This week in Pokémon Go (9th to 15th March): Pokopia presides

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

After a hectic fortnight with back-to-back week-long events - first with Go Tour Kalos, then the 30th Anniversary - the coming days are thankfully a little more relaxed. A Pokémon Pokopia crossover event takes the spotlight, and a Pokémon Go staple, Community Day, features at the weekend.

So here's a snapshot of everything coming in Pokémon Go this week, and how to get the most from it.

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This week in Pokémon Go (9th to 15th March)

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

Monday 9th March

• Pokémon 30th Anniversary: All Out event ends - 8pm
  • Today is the final day to progress the 30th Anniversary Go Pass, and claim your free Mewtwo at rank 80
  • If you're a few ranks away, know that the following bonus can help...
• 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
  • Pikachu is the highlighted Pokémon this week (a Dynamax debut), though "different Dynamax Pokémon" will also appear today

Tuesday 10th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event starts - 10am to Monday, 16th March at 8pm
  • Two new costumed Ditto (wearing a hat, wearing a cap) debut
    • There is a chance they will have a Pokopia Special Background, and can be shiny
    • Ditto will also have different disguises during the event
  • New Collection Challenges, Timed Research, and Field Research
  • New wild spawns, including Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Pikachu, Sudowoodo, and Zorua
    • There's an increased chance of encountering shiny Sudowoodo and shiny Zorua
  • Three-star raids (all have a chance of a Pokopia Special Background, and can be shiny):
    • Lapras, Snorlax, Dragonite
  • Bonuses:
    • 2x XP for spinning PokéStops
    • 10x XP for spinning a PokéStop for the first time
  • Free Ditto Eye Mask avatar item in the shop (will likely become premium after the event ends):

• Showcase Tuesday - 10am to 8pm
  • Showcases will feature "up to 20 different categories" today
• Go Battle League change - 9pm UK / 4pm EST / 1pm PST
  • Ultra League, Spring Cup: Great League Edition

Wednesday 11th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event continues
• Raid refresh (the below will appear in raids until next Wednesday)
  • Five-star: Zacian (Hero of Many Battles)
  • Mega Raids: Mega Steelix
  • Shadow Raids at weekends throughout March: Shadow Latias
• Raid hour - 6pm to 7pm
  • Zacian (Hero of Many Battles (can be shiny)

Thursday 12th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event continues
• 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 13th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event continues
• Friendship Friday - midnight to midnight
  • There's bonuses for in-person trades, including:
    • 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

Saturday 14th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event continues
• Scorbunny Community Day - 2pm to 5pm
  • Increased Scorbunny spawns and shiny catch rate
  • Themed Field Research and £1.99 / $1.99 Special Research
  • Moves:
    • Featured Attack: An evolved Cinderace will learn Blast Burn (until 9pm)
    • New move: Cinderace can learn Pyro Ball starting with this event
  • 2pm to 5pm bonuses:
    • 1/4 Egg Hatch distance, 2x Catch Candy, 2x Catch Candy XL chance, Incense lasts three hours, and Scorbunny in Snapshot encounters
• 2pm to 9pm bonuses:
• Lure Modules last one hour, and from Lures, Scorbunny has a "very high chance" of appearing with an "increased" chance of being shiny, and may have a Special Background
• An extra Special Trade (for two total today), 50% Trade Stardust reduction

Sunday 15th March

• Pokémon Pokopia Celebration Event 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

Here's the opportunities to be aware of when playing this week:

• Monday is the final day to progress the Pokémon 30th Anniversary Go Pass and claim a free Mewtwo encounter. Mewtwo will appear again in the summer as part of Go Fest - including all-but-confirmed Mega versions - so it's not the end of the world if you don't manage this in time.
  • But if you're close, remember that the day's Daily Discovery bonus of double Go Pass points from tasks (so 200 points for Raids, 80 points for hatching an Egg, and 10 points per Pokémon catch) might bring you over the line.
  • Also, if you were curious about the legendaries element of the 'All Out' event, they will spawn regularly off Incense and rarely in the wild until 8pm. Just know, like Galarian birds from Daily Incense, they will flee easily - so consider this a fun novelty than a practical catching opportunity.

• Monday also sees the debut of Dynamax Pikachu, but with a Gigantamax Pikachu coming later this season, and generic Pikachu spawns in the Pokopia event later in the week, this isn't worth chasing.
• Tuesday's Pokémon Pokopia event has an exciting debut in the form of two Ditto costumes. These can be shiny and have a Special Background, and if you can get both on a single catch, it'll be highly sought after. Just know that your chances of the two together are very low.
  • Ditto isn't exactly a competitive Pokémon, so finding a shiny costume with or without a Special Background is really for bragging rights. Here's how the background looks:

• The Special Background can also appear for Lapras, Snorlax, and Dragonite in three-star raids, while Sudowoodo and Zorua have an increased shiny chance during the event, so there's plenty more to chase beyond Ditto.
• Finally, there's the debut of a (rather cursed) Ditto Eye Mask avatar item for free. Be sure to claim it in the store before the event ends, as it'll likely cost money after that.
• Scorbunny Community Day isn't going to set the world alight (pun intended), especially as this Gen 8 starter is a common enough catch. As with the majority of starter Community Day events, it's a good opportunity to get a reasonably proficient fire-type attacker on a budget, so if you're a new or lapsed player, collecting as many as possible to discover one with decent stats, and gathering enough Candy and XL Candy to then fully power it up, is worthwhile. For just about everyone else, turn up for the shiny debut.

• While final evolution Cinderace doesn't spark much interest, Gigantamax Cinderace is worth paying attention to as one of the best fire-type attackers in Max Battles, but that won't feature during the event. But if you do have one already, this Community Day is a great opportunity to gather Candy and XL Candy to power it up further.
• Don't forget the Lure Module bonus, with its increased shiny chance and opportunity for Special Backgrounds, which runs beyond event hours until 9pm.
• As for your active Mega Evolution (so you can get extra Scorbunny Candy per catch), opt for a fire-type such as Mega Charizard (X or Y), Mega Houndoom, Mega Blaziken, or Mega Camerupt. Primal Groudon will also work.
• Speaking of Candy: if you can hold off on catching any rare Pokémon you have in Go Passes or research until Community Day hours, you can take advantage of the event's 2x Catch Candy bonus.

What's new in Pokémon and Pokémon Go?

• 'Daily Discoveries', which rolled out alongside the ‘Memories in Motion’ season last week, isn't going down terribly well with the community for a bunch of reasons.
  • Perhaps the most unexpected change is to Power Spots, which are now heavily reduced outside of Max Mondays and Max Battle Days - there's a full report on the site with what's changed - while PokéStop Showcases are now a Tuesday-only activity (the debut also saw them accidently end at midday, instead of 8pm). Spotlight Hour, meanwhile, is seemingly scrapped entirely.
• In a more positive quality of life change, instead of tapping each individual Pokémon when claiming Go Pass rewards, you can now catch all encounters back-to-back with the 'claim all' button in the corner. TheSilphRoad subreddit has the details.

• Elsewhere, we have confirmation of Go Fest Global 2026 dates, and news that (most likely Mega) Mewtwo and Zeraora will be showing up.
  • Tickets for the Tokyo, Chicago and Copenhagen legs are on sale now too, along with the reveal of new Pikachu costumes (there's, you guessed it, new hats), Hawaiian regional Comfey, and a different Paldean Tauros form showing up at each event (Copenhagen attendees are lucky enough to get the hard-to-find Spain and Portugal-only Combat Breed form).
• In other Pokémon news, the incredible monochrome 1996 Pikachu plush and keychain for Pokémon's 30th anniversary celebrations will be making their way outside of Japan at some point. Colour me excited:

• Finally, Pokémon Pokopia debuted on Nintendo Switch 2 last week. I've been playing myself and it's immensely charming, and can understand its positive critical reception. Beyond being a smart application of Pokémon outside of the role-playing games we've mostly seen, for me, it's scratching that life sim itch that January's Animal Crossing 3.0 update didn't quite manage.
  • The first event, 'More Spores for Hoppip', debuts on Monday 9th at 9pm UK / 5pm ET / 2pm PT, and ushers in event-exclusive items through collecting Cotton Spores, and the chance to encounter Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff. Expect a guide on the site when the event rolls out.
  • Also, you can also visit a developer-made Cloud Island with the code PXQC G03S. You can see footage of this in the following video:

One More Catch notes

One More Catch has been going for a fortnight! Here's a quick round-up of site updates since the last newsletter:

• Like most life sims, Pokémon Pokopia adheres to a real-time clock, which I put through its paces last week to see how you can fast-track your progress. I'll have more Pokopia guides up on the site as the week goes on.

How to fast-forward your progress in Pokémon Pokopia

Between time travel and visiting friends for early unlocks, there are ways to speed up a slow-paced game.

One More CatchMatthew Reynolds

• In Pokémon Go, amongst the hubbub of a new season and the Pokémon 30th Anniversary event is the 'Pressure Rising' Special Research, allowing everyone a chance to catch Volcanion if they missed it in last year's Go Fest. It's a rare example of Special Research with minimal time gating or lengthy steps designed to slow you down, so enjoy getting the water- and fire-type mythical in no time.
• Other new site posts have been linked to throughout the newsletter, otherwise I've been working on a few behind-the-scenes tweaks for the site, all of which should bear fruit in time for next week's update.

Finally, as mentioned at the top, Monday 9th March is the final day to show your early support to One More Catch with a subscription that's 10% off forever. The offer takes the base tier from an already affordable £4 monthly / £40 annually down to just £3.60 and £36 respectively, and having your backing would mean a great deal as plans for the publication begin in earnest:

That's it from me - good luck with the hunt for a shiny costume Special Background Ditto. I'll know I'll need it. Hope you have a great week!