago
  • Mega Raids: Mega Manectric
  • Shadow Raids at weekends throughout April: Shadow Latios (new)
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Regidrago (can be shiny)
• It's also a full moon, for those who want to evolve Ursaring into Ursaluna

Thursday 2nd April

• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event continues
  • Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) - Magnemite
• 'An Egg-cellent Adventure' (Europe only) - 10am to Monday, 6th April at 8pm
  • Chansey caught in the wild has a chance of dropping a Lucky Egg
  • Wild spawns of Exeggcute, Chansey, and Bunnelby, which all have an increased shiny chance
  • Timed Research featuring a Lucky Egg, XP, and Exeggcute encounters
  • Event-themed stickers from spinning PokéStops and opening Gifts

• 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 3rd April

• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event continues
  • Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) - Chinchou
• 'An Egg-cellent Adventure' (Europe only) continues
• 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 4th April

• 'Fashion Raid Day' event - 2pm to 5pm
  • Raids feature costumed Butterfree, Diglett, Dragonite, Wooper, Sneasel, Kirlia, Absol, Shinx, Croagunk, Blitzle and Minccino
    • All "more likely" to be shiny
  • Up to six three Raid Passes from spinning Gyms
  • Remote Raid limit increases from 10 to 20 (starts 1am UK on Saturday, or 8pm Eastern Americas / 5pm Pacific Americas on the Friday)
  • £4.99 / $4.99 event ticket available, offering up to 14 Raid Passes, increased chance of Rare Candy XL, 50% more XP and 2x Stardust from raids
• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event continues
  • Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) - Pawmi
  • Go Pass progression cap lifts at 0:01am until the event ends on Monday at 8pm
• 'An Egg-cellent Adventure' (Europe only) continues

Sunday 5th April

• Remote Raid limit increase ends (4am UK on Sunday, 11pm Eastern Americas / 8pm Pacific Americas on Saturday)
• 'A Shockingly Good Time' event continues
  • Spotlight Hour (6pm to 7pm) - Dedenne
• 'An Egg-cellent Adventure' (Europe only) continues
• 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

After an event-free period last week, time for some half-decent opportunities as part of the week's electric-type push, as well as a big question mark over Wednesday.

• The return of Spotlight Hour for each day of 'A Shockingly Good Time' is easily the big draw of the event. Unlike the old Spotlight Hours, which simply increased a Pokémon's numbers, making it more likely you'd find a shiny simply because you were encountering more of them, three of the highlighted Pokémon also get an increased shiny rate to help you further.
  • These are Pikachu (Wednesday), Chinchou (Friday), and Dedenne (Sunday). Note as with all event "increased rate" boosts, a shiny will still be hard to find. If you are going out, bring a Pokémon Go Plus to help hoover up the masses of Pokémon around you.
  • If you're not fussed about shinies, Mareep's final evolution Ampharos (specifically the Mega Evolution), Magnemite's final evolution Magnezone, and Pawmi's final evolution Pawmot are all up there as potent electric-types. Use Spotlight Hour's boosted spawns to find one with decent stats, and / or Candy to power one up.
  • Don't forget to have a relevant Mega Evolution active for additional catch Candy, such as Primal Kyogre, Mega Ampharos, or Mega Manectric.
• Speaking of potent electric-types, the introduction of Mega Manectric in raids from Wednesday is worth focusing on if you don't already enough Mega Energy to evolve one, as it's the best Mega electric-type attacker in Pokémon Go right now, and fourth overall, going by damage calculations.
• As for Saturday's 'Fashion Raid Day', featuring costumed Butterfree, Diglett, Dragonite, Wooper, Sneasel, Kirlia, Absol, Shinx, Croagunk, Blitzle and (deep breath) Minccino, it's a bit of a dud. There's no new debuts, and while you can Mega Evolve costumed Butterfree, Dragonite, and Absol, giving them some utility in battle, the others cannot be evolved at all, making them for collecting purposes only.
  • With the sheer number of possible raids on the day, it'll be hard to focus on a particular Pokémon if you're playing locally, so perhaps use it as an opportunity to fill in gaps in your collection only.

• Finally, less of an opportunity and more of a PSA: Wednesday is April Fool's Day, where Pokémon Go usually does something interesting. For example, 2024 saw Nice Throws or better become Excellent automatically, while 2025 introduced Poké Balls in the field you could actually tap for various encounters.
  • What's expected is unknown, but whatever happens is usually worth your while, if only for the novelty of the day. As mentioned above, my guess is something Pikachu related with the Spotlight Hour crossover, but we'll have to wait and see.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

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

• Until Wednesday (1st April), Discord has a quest where you can claim 100 Max Particles in Pokémon Go. You need your phone and it requires you watch a 30 second advert first, and while such a measly amount barely feels worth it, if you're like me you'll do it anyway.

• Friend of the site Post Games - an NPR-style podcast for video games - has a new episode on the resurgence of pinball, including a segment on how Stern is adapting Pokémon into a (£5,799) pinball table. Post Games is always a brilliant listen, so do give it a download.
• Now for a couple of #business-focused stories. First, Pokémon Go managed to break into the top 10 of mobile games by consumer spend in February (61% month-over-month), likely because of Go Tour: Kalos. Another friend of the site Mobilegamer.biz has more details, including another Scopely game appearing in the number one slot.
• Speaking of Scopely, The Game Business spoke to co-CEO Javier Ferreira about why it acquired Niantic last year, complimenting the game's "commitment to the community", citing in-person events as an example, as well as its "mission" of playing in the real world.
  • There's more in the piece discussing Scopely's approach to games, including thoughts of branching out into PC and console (which, as much as I like the idea of taking a laptop to a raid day, is unlikely for Niantic's location-based games), so if you're curious about Pokémon Go's parent company, it makes for interesting reading.
• Finally, the big Pokémon story of the week is the Pokémon Champions release date, arriving next week on 8th April on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 (it'll be coming to mobile devices later in the year). As for what to expect from the next big Pokémon game...

One More Catch notes

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

• With Pokémon Champions dated, I set to work on a roster of available Pokémon by (painstakingly) cataloguing everything I could find in the new trailer and recent press previews. Later in the week, expect a piece to help Pokémon Go players prepare their collections for Pokémon Champions, too:

Pokémon Champions roster confirmed so far

Prepare your Pokémon Home collection now with this confirmed roster.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

• London-based Grind is teaming up with Pokémon as part of the franchise’s 30th anniversary celebrations, offering various themed beverages, a reusable coffee cup, and clothing like a T-shirt and cap. At the time of writing pretty much everything is still in stock, so you still have time if you fancied getting something:

Grind releases Pikachu, Eevee and Mew Pokémon coffee collab

Ground-type.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

• For those in the Great Supporter tier, the next Behind the Catch blog - which provides a behind-the-scenes look into how One More Catch is made, and what's coming next - is due mid-April. The original aim was to get it over for the start of the month, but the two shorter working weeks around Easter and the earlier-than-expected release of Pokémon Champions means it'll be a smidge later than planned.
  • The upside is it should coincide with a short test of a new addition to the publication, which Great Supporters will be privy to first. More on that when the blog rolls out in the weeks ahead.

Speaking of Great Supporters, a reminder that you can subscribe to various tiers for bonus articles, extra site functionality, and as a way to show your support for the work that goes into the newsletter and site in general:

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Hope you have a great week!