August is generally a big month for Pokemon Go and Niantic, but the past year (as you can see from our caveat blurbs at the end of Niantic articles) there’s cause for pause. The same leaker who mostly predicted last season has continued to correctly leak info on the new Hidden Gems season, with gaps in the leaks only prompting new questions. So this round in Massively on the Go, we’ll dive into the details of what’s been revealed and what’s expected, in the absence of clear comms from the studio itself.
First, let’s start out with an interesting new change: monthly bonuses. These are new, and Niantic hasn’t discussed them at all; the company has seemingly given given up on dev diaries after throwing The Pokemon Company under a bus and bizarrely claiming communication is underappreciated.
We need only ignore what the developers say and look at what they do (and hope there are no errors in what Niantic did publish). If these bonuses are real and go anywhere, the first ones simple grant bonuses to seven-day catches and pokestop spins. It’s not much, but it’s clearly aimed at player retention during what is usually one of the game’s better months. It’s probably there in hopes that players who come back for Go Fest 2023 will feel as if they make more progress and will want to stay on board longer.
Or maybe Niantic is planning to roll back Seasonal Bonuses soon and these are the kind of junk-bonuses we should start expecting. Again, without communication, it’s hard to determine what’s going on, but historically, it may be best to expect the worst while hoping for something mediocre.
Now, for raids. No surprises on the Megas, Regidrago, or Cresselia (which is still quite useful in all three PvP Leagues). Primal Kyogre and Groudon appearing August 23rd-26th is a nice surprise in some ways, but there’s a problem: There’s no indication they are getting their best moves.
You’ll notice that Xerneas and Yveltal are making a comeback, but the dates are a bit confusing, and as of this writing, Niantic’s own calendar hasn’t clarified this. So Xerneas and/or Yveltal are available August 16th-23rd and/or August 27th-September 1st. They also come with new skills. Geomancy for Xerneas finally gives it a Fairy fast move, but raid analyst Teban54 notes it will make a fairly practical alternative to some more legendary/expensive options, while Oblivion Wing, a Flying-type move, will do the same for Yveltal, at least in terms of raiding.
However, look at the Go Fest Primal Schedule. Primal Rayquaza, which you do not want to miss, is available for only a few hours on a single day. Unlike the other Primals, Rayquaza needs both an event move and a new item/currency. As it will give bonuses to Flying, Dragon, and Psychic types, this is a pokemon you’ll want at least one of and possibly multiples. As someone who heavily invested in the last two Primals, I can tell you they massively pay off for the effort, but a single day to raid for the final one seems extreme.
I note this in the same context as Xerneas and Yveltal because there is a mention of new moves for those two, while none of the Primals’ special Charge attacks is mentioned. Part of this may be a result of the fact that Dragon Ascent is learned via Meteorites, not simply given. However, Ray already has multiple event moves, both Hurricane and Breaking Swipe. Not mentioning either of them is an oversight at best, incredibly stingy at worst.
It should be also noted that similar to July, August offers no mention of Shadow Articuno weekend raids. It was announced specifically only for June, but we had noticed the calendar implied it would be all summer long, which based on July seemed to be the case. This is more concerning because we’re worried Niantic may forget about it and have the Shadow Articuno raids interrupting Go Fest weekend, at least for New Zealand players “beta testing” this live game.
Speaking of Go Fest, we will have a separate article on that in the coming weeks. After personally experiencing the company’s poor in-person events, I’m both more aware of the pitfalls and less motivated to cover events likely riddled with bugs and requiring multiple updates on our end. The one thing I can almost guarantee is that you will need bag space, as Niantic has given out a historically low amount of space lately. 8/1 Update: My negativity seems to have triggered an optional paid 500 storage space increase, which is a good start.
There are a few other events in August to be aware of:
🇺🇸🇪🇸🇫🇷
Glittering Garden🌿#ShinyPetilil debut#PokemonGO #PokemonGOApp #MikoGraphics #TSR #G2G pic.twitter.com/ohclDlFXiF— Miko🐽 (@MikoGraphicsPE) July 26, 2023
August 5th-8th is the Glittering Garden event, which is a new event, and… it’s about Grass and Fairy types? It’s cute, with maybe increased Larvesta hatch rates, as that pokemon is still egg-exclusive and an unreasonable 400 candy to evolve (reminder that 400 candy is usually reserved for specific common pokemon, such as Wailmer and Magikarp). Half the bonuses are hatch-related, giving 1.5 hatch candy and stardust, so Niantic is once again pushing to sell incubators while offering players less than some recent events.
In terms of wild pokemon, Bounsweet is new, so players may want candy for it, and Lilligant has a second future form, so shiny hunters can be doubly excited about that. Functionally for raiders, only Bulbasaur, Tangela and Roselia are the only ones worth hunting, and they’re all quite old at this point. The 1/2 heart distance on buddies and increased chance of generating XL candy sound nice, but the latter is confusing. If it’s extra XL candy, great, but most pokemon raised to the old cap around level 40 (before needing XL candy to level them) already produce essentially guaranteed XL candy, so any “increased” chance here would be negligible. In short, this feels like an experimental event mostly designed to squeeze more money out of players as the company continues to underperform.
The 2023 Pokemon World Championshipswill lead to an August 11th-15th event, but we have no specific details on that. There’s no historic consistency in terms of this event, but maybe we’ll get a free shirt? We do know there’ll be a PvP 3x stardust from wins event, but we’ll update this section as we learn more.
8/7 Update: There was a Japanese leak that indicates we’ll get a new pokemon, Passimian, plus a shirt Pikachu… which will take up more of our storage and never evolve.
8/7 Update 2: And now we have official event details. Yes, Passimian is in, but Wooloo (a PvP fav) is wild too. In face, all the Wild encounters save Onix are fairly useful in PvP. Machop and Drilbur also have PvE use still if you’re not swimming in rare/legendy candy. Dewgong, Walrein, and Obstagoon also have PvP Community Day moves they can learn during the event. Overall, it’s a very PvP oriented event, especially since the biggest bonus is 100 PvP battles a day (up from 20).
Then there’s the August 13th Community Day. Per the season-long-leaks, this was predicted and later revealed to be Froakie, a fan favorite and a good Water-upgrade if your team isn’t all Legendaries, Shadows, and a Mega. It’ll only get better if it eventually gets its Ash-Greninja/Battle Bond form. To help with raising it, this will be a triple stardust event.
A new event, Noxious Swamp, is coming from August 19th-22nd. It’s a very short four-day event, quite soon before Go Fest, and it doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with the Go Fest theme beyond mixing water and earth, which is odd. It could be related to Skrelp’s shiny in New York during the same time, though that seems like it would undercut the experience of New York Go Fest ticket holders. It might at least involve Water and Poison types, but beyond that, we’ll have to wait for more details before updating this section.
8/14 Update: We now have official information on the event. Admittedly, it may be better to think of this event as “Noxious Dragons,” as everything except Surskit, Pidove, Onix, and Sneasel fit into that. We were right about Shiny Skrelp and Poison Pokemon, and Water is getting some representation, but Dragon is getting more. In fact, one thing the official image above doesn’t mention is that (unless it’s an error) Jangmo-o is one of the free Timed Research rewards!
Ignoring the theme fail, there are a lot of good and fun pokemon here. If you need Dragon attackers, save some Axews for Community Day in December. If you’re not ready for Go Fest’s Mega Rayqauza, Shadow Sneasel is technically solo-able, but it seems you’ll need to unlock a second Charge Attack as we can’t TM away Frustration during the event, despite more Rocket balloons. Skrelp being shiny should help collectors not going to New York’s Go Fest, as does the return of wild Tyrunt plus Turtonator, Drudigon, and Galarian Weezing (a decent gym defender) in raids. Arguably, if you have the community for it, I’d suggest using those extra passes for Yveltal or Xerneas, which are the 5-star raids at this time, but it’s nice that you have some useful and fun options this time.
PvP players will certainly be excited for the Hisui versions of Sneasel and Qwilfish in raids plus Mareanie via quests. Skorupi and Dratini are also solid picks. Axew is too, but again, you’ll want to wait until the December Community Day round-up event to evolve that one.
For Megas, it’s an odd situation. Poison certainly gets you the best mileage overall and will help deal more damage to Xerneas in raids. Dragon Megas only help so much here though, as Skrelp, Noibat, and task reward Trapinch only get their Dragon typing in their last evolution. Dragons are appearing in several raid scenarios, but remember that you get a candy bonus from any Mega pokemon when catching raid ‘mon, just not XL candy. For wild catches focusing on Poisons, Mega Beedrill is honestly your best pick. For Dragons, Mega Salamence will cover all the normal Dragons plus get energy for Noibat, leaving out Skrelp and Trapinch.
Finally, we have the Spotlight Hours. August 1st’s – today’s – isn’t terrible if you have a bunch of things to evolve or really love Vulpix, as it does have two forms you could power up, but my god, August 8th should not be missed. Paras is one of those pokemon that gives bonus stardust, and at 500 base stardust, it’s already usually better than most pokemon when it doesn’t get a 2x stardust hour. Combining both means that unless this is an error, you really should use star pieces during this Spotlight.
The rest of the month isn’t really anything to write home about aside from August 29th, when you can transfer your dud Go Fest pokemon. As always, check back regularly for updates, and stay safe out there, trainers!
Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
