Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s August is leaning into Adventure

By
Andrew Ross
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I must admit that Pokemon Go’s traditional Adventure Week events have historically been a minor hit with me as they feature the fossil ‘mon I love, but they also tend to have niche use in the game. However, this August, Niantic is giving us both the vanilla and a new “Taken Over” version, most likely involving Team Go Rocket, which would mean new Shadows.

After the humdrum Go Fest this year in a July that was equally average, Massively on the Go is here to hopefully find some other things to be excited about this August – if the last-day Community Day isn’t there as a warning sign for a disappointing September season.

Let’s start with the five-star raids: Just forget them.

Moltres’ Shadow has already been released so the vanilla one is hard to get excited for outside of farming for candy, unless it’ll come with Sky Attack, which hasn’t been hinted at. Similarly, regular Thundurus isn’t anything to be excited about either. And again, Shadow Suicune has little to no relevance yet is the toughest Shadow Raid of the three legendary beasts. Only Xerneas vaguely stands out, as it’s among the best Fairy ‘mon we have to date, though again, it has a legacy move (Geomancy) that isn’t being advertised. Luckily, it’s a fast move, and those are rarely worth using Elite TMs for, so if you get a good Xerneas without Geomancy, at least you can use a Fast Elite TM for once.

Megas are slightly better. Mega Aerodactly, while not on our best investments list, is still a very good Mega to have ready. I actually keep four myself, but it’s because of a mix of my location and preferences, not necessarily what’s best for all players, though it is one I still tell people to get. Mega Kangaskhan isn’t very useful at all, but it’s also a regional, so it may be worth hitting for collectors and some traders. And while Mega Salamence is outranked by Mega Rayquaza, it’s a good one to have for those who can’t invest in multiple Mega Rays. In all, it’s almost embarrassing how much better our August Mega options are compared to the usually more useful five-star raids.

7/29 Update: August 3rd will be an event makeup for that awful Mega Rayquaza Elite Raid Day we reported on back in June. At 11am, 1pm, and 6pm there’ll be tons of Mega Rays in gyms, and yes, we get research for a Meteorite again. However, players have noted that Niantic has not called this an Elite raid and have in fact pushed that there will be remote raid pass limit increases, essentially meaning this will be a normal Mega Raid event! That means remote raids, lower difficulty, more rewards (particularly balls), and Niantic essentially admitting, at least on this occasion, that Elite Raids didn’t work. That’s a huge step in finally admitting that Elite Raids aren’t right for the playerbase. Hopefully the June one was the last time we’ll see this almost universally hated feature.

Then there’s Adventure Week from August 2nd-12th. There’s not a ton going on during this for veteran players, but Aerodactyl, Cranidos, Drillbur, and Tyrunt all have uses, even if it’s just getting candy for their Shadow forms. New players or those still grinding out the bonus levels between 40-50 have tons of XP bonuses to enjoy.

During that, though, from August 8th-12th, is Adventure Week: Taken Over. This means Team Rocket will do something during this time, so we may expect new Shadows, TMing away Frustration, more Rockets to battle, and possibly Giovanni getting a new ‘mon, which people are guessing will be the mighty Shadow Rayquaza. That’s certainly a possibility, given that we’ve gotten Shadow Groudon and Shadow Kyogre recently, but we’ll see. I would bet that, at the least, we’ll be seeing more Fossil ‘mon as Shadows, possibly even Shadow Tyrunts, which would be pretty useful. As always, though, check back later as we learn more details.

7/29 Update: And now we have details on the event. While Giovanni has Shadow Cresselia instead of the expected Shadow Rayquaza, PvP analyst JRE’s quick assessment is that it’ll be at least a side grade. Shadow Lugia Raid weekend is still meh. The new Fossil Shadows are cute but Shadow Timburr is a big deal, replacing Shadow Machamp as the top non-legendary Fighter, so be ready to hit Fighting Rockets hard during this event. As always, have your Charged TMs ready to remove Frustration from current Shadows or ones you get during the event.

Along with the stacking Adventure weeks is the Shadow Raid Weekend from August 11th-12th. Rumor has it that we’re getting Shadow Lugia, as we recently raided Shadow Ho-Ohs. The problem is that Shadow Lugia is harder and arguably less useful, though it’s still in the top 100 for Master League PvP. For raiders, don’t bother if Shadow Raids are already a struggle for you. I just can’t see it being worth the effort unless required for Giovanni.

8/9 Update: Unsurprisingly, much like buggy Elite Raids, buggy Shadow raids are once again buggy for the Shadow Lugia Raid weekend. However, like Elite Mega Rayquaza makeups and the not-yet-scheduled makeup Go Fest Backgrounds quests, Niantic is actually providing standard customer service by owning its error and offering a fix and even minor reimbursement for those affected. Niantic making errors is nothing new, but being more proactive about make-ups before hate campaigns start up is. Enjoy your Enraged-less Shadow Lugia weekend, trainers!

August 16th-20th is Pokemon Worlds Championships and Battle Weekend. Most likely, we’ll have more wild pokemon that are often used in PvP, 100 pvp battles permissible per day (up from 20), some Twitch-based bonuses for those who tune in, and maybe some branching quest that’ll help new players build a team within the current meta as Niantic’s done in the past. Once again, though, we’ll see what pans out as we wait for official information.

8/2 Update: We now have official event details and while we correctly predicted everything but a branching questline (that seems absent), there’s more neat stuff than we expected, and that goes beyond Pikachu’s scuba costume being the best costume ‘chu in ages. The debut of shiny Mienfoo is fine, but being able to TM away Frustration and do 5 special trades per day is a great event bonus. Lickitung caught during the event will have Body Slam (no word on TMing for it), which hasn’t been available since February 2020, right before COVID, and High Jump Kick Mienfoo is new. Evolving to Quagsire, Charjabug, Talonflame, and Altaria will unlock their Community Day moves. It’s a rare win, and rarer that it’s happening around a PvP based event.

8/16 Update: If you’ve tuned into Twitch and noted your reward was the Day 2 bonus, well, that was an error and The Pokemon Company is basically just saying, “Oops, they’re flipped, deal with it!” While it’s possible TPC made an error and is owning up to it, they could just be taking a hit for Niantic, as the latter is much more known for these kinds of small, frequent errors.

During that on August 18th is Community Day Classic. There’s a lot of hope that this’ll be the return of Beldum, but I don’t see any strong hints one way or another, so as always, check back later.

8/7 Update: Seems the rumors were true, as Niantic basically announced that it’s Beldum.

August 23rd-30th is a new event called Triumph Together. This could include rewards based on the winners of the Pokemon Worlds Championships or something else entirely. Again, we’ll update y’all once we learn more.

8/19 Update: We now have official details on the event and it’s more team-leader/theme based. Think of it as a Rocket spawn/hatching/stardust/XL candy event, with a side of hats (for Grimer and Slakoth lines). If you didn’t get a good Beldum during the recent (and quite popular with my communities) Beldum Community Day, the Mystic unlock should help you get one or more for the December round-up. Same goes for Goomy, Cyndaquil, and Tynamo. Tandamaus’ availability also gives collectors more chances to hit the 1/100 odds of evolving it into a family of three Maushold. Not a bad event, all things considered!

Oddly, Community Day is on the last day of the month this time, but August 31st will be Popplio’s Day. The 3x catch xp is nice for those who are still grinding, but sadly, from what we know, Primarina is just OK for PvE and possibly above average for Master League. It does currently have some use in gym defense, but that’s without its CD move.

It should be noted that new charge move, Sparkling Aria, is also being released, and the damage numbers are nearly identical to Hydro Canon’s. Unless it gets a neat cantrip in PvP and/or has a lower energy cost to use than HC, Sparkling Aria may just be a filler move for those who need a good Water ‘mon in the future outside of Community Day events. As always, though, we’ll update this as we learn more.

Now let’s close out with the Spotlight Hours. Drilbur’s an odd choice for August 6th’s Adventure Week pick, but it is spawning during the event, and it’s a useful pokemon my friends often overlooked. Don’t be like them! Lileep’s part of the Taken Over portion of the event and somewhat fits, but both it and Drilbur’s bonus currently look better for new players than veterans.

August 20th is nice as Mankey’s now useful for Primeape, a solid gym defender and PvP pick, but it’s also a double transfer candy day. It’s the one Spotlight Hour you don’t want to miss this month.

Finally, Magnemite and double evolution XP close out the month on August 27th, but it’s really not something to get excited about. In all, you can probably skip half of the Spotlights this month, but at least we get two useful ‘mon out of it.

As always, though, check back 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!
Pokemon Go studio Niantic is considered a controversial gaming company owing to multiple scandals and deceptions, starting with the Wi-Spy privacy scandal; over the years, it’s repeatedly failed to secure player data, endangered players during the pandemic, and refused to address documented stalking in POGO. It also rolled back popular accessibility features to incentivize data collection, faked data, and lied about event results. Following 2021’s community-driven Pokemon No boycott, Niantic vowed transparency and communication; it has not delivered.
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