Full Details: https://leekduck.com/events/minior-showers-orionids-2026/

Timed Research tasks must be completed and all rewards claimed by October 24, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. local time.

Courtesy of LeekDuck

https://leekduck.com/events/minior-showers-orionids-2026/

surprised it isnt 3 but not much of a diff except timesave

You buy the ticket, you schedule the event to your calendar, you drive to the meet up and tap away without even looking at the screen. You catch the new shiny thing that is #1 in its role, power it up and let it rot in your storage.

You buy the ticket, you schedule the event to your calendar, you drive to the meet up and tap away without even using the #1 shiny thing you got last time. Or maybe you use it, but the end result is still the same:

Having or not having that #1 thing fully powered up shiny thing means basically nothing.

For the casual audience, this is absolutely fine. They just want to catch them all, and the IV/Shiny lottery is all they want from GO. They aren't gaming chuds who love masochistic levels of difficulty.

But for the people who "identify" as Trainers, this creates a feeling of pointlessness: why even play, when my dedication, skill or time/money investment doesn't make a difference anywhere in the game?

Sure, there is GBL where hitting Legend ranks or leaderboard requires time investment and skill. However, playing against others is off-putting to many players for various reasons. Some find it stressful, while others get mad over technical issues in a game mode where split-second actions can decide the outcome of a battle. To top it off, slapping clueless kids is the most optimal way to rake in the rewards, so trying to become the very best actually gives you less than being a decent player who smurfs/tanks.

Having a strong roster allows the player to Solo or short-man certain raids, but this is a self-imposed challenge (or a result of unfortunate community situation), and not something that is designed to be a challenge. The rewards are the same for shorthanded teams with day one veterans and little timmy who installed the game 10 minutes ago, and gets carried in a full lobby. This is why soloing/short-manning feels like breathing with a plastic bag on your head. It's just harder than it needs to be, without any incentive to make it harder than it needs to be. And even the "hard" part is debatable, as succeeding in solo raids is still just mindlessly tapping the screen with strong enough team. Skill or strategy play very little role in the outcome.

The mainline Pokemon games have had a "post game" since the dawn of the franchise, and Pokemon Crystal introduced the Battle Tower in the early 2000s, which has become a staple in the console games.

Having endless, increasingly harder content gives a real challenge, a real purpose to get as good and strong as you can, and increases the playtime of the game significantly.

This is something we don't have in GO, but something that we desperately need: PvE content where you can get better as you participate in it, can't get carried by others and most importantly - breathes new life to existing content when the rewards from existing content will help you get further in the "post game" content.

As for rewards, I think most people would be satisfied with cosmetic things for reaching milestones or a number on your player profile that others can see. The rewards don't need to revolutionize the gameplay, but simply act as trophies for "winning".

TL;DR: We need content that justifies Scopely calling us "Trainers", as the training needs to have an in-game purpose. Otherwise we are simply Collectors. While there's nothing wrong with just collecting things, it would be nice to have a choice of being a trainer and having a purpose to be one.

Zamazenta and Zacian, both Hero and Crowned forms, that have 15 attack, 15 defence, and 14 HP IVs, are functional hundos when maxed out, i.e. at levels 50 and 51. Due to rounding, they have the same HPs as true hundos.

So, if you were thinking of using a silver bottle cap on one of these powerful 15/15/14 Pokemon, be aware that there will be no improvement in battles when maxed out.

Still nice to have a true hundo, though. :)

A few months ago, I added a sheet that calculates and lists functional hundos to the Raid Breakpoint Calculator spreadsheet that I continue to maintain.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lKnSiPsbewpaKdKHDg0A9D2ZAgJEdXiU_mkBFqZaOWg/copy

As Minior is shown as Core form in your boxes, my ~1800 CP Minior cannot enter GL despite the fact that under Meteor form its CP would be around ~1100.

This means if you’re interested in using Minior in GL, you’d be using it around lv25 with the Meteor form CP of around 1000.

In UL, Minior-Core can reach 2500 at lv50. Its corresponding CP for Minior-Meteor is around 1600.

Last GO fest I Gold capped my Zacianand right before I almost finished it, I burned out of the game and stopped playing for about a year. I got back this summer and the dog's final missing stat is making me crazy!:D Can I finish it with silver or am I forever doomed?

Hello, battlers. I'm still working on an overview of the entire Fantasy Cup meta ahead of next week, but in the process of doing that, I've run across a huge problem. Put simply: Mimikyu is about to absolutely destroy this format.

Now, I've written about Mimikyu before, before it was even allowed in GBL, and came the conclusion even then that it was completely busted. And while it hasn't completely broken GBL in half, it has become a big part of even Open formats, emerging as a Top 10 Pokémon in the rankings {and at multiple levels) and in actual usage (per the already awesome GoBattleLog), and again, across multiple Leagues. With a unique and potent defensive typing that is weak to only Ghost and Steel damage (and double resists Dragon, Normal, and Bug damage, and triple resists Fighting damage), and its extremely powerful third shield mechanic, it has a LOT going for it.

And now we arrive at Fantasy Cup. Like other Fairies, that double resistance to Dragon damage is a big deal in a format with only three typings, and one of them being Dragon. I'll show the sims in a moment, but despite having only one move that deals super effective damage to Dragons (Play Rough), there is only ONE Dragon in the entire format that can sometimes overcome Mimikyu, and even that one is IV-dependent (and realistically you're never going to actually see it anyway).

Now here's where things start getting crazy. There is also only one single Fairy that reliably beats Mimikyu, and that one is Wigglytuff which, of course, resists Ghost damage thanks to Wiggly's Normal typing.

So that leaves us with Steels, and even there, not many manage to best Mimikyu! Accounting for the Wigglytuff and Appletun we just mentioned, there are less than 10 Steel types that can reliably overcome Mimikyu in 1v1 shielding: Steelix (regular and Shadow), Forretress, Galarian Stunfisk, Ferrothorn, Corviknight, Melmetal, and then a couple things there's basically no chance of encountering (Aron and Shadow Probopass). Additionally, Aggron and Lairon with Metal Sound can force a tie. But that's it... Mimikyu can defeat a whopping 93% of the entire Fantasy Cup format.

Admittedly, Mimikyu is not quite that dominant in other even shield scenarios, but 0shield still hits an 86% winrate, and 2shield drops down to 79%. I mean, when about 80% winning is your LOW point, that's not ideal. That's like Aerodactyl-in-Flying-Cup, Bronzor-in-Little-Cup levels of domination.

The only Fantasy Cup Pokémon that consistently beat Mimikyu in all even shield (well, as "even" as you can get when Mimikyu cheats with its third shield)? WIGGLYTUFF, FORRETRESS (regular, not Shadow), and MELMETAL. That's it... that is the entire list.

STEELIX (both regular and Shadow) wins in the 1shield and 2shield matchups, but not with shields down. EMPOLEON loses in 1v1 shielding, but wins otherwise. Same with CARBINK, who also wins with shields down and with both shields up, but loses the 1shield showdown. CORVIKNIGHT gets 1shield and 0shield matchups, but loses the advantage when the battle pushes to both shields.

And uh... that's really about it. There are a handful of others that win one specific even shield battle scenario against Mimikyu, but that's about the extent of it. Oh, and there's even one more wrinkle that can mess with the above, as Mimikyu could come packing Thunder instead of Play Rough and flip some of those results above like Corviknight and Empoleon, giving up only a couple Dragons (sometimes Zweilous, Hydreigon, and/or Turtonator) to do it and otherwise remaining just as domineering.

Scopely, if you're reading my analyses like I know Niantic used to... any chance you could just ban this thing in Fantasy Cup and be done with it? 🥺 The meta has a much healthier look without it. (Not to mention GBL in general, while we're at it. 🙏)

If not, dear readers, then get whatever few Mimikyu hard counters you have ready. You're gonna need 'em.

I'll still try and push out an analysis on other new and improved stuff in this meta (like Melmetal, which does a LOT more than just consistently outrace Mimikyu) in the coming days, but I didn't want to wait on this one. Scopely, you know what to do! (Please!)

Anyway, until next time, you can often find me on Twitter for Pokémon GO analysis nuggets, or Patreon. Thank you for reading, and good luck in your Fantasy Cup prep (or avoidance! 😅) next week. Catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

I don't know when this began, or if this is a bug or intentional feature, but I don't like how Scopely took away the buddy evolve requirement from the pokemon (i.e. Pancham and Bramlin) before you made it your buddy.

I get it, it's a small change, but it's almost like a "gotcha" if you didn't know the buddy requirement to evolve it and I have the initial thought of "why did you not tell me before I made this a buddy?"

What do you think? Do you like the change?

EDIT: Sorry about the passive aggressiveness. Now realizing this is bug. Hopefully it gets fixed whenever 😅.

I’m kinda on the fence about it and thinking if it’s worth to pursue certain level 4s.

Also do you think that level 3 is enough? Would you focus all the way to 4? Or is 3 to 4 not really worth the 5k energy grind?

I have a suggestion for an improvement I think would be helpful. Many pokemon have evolution requirements like "defeat ghost" (or water or psychic). So I check the raids screen to see what's out there and select my buddy accordingly to knock out these requirements. But when you tap the "Ongoing" raid button, the Type is not there. So I have to go look at what raids are happening then get out and look up the pokemon types It would be a time saving step if the type was on the Ongoing raid screen. Thanks!

I know this looks like I forgot to buy the pass but no I bought it yesterday. I checked my purchase history and it's there.

Gyms seem to still drop 5km and 10km eggs. Hopefully this is a bug that gets fixed and not on purpose.

Edit: Seems like it has been fixed.

( Credits: Pokeminers )

Another event, another feedback thread.

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pretty much the theme would quite obviously be Ancient stuff. the winter season in pokemon go is well known for being super dull however the treasures of ruin being the main addition would hopefully make it alittle more enjoyable. I would like to see them with a small adventure effect for ruination that powers up dark type moves a bit. Now something I really want to see is dynamax Paldean Pokemon because why the hell not so I added pawniard to the new dynamax pokemon area. Shadow Zarude is just something I’d think would be neat but it doesn’t need to happen. Also please give us zen mode!!! I woulda added the Galarian fossils but I feel that would be better for the eventual paradox season.

Free timed research is apparently Hatch an Egg for 1 standard incubator plus 2,026 XP

Premium research is apparently Walk 1km for a star piece, collect 2,000 dust for a super incubator, and collect 4,000 dust for 5,000 XP. Once all 3 steps are complete, you’ll get another super incubator (for a total of 2), 5,000 dust, and another 5,000 XP (for a total of 10,000).

2km eggs are just Sandile only

First time I've noticed you can get 5x mega energy bonus for walking a pokemon.

If you reach Rank 20 on the Fall Marathon GO Pass (free):

Rank 20: Tier 2 GO Pass Bonus: 5× Mega Energy from exploring with Electrike or Manectric as your buddy after Mega Evolving Manectric at least once

That's 75 mega energy for 3km of buddy walking.

Throw in a poffin and you're at 75 mega energy for 1.5km of walking.

That's 100km of walking (with poffin) for 5000 energy (req'd for lvl4).

Still a ton of walking but much more obtainable if you don't get to too many raids!