Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s May is about maxing (battles)

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Andrew Ross
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Pokemon Go’s buyout by Scopely still hasn’t resulted in a full transition yet, but for this month’s potential impact, we may be seeing some spicing up of the Max Battles scene. Oh, there’s some other stuff, and it’s not like Niantic themselves would be doing this had the sale never happened, but it really feels like Max Battle options this month stand out as at least interesting compared to normal content, which in some cases is looking painfully unfun. I’m no fan of the Max Battles, but even I can see there’s at least one gem to look forward to this May.

While we’ll discuss all the usual May events in today’s Massively on the Go, we will also be taking a bit more time to talk about the Max options and what they may mean. Let’s dig in.

Let’s start with the red meat this time and go over Max Battles. We’ll go into event particulars later, but briefly, only Gigantamax Machamp at the end of May will really have any impact within the Max Battle system. Dynamax Rookidee at least makes it easier to get Corviknight, which isn’t useful in and of itself. Blissey is generally the new tank queen, but when Corvi’s Gmax form comes out, it’ll be good against Grass types (and Bugs, but those tend to be weak), so you may want to at least save candy for that.

Sableye isn’t terribly useful in the Max Battle scene either, but it has a few things going for it. Admittedly, the battle may be a bit rough since we have no Fairy-types in the scene yet, but Excadrill, Gmax Kingler, Gmax Toxtricity, and other high-damage ‘mon that deal neutral damage should work. Why suffer through a battle, though? Because Sableye has PvP uses, is a very useful Mega (if you’ve got the energy), and grants bonus stardust when caught. It’s not a bad option to farm if you have time, patience for the Max battle system, and particles to burn.

But Gmax Machamp is where it’ll be at. It’s not a bad gym ‘mon for new players, but it’ll be the best Fighting-type Max ‘mon we get. To prep for it, if you didn’t get a really good Moltres, farm some Pidove for damage. Gastly may be OK for tanking actually when fully evolved, as its Ghost and Poison typings make it very resistant to Fighting in POGO (in the main series, Fighting deals no damage to Ghost types, if you’re used to those rules), so even though it’s seen as glassy, it may be fine. Add in that it has great energy generation for frequent Dynamaxing and you’ve got a terrific tank on your hands!

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For regular 5-star raids, woof. Tapu Fini has some use in both Ultra and Master Leagues, and Tapu Bulu has better use in Master League, but neither is really great in the raid scene. That goes double-triple-quadruple-infinity for the Lake Trio. These are just not useful pokemon, at all. They are region restricted, so new players may want to jump in and grab one from raid invites around the world, but unless you’re a big fan of them or a major collector of shinies, dear Arceus, any raid would be better for you. Anecdotally, I’ve heard and even experienced more of them in the wild, as they can spawn on the game map on rare occasions, and currently do not flee, so don’t waste a Master Ball catching one. Ultimately, these are highly skippable.

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For Megas, Mega Houdoom and Mega Gary aren’t terrible in terms of utility, the best use for Megas (as opposed to combat because few raids are really that difficult). Heck, Gyarados saw good use in the recent Water/Dark themed event, though those are rare. Mega Altaria isn’t terrible either, and may be slightly more useful as Fairy/Dragon events aren’t unheard of. That being said, as with most Megas, once you’ve Mega’d them once, doing their raids really isn’t worth it, and that goes double for Mega Gyarados during the Lake Trio’s run. Gary still has its uses and is expensive to evolve, but it’s so common as not really be worth it unless you’re very new to the game and very impatient.

Shadow Regirock for weekend battles starting on May 4th is, uh, a thing, but much like Shadow Registeel, this is a PvP pokemon at best. You could hit it while the Lake Trio’s around if you see enough people, but yeesh, there may be better 1-star or 3-star options. This is exactly why Max Raids are looking more promising this month, but there’s an extra thing to consider here: Normal raids aren’t as expensive as Max Raids.

I’m hoping I’m wrong, but I do fear that in the coming months, we may see Max Raids getting more “meaty” raid options so Scopely can try to begin making its money back. There’s no insider information, rumors, or strong hints here; it’s just something to consider and watch out for, as it feels like this is the first time one could argue the Max Raids seem more interesting.

5/7 Update: Unsurprisingly, we have an update to the Shadow and Max raid systems coming. May 13th, just in time for the Rocket takeover, Shadow Raids will be remoateable and the daily remote raid cap will increase to 10. Similarly, in preparation for the Gmax Machamp event, Max Raids will be remote raidable but they will require a remote pass and the particles for entrance at assumingly the same cost, though in-person raiders will now get more Premier Balls and xp. Also, the particle cap will increase from 1000 to 1500 particles.

For events, we have Growing Up from May 2nd-7th. Remember what I said about Magikarp and Gyarados? This is partially why. Lots of the 400 candy ‘mon will be out in the wild, Rookidee is an event spawn (and we mentioned above why you may want to grab some of its candy), Riolu in 2k eggs, Mime Jr (a European regional ‘mon) in 5k eggs, Toxel in 10k eggs, plus double hatch candy. Yes, it is a bit of an egg event, but the wild spawns allowing for farming of expensive ‘mon is nice.

Speaking of regionals, we also get Mega Kangaskhan Raid Day on May 3rd as part of the event. Ignore the note on the infograph above; you’ll want to use Mega Lopunny if you’re in a huge group to both speed up the Fighting damage and to get extra XL candy. Or just use any Mega Normal type. It’s probably not going to be a difficult fight and it’s not a great pokemon, so unless you’re in Australia, this is one of the few chances the rest of the world has to farm candy. Oh, yeah, it gets Stomp too, but really, it’s not a big deal right now. That could change, but again, barring Abilities or some new mechanic, Mega Kanga won’t be getting as strong as its main game series counterpart.

Then we have Crown Clash from May 10th-18th. No, the above Nidoking and Nidoqueen are not an artist’s rendition of the new models; that’s what we’re getting, and yes, it does kind of look like someone slapped Burger King crowns on them. It doesn’t get much better though, as you can see that to evolve a Bisharp to Kingambit, you need to make Bisharp your buddy and defeat 15 Steel or Dark-type raid bosses. That’s roughly 15 days or $15 to evolve a mediocre pokemon. That’s basically the whole event. There are guaranteed XL candy for evolving pokemon after finishing the collection quest, but there’s not a lot to get out of that for this event unless you’ve been hoarding stuff to evolve.

If you really want a Kingambit, the one thing I suggest is prepping your Bisharp(s) by at least Buddying up for a pet and a picture each day until it hits Great Friends or Go Fest begins, then using it when Battling the Steel Zacian/Zamazenta forms. This does assume you’ll have a community that can take them reasonably easily so you can waste a raid slot (unless we find out it only needs to be your buddy and not also in your party, which would be new), but you’ll probably do a reasonable amount of raiding anyway, so you could kill two birds with one stone.

On May 10th and 11th, we’ll have Max Suicune Raid Day. Honestly, you could probably skip this. It’s a tanky water type that doesn’t have PvP or PvE relevance. It’s shiny is cool, so I guess there’s that. Gmax Venusaur or Toxtricity will probably be best for damage, though Rillaboom isn’t bad, and as usual, Blissey will probably be your go-to tank.

And if having two events overlapping wasn’t enough, we also have Pawmi Community Day on May 11th. That doesn’t feel like it fits the theme, and it’s not a useful pokemon (even in PvP), but at least it’s a new shiny, with 1/4 hatch distance and easier evolution requirements for nearly a week. Primal Kyogre is your best buddy during this, as it’ll generate bonus xp/candy for Pawmi and Max Battle Suicune, plus any Combee that may pop up for a stardust bonus.

We’re not done with Crown Clash yet. May 14th-18th is Crown Clash Taken Over, meaning Rockets will be involved. We’ll a new legendary ‘mon to take from Giovanni (Shadow Dialga, an upgrade), the ability to TM away Frustration, and more Rockets spawning by balloon and on Pokestops. We’ll get some new Shadow ‘mons too, and some are pretty useful. Shadow Tyrantrum with Meteor Beam will be useful for raids, and for PvP, Malamar and Aurorus are looking at least a bit better to our favorite PvP analyst, JRE. What’s nice is that Shadow Gurdurr and Piloswine will be in 3-star raids. One could possibly even solo these instead of doing the Lake Trio, but keep in mind (especially if you want to save purify gems), you’ll basically need to use a powerful high-level Mega counter (Rayquaza for Gurdurr, Kyogre for Pilo), and basically just back and and max revive the Mega every time it faints. Not the best/most fun option, but it’s there.

Part of that will be a Shadow Raid Day on May 17th. Some people are hoping for Shadow Mewtwo’s return, others wonder if Lugia needs to come back again, and still others wonder if it’ll be Shadow Regigigas, as we’ve had so many Shadow Regis already. Again, we’ll have to wait and see.

5/2 Update: And it seems Team Shadow Regigigas was correct! Much like with Mega Kangaskhan Raid Day, I recommend Mega Lopunny due to it increasing the candy/XP received from Normal types while also being able to boost Fighting damage, though you will want to go in with 4-5 people on average, especially if using Mega Lopunny. That being said though, remember that Normal types really don’t have much use in PvE, and Regigigas in any form doesn’t do much in the PvP scene. Unless you’re a big fan of the ‘mon, this could be a skippable or minimum play event.

Big things are probably happening May 21st-27th for Final Strike: GO Battle Week. We’ll most likely finally be able to evolve our Kubfus into an Urshifu, and I wonder if perhaps it’s also when we’ll get Max Soup, or at least hints of it, as that’s the only way Urshifu can get its Gigantamax form in the main game series. But as this is a new and unique event, we’ll have to wait for details on this event to be released later.

5/6 Update: As predicted, this is the event that allows us to evolve Kubfu, but no mention of Max Soup yet. Overall, it’s not looking like a great event, outside of extra raid passes once you complete whatever the event main quest ends up being. For those keeping score at home, the Dark Kubfu evolution will probably be better than the Water one, though it does often compete and lose against Gmax Gengar. However, for either path, you need to defeat 30 raid bosses of that evolution’s typing, and with this coming hot on the heels of the Bisharp raid evolution requirements, I think it’s fair to say painful, raid-required buddy evolutions are going to continue for a while here. It may be a Scopely decision, but it’s built on the overburdened Buddy System Niantic failed to alleviate.

During that event though, we have two other events. The first is a Community Day Classic on May 24th. There are rumors that this may be a Machop Community Day, but we don’t know yet. The other event is the Gigantamax Machamp Raid Day on May 25th, which is why people worry about a Machop CD repeat. Again, GMax Machamp is going to be worthwhile. Moltres is probably your best bet for Damage and Gmax Gengar will probably be a good tank, but we’ll update this should new information unfold.

5/6 Update: Yup, as predicted, the May CDC is Machop. Unless you’re new to the game or short on Machop XL Candy for the Gmax Machamps you can obtain the following day, this is a fairly skippable CDC outside of the 3x stardust bonus.

5/7 Update: And don’t forget, you can remote raid for this and future Gmax events, you just have to use a remote raid pass and the particles for entry.

And as always, let’s end with the Spotlight Hours. Double catch candy and Furfrou on May 6th isn’t bad if you’re a new player who plans on traveling internationally, either for the summer or specifically for a Go Fest. Double Transfer candy and Sandygast don’t exactly go together well on May 13th, as you normally would want to trade and transfer away the bad ones due to relative rarity, but it’s not bad and at least lets you clear out the bad ‘mons you got during the Growing Up event.

Speaking of the Growing Up event, patient new players may want to wait to evolve new pokedex entries until May 20th’s double evolve bonus. Poochyena spawns are practically meaningless, though. Golett’s slight better, and more loved, but it doesn’t exactly match the May 27th bonus stardust. Still, extra dust is nice nonetheless.

A lot is up in the air this May, so check back here throughout the month for updates as Scopliantic slow-feeds us info. 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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