Here’s the schedule for when Legendary Pokémon will come and go in Pokémon GO

Ever since the first Legendary Pokémon (read: ultra strong, ultra rare Pokémon that require groups of 10-20 players to capture) appeared in Pokémon GO shortly after the upset that was GO Fest, one thing has remained unclear: were the Legendaries here to stay?

Niantic had multiple in-game events/bonuses running in parallel with scheduled ending times, and no one seemed to know if these ending times also affected Legendaries. Everyone seemed to have heard something different, and no one really seemed to have a clear answer.

Niantic CEO John Hanke has just released the most official answer yet, releasing a proper schedule for the comings and goings of the next few Legendaries to hit the game.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Articuno (Team Mystic’s mascot) was released on July 22nd and will be available through Monday, July 31st
• Moltres (Valor’s mascot) will be released on Monday, July 31st and will be available through Monday, August 7th
• Zapdos (Instinct’s mascot) will be released on Monday, August 7th and will be available through Monday, August 14th

Curiously, no word yet on whether Lugia (the other Legendary released on July 22nd) will hang around.

It may seem weird to have something come and go like this — particularly something that most players will want and be upset to miss. But releasing them all at once would keep people interested for a day or two, max — staggering them like this keeps them popping back in for weeks at a time.

And will these birds ever make appearances down the road, after their initial in-game stints are through? No word on that yet, either — but I’d bet on yes. It would be a bit weird (and self-defeating) if newcomers were never able to get their hands on them. For many, Pokémon has always been about completing a collection; if your collection will always be missing some of the game’s most substantial ‘mon, why bother?

Pokémon Go fans enraged as first festival ends in connectivity disaster

Developer booed on stage as gamers left unable to connect to play popular augmented reality game after mobile networks and servers overloaded

The first ever, official Pokémon Go Fest collapsed into chaos on Saturday, after attendees who had queued for hours for the chance to catch Legendary Pokémon Lugia found the game almost unplayable due to overloaded mobile phone networks.

Developer Niantic has apologised to fans, offering a full refund on the $20 ticket, $100 worth of in-game Pokécoins, and giving a Lugia to all registered attendees, but the event still casts a shadow over what was supposed to be a very public celebration of the game’s first anniversary.

Taking place in Chicago’s Grant Park, Pokémon Go Fest featured real-world amenities like photo opportunities with Pokémon and talks from Niantic employees. But the big draw was supposed to be in the virtual world: challenges for the three Pokémon Go teams – Valor, Mystic and Instinct – a medal for visitors and a plethora of rare Pokémon in the area, in addition to the chance to be among the first in the world to capture the first of the new legendary Pokémon to come to the game called Lugia.

But trouble started almost immediately. From 6am on the day – four hours before the event was due to start – players were complaining they were unable to log in, as the concentration of high-bandwidth connections swamped, then collapsed, mobile networks in the area.

By 2pm, Niantic had acknowledged the issue, though not in time to prevent its chief executive being booed as he took to the stage, to chants from the audience of “we can’t play!”

“I spent more time trying to get the game to load than I have playing it,” one attendee told The Verge."

With the festival over, Pokémon Go fans are now free to try and find Lugia worldwide. A second legendary Pokémon, Articuno, has also been added to the game.

Both Pokémon are caught rather differently from traditional ones, with a number of players in the same area needing to join in with a “raid”, and fight en masse to take down the legendary Pokémon. The raids are joinable for up to two hours, and if enough players take part and win the fight, they’ll all have the opportunity to throw Pokéballs at the legendary Pokémon to try and catch it.

Pokémon Go Players Are Preparing For Legendaries By Powering Up Golem

Legendaries are typically the most powerful monsters in the compendium, so getting one this weekend is likely going to be tough. Fortunately, players are already figuring out the most efficient counters to all the possibilities.

During the legendaries trailer, we can spot a handful of familiar faces: Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, Ho-oh, Lugia, and even Mewtwo. Technically, the second generation of legendaries should also include the likes of creatures like Suicune and Celebi, but they weren’t actually pictured in the footage at all. Judging by how heavily Pokémon Go has emphasized the birds already—they are, after all, the emblems for the different teams—and judging by the trailer itself, it seems like a pretty good bet that the first legendary is going to be a bird. Hell, we know that the birds are already in the game, they’re just not widely available yet.

It would follow, then, that you want a monster that can take down a legendary bird. For months now, players have theorized that one of the best possible match-ups is Golem. It’s a funny choice—Golem isn’t the first critter that comes to mind when you think of strong Pokémon, and he’s not exactly tearing up competitive Pokémon in the main games. Still, some of the most hardcore players out there are powering up Golems right now, or at least recommending that everyone do so.

Golem, you see, is a rock / ground-type monster that has a max CP of 2916 and an attack of 211. This means he’ll be effective against Articuno, Moltres, and Lugia, all of which are weak to rock, and he’ll be effective against Zapdos, because ground-type is strong against electricity. No surprise, then, that players specifically want Golem with with Rock Throw, Stone Edge, or Rock Blast, all of which A) can actually hit their flying targets B) are powerful moves. If you have a Golem, and the Stardust/Candy to spare, it might not be a bad idea to start beefing that rock up to prepare for the upcoming legendary raids.

Evidence is mounting that Legendary Pokémon are coming to 'Pokémon Go' very soon

After more than a year of speculation, evidence is mounting that ultra-powerful Legendary Pokémon are coming to Pokémon Go very soon.

Pokémon Go creator Niantic Labs has never publicly acknowledged that Legendaries are coming or given an expected release date, but there are several reasons to believe we'll see creatures like Mewtwo and Lugia in a matter of days.

If you don't know, Legendaries are extremely rare and powerful Pokémon from the original game series. And until now, they've been completely absent from Pokémon Go, even as the game has added more creatures from the second generation of Pokémon.

All signs point towards Niantic finally unleashing Legendaries at the first-ever Pokémon Go Fest event in Chicago's Grant Park on July 22. The ticketed event is expected to draw 20,000 players, hearkening to the game's original video trailer that showed thousands of players fighting Mewtwo together in Times Square.

Here's all of the evidence that points to the imminent release of Legendaries in Pokémon Go:

• An analysis of the app's code in late June by The Silph Road found new references to Legendaries, including the fact that they'll be encountered through the game's recently released Raid Battle feature.
• The Silph Road believes that Legendaries won't be able to defend gyms (likely because of how powerful they will be in relation to normal Pokémon), but the site says that Legendaries should be able to attack gyms alongside normal Pokémon.
• Graphics have also been uncovered in the game's code for dark Legendary eggs, badges, and a Legendary raid pass.
• A recent promotional banner for Pokémon Go in the Indian App Store mentioned "the first legendary Pokémon."
• Niantic has been covertly testing tier 5 Raid Battles in the game. Players have spotted the tests in the nearby tab, but haven't been able to find the raids on the map. The highest Raid Battle tier currently available is tier 4.
• Niantic announced earlier this week that players at July 22's Chicago event will have to participate in special challenges alongside players around the world to unlock a worldwide "Mystery Challenge." Based on the game's first trailer, lots of players will have to participate in a Raid Battle together to take down Legendaries.
• The Pokémon Go Fest event in Chicago will feature an "Ultimate Gym," which suggests that Legendaries will first be unveiled there.

6 Fantastic Pokémon GO Gameplay Videos

Video game developer Niantic is busy toiling away in its development studio right now. You’ve probably never heard of the studio before, but it’s tasked with the biggest game launch of the year: Pokémon GO.

Pokémon GO is a complete rebuild of the game franchise that millions have fallen in love with since the early 1990s. In this game, you’re still a Pokémon Trainer trying to fill your Pokedex and discover new creatures. You’ll still use PokéBalls for containing wild Charizards. You’ll still need to train your Pokémon so that they’re as powerful as possible.

What’s different is where all of this takes place. Your city or town is the game’s region. Using GPS technology embedded in mobile devices, the map that you explore in the game is the area in which you live. Cameras overlay wild Pokémon in real-world locations. Pokémon GO is not played on a Nintendo handheld. Instead, Nintendo and Niantic plan to let iPhone and Android users download the game completely free.



Nintendo and Niantic haven’t talked a lot about Pokémon GO publicly. They’ve confirmed that the game will be free to all with an iPhone or device running Android. They’ve also showcased the assisted reality features of the game, but remained quiet on a lot of its other mechanics outside that. Almost everything we know about the game now is thanks to videos posted to video sharing websites by Pokémon GO Field Tests.

Capturing a Pokémon in Pokémon GO

Niantic is making its mark on the franchise by taking a different approach to a lot of the things that Pokémon players are familiar with. One of them is the simple act of capturing a creature to begin with. Pokémon GO is not something that you can play stationary. You’ll need to walk around your neighborhood to encounter Gyms, Stops and wild creatures.

When you do encounter a wild creature, expect a very, very different experience to the one you may be used to on the Nintendo 3DS, GameBoy Advanced and GameBoy Color.

Evolving Pokémon in Pokémon GO

Almost no mechanic has gone untouched in this game. One of the more controversial changes is how Evolution works. Instead of evolving a creature through leveling, Evolution Shards are needed.

In this video we see one Pokémon GO Field tester trying out the mechanic by evolving one of his creatures using Evolution Shards. The amount of Evolution Shards it takes to evolve a creature will grow as that creature becomes more powerful.

Trainer Customization & Look

Because Pokémon GO isn’t aiming to let you take on the mantle of someone else, but feel like you’re a real-life Trainer, customization is key. More than a few pieces of leaked gameplay footage include breakdowns of the game’s character customization.

Besides skin tone, look forward to choosing your clothing style, shoes and more.

Real-Time Training Battles

No one would ever describe a Pokémon battle in any version as boring. That being said, Niantic is taking things up a notch with this new game. Instead of turn-based training, battles happen in real-time with Pokémon GO. What that means is that every training session at a GYM is an all-out brawl between two creatures, with moves being exchanged at a pretty fast pace.

Pokémon GO Eggs, Stops & the Map

Pokémon Eggs are present in Pokémon GO, giving players the opportunity to raise their own creatures in addition to capturing any wild ones around them. This gameplay video breaks down the act of capturing a wild creature and hanging out at any of the many PokéStops players will find at well-known landmarks around their city or town.

Pokémon GO Economy

With the game’s release apparently near, the Pokémon GO Field Test is getting a lot of new content lately. The latest update, according to those in territories where it’s available, finally included hints at the game’s economy.


Pokémon GO will be absolutely free to download and play, but it won’t be entirely free. If players choose, they’ll be able to purchase things using PokéCoins from the game’s built-in store. The video above breaks down what’s already available with PokéCoins and what will be available in the future, according to Niantic.

Players can purchase PokéBalls. Also available are storage upgrades, so that players can carry more items in their backpack and have more captured Pokémon at the ready.

Look out for more Pokémon GO videos and leaks to arrive as the summer begins. So far, Niantic and Nintendo remain committed to launching Pokémon GO and the Pokémon GO Plus, an accessory that’ll allow players to enjoy the game without gazing at their screens all-day, sometime this year. We assume that the release will come sometime before the fall because Nintendo and The Pokémon Company confirmed Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon release in November.