This past weekend, we had the opportunity to participate in the Pokemon Go 2023 Go Fest; the event took place on Saturday and Sunday, August 26th and August 27th. Trainers who had already participated in the Tokyo or New York City Pokemon Go Fests had their tickets carried over to the global event. The event was primarily focused around the release of Mega Diancie and the release of Mega Rayquaza. For those who attended the prior event, their candies from prior events carried over. Although many trainers were excited about Mega Rayquaza, they had to wait until Sunday to participate in the Mega Rayquaza raids.

Day One

Looking back at the two days, Day One by far was rather lackluster. Yes, it is nice to have an opportunity to catch shiny Pokemon but there wasn’t really anything worth hunting outside of Shiny Goomy. Throughout the first day, each hour the spawning biomes would change granting trainers access to new Pokemon. Most of the Pokemon found in each biome were pretty basic and nothing to tell your friends about.

In fact, the only thing noteworthy in each biome was the appearance of Heracross and Carnivine. Probably the most exciting Pokemon to catch in all of the biomes were the Pikachus wearing a crown and the Snorlax wearing a top hat. Outside of that, everything was pretty standard; trainers had the chance to encounter 50 different shiny Pokemon; trainers who were looking for regional variants could find both East and West Sea Shellos in normal and shiny form.

On both days, trainers were given 9 raid passes in order to compete in raids. Despite being able to catch different Pokemon each hour, most trainers spent the day either battling against Carbink or the Primal Legendaries. Trainers could battle against Primal Kyogre and Groundon; successful raiders then had the chance to try and catch Groudon and Kyogre. Lucky trainers had the chance to encounter Shiny Kyogre and Shiny Groudon. During our time completing these raids, we did not encounter a shiny Legendary. We did catch a few Carbink but nothing that was noteworthy.

Day Two

On the second day of Pokemon Go Fest, we spent the majority of our time attempting and completing the Mega Rayquaza raid. Apparently, Rayquaza was our lucky Pokemon because we found six Shiny Rayquazas. Sadly, none of the Rayquazas we encountered were perfect. Throughout day 2, the game was more of a free-for-all with all of the Pokemon from the day before spawning randomly. If you missed any of the Pokemon, it was a great day to complete the Pokemon Go Fest challenges.

Trainers who looked to evolve Rayquaza into Mega Rayquaza needed a special Meteorite; this meteorite gave Rayquaza the unique move Dragon Ascent. Once a Rayquaza knew the move Dragon Ascent, trainers could evolve Rayquaza into Mega Rayquaza by using 400 Mega Rayquaza Energy. In order to earn this much energy, you would need to complete at least six Mega Rayquaza raids.

Special Attacks During the Event

During the event, certain Pokemon could learn special moves; these are the Pokemon that could learn new special attacks.

• Evolve Metapod during the event to get a Butterfree that knows the Fast Attack Bug Bite.
• Evolve Sandshrew during the event to get a Sandslash that knows the Charged Attack Night Slash.
• Evolve Clefairy during the event to get a Clefable that knows the Fast Attack Pound.
• Evolve Vibrava during the event to get a Flygon that knows the Charged Attack Earth Power.
• Evolve Shelgon during the event to get a Salamence that knows the Charged Attack Outrage.
• Evolve Metang during the event to get a Metagross that knows the Charged Attack Meteor Mash.
• Evolve Roselia during the event to get a Roserade that knows both the Fast Attack Bullet Seed and the Fire-type Charged Attack Weather Ball.
• Evolve Lickitung during the event to get a Lickilicky that knows the Charged Attack Body Slam.

Takeaways

As a Pokemon Go trainer since the very beginning, there was love and hatred toward the 2023 Pokemon Go Fest. Although you get your money’s worth just in raid passes. Outside of Carbink and Mega Raqyuaza, the event itself felt rather empty. Raids are one thing, but there wasn’t really anything special to get us out and go. Pokemon Go Fest 2023 could have been excellent if Niantic chose to release a new generation. Earlier this year, Niantic teased the release of Gen 9 in Pokemon Go; this could have been an excellent time to release Gen 8 and have trainers out in full force.

Pokemon Go Fest still can be an enjoyable time with friends, but the days of needing to go out to truly enjoy it are over, at least for now. If you are a casual player, then Pokemon Go Fest was a great opportunity.  A code was provided by Niantic to check out Pokemon Go Fest 2023.