Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s July spread is basically just marking time until Go Fest

By
Andrew Ross
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It’s not particularly surprising that, once again, Pokemon Go isn’t really sharing a lot of details about what’s in store for the month of July. Aside from the upcoming Go Fest July 13th-14th, the latest July teaser really isn’t telling us a whole lot. In fact, without any silhouettes to tease potential content, it’s looking like slim pickings.

While Massively on the Go will cover prep and post Go Fest goodness later in July, today we’re trying to pick through the bones of Niantic’s July announcement. Hope you’re hungry for Go Fest, as there may not be much else for a while!

Let’s start with the raid situation, as Necrozma’s Go Fest Fusions are absolutely broken for raids, so you may want to be careful on where you use your Premium Passes. While Go Fest will make the Ultra Beasts Global, you’ll have to deal with local raid limitations outside of that event. Guzzlord is basically just for PvP, as are Buzzwole, Celesteela, and Stakataka (if even that for the last two). Pheramosa is a major glass cannon, as is Blacephalon, so they’re basically used for raids if you’re feeling glassy. Nihilego, Kartana, and Xurkitree are safe bets, especially the latter two as their types are more useful. The other two non-UBs aren’t really worth it, aside from limited use for Articuno if you 1) have a good Shadow to power, 2) use it in PvP, or 3) have a good Galarian one you want to power up for kicks.

Shadow Entei comes back for the weekends, and it’s not a terrible Fire type, but July probably isn’t the month to be blowing raid passes here. If you need it, I’d hit it only with free passes July 6th-7th, and probably again after the 20th. With everything else available this month, especially during Go Fest, you’re better off saving your premium passes, especially as we won’t be able to TM Frustration off of Entei to use it for Go Fest.

We don’t normally talk about raid hours, but they’re funny this month thanks to one of the events we’ll cover below. Like Articuno above, the July 3rd Ho-oh raid has limited use, though more so than Arti. Basically, it’s for the Apex Shadow version or PvP use. The Ultra Beast week from July 8th-12th (yup, the whole week for once) is mixed, but July 12th lumps some good ones together across multiple regions, but don’t be fooled! Maybe save remote passes for the weekend, as all Ultra Beasts are available globally the next day.

That being said, maybe a big spender is out there, so we’ll still talk about your options for this “raid hour” – just remember to translate 6 p.m. in your target area to your local time so you can use your raid finder of choice to get raids. Now, unless you’ve had great luck with June’s Shadow Entei and have tons of candy to spare, I’d say focus on Xurkitree. Pheramosa isn’t too bad as Bug needs heroes and she does some heavy damage while she’s up. I love Buzzwole, but it’s got limited raid use, so unless you want a good PvP Fighter/Bug-type, he may get the lowest priority. Articuno still stands with the above comments, but Tornadus just isn’t great, so maybe ease up on that one.

For Mega Raids, if you don’t have Mega Swampert, that is a high priority. It’s on our top 10 list, and I always cringe when players tell me they missed out on it. Mega Aggron is very skippable, maybe even more so depending on how the rest of the month rolls out, as there is a Mega Raid Day being teased but no new pokemon. It could be a normal Niantic oversight, or it could mean more Mega Aggron, which no one really needs when Mega Scizor and Mega Steelix are current options.

While we’ll talk about the rest of the events in a moment, I want to drive home once again that July is mostly about Go Fest. My expectations are quite low after last year, but at the very least, it’ll be a weekend when more people are out playing and trying to get a new, powerful pokemon. For that reason alone, I don’t blame gamers for buying a ticket for the extra passes, wild regionals Maractus and Corsola (just collector ‘mon), and “special” 7k eggs (which are most likely regionals). You also get six special trades per day and supposedly boosted shinies, though the latter always feels like a hit and miss, and no, Niantic doesn’t disclose the odds. Weigh the benefits before purchasing, if you haven’t already.

The rest of the month is a real crapshoot. Aquatic Paradise, obviously a new Water event running from July 6th to 9th. It’s not the Water Festival, which has been absent this year, but an event to kind of “celebrate” the end of the New York Go Fest. We get the debut of shiny Ducklett, while Clamperls for more stardust, and “bonus” spawns from incense (Shellder, Lapras, Frillish, and Fineon, of which Shellder is good for dust, Frillish has PvP uses, and outside of potential Gigantimaxing, Lapras is just cool). It’s short but unless you need that double catch xp or go hard on the stardust bonus ‘mon, it’s probably the weakest of the post-local-Go Fest events we’ve had since June.

July 8th-13th is Inbound from Ultra Space, a new event where each day will have a raid hour from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. local time (as mentioned above), featuring a different Ultra Beast and possibly with a new background (which, like location-cards from live events, just looks pretty and has no effect on stats). The paid event ticket also grants research giving a couple of XL candy for each Ultra Beast, double stardust and XP for UB raid wins, extra regular and XL candy for raid wins, and a bonus Daily Raid pass for the event. The value probably isn’t there for casual players, but for hardcores, especially with tons of passes to use, it scales well with whaledom.

Then we have Go Fest outlined above. Hopefully you have storage space, as I’m sure Niantic will grant some, but it’s been stringy about it lately.

Sadly, most of the next events are Ultra Unlocks with little to no details, such as Better Together from July 17th-22nd. My guess would be this has to do with buddy pokemon, parties, and/or friends, but as usual, we’ll have to wait and see.

7/8 Update: Niantic is slowly dripping hints about the event, but assuming it’s unlocked, we’re at least getting double catch candy, quadruple catch xp, and increased friendship gains, so we seem to be on the right track so far.

7/15 Update: We’ve got the official details now, and as predicted, it does involve party play, friends, plus some buddy stuff. Of the featured pokemon, Galarian Slowpoke’s two forms require doing specific tasks with them as your buddy in order to evolve, and Tandemous won’t be spawning in the wild but will be available via Party Play rewards and supposedly regular research. Oh, and friendship gains will be increased. Not a great event, but it’s something.

During that is the July 21st Community Day will be Tynamo and… yeah. It’s not a big PvE pick, and the PvP use seems questionable right now. It also doesn’t seem to fit the Better Together theme in my mind, so it’s hard to guess what Niantic was thinking here, but then again, that feels on point for the last couple years.

Speaking of points, July 25th-30th is Strength of Steel, yet another Ultra Unlock. Clearly there’s going to be Steel pokemon involved, and some people are wondering if the “Strength” part is related to Steel/Fighting type Lucario. We’ll have to wait and see.

7/16 Update: We now have official details and while regular Lucario isn’t making an appearance, nor is its pre-evolution Riolu, it was teased as the Mega Unlock. The rest of the event is very much based on Steel types, but outside of new Shiny Togedemaru and more Beldum spawning, there aren’t many spawns for casuals, especially if you don’t PvP. Skarmory, Scyther, Galarian Stunfisk, and Bronzor for certain cups are PvP picks but that’s about it. Triple Stardust and increased (XL) Candy and XL Candy odds does mean you can safely go through your research stack or even cash in those new Special Researchs from Go Fest if you didn’t already do so.

Very much related to that is the July 27th Ultra Unlock Mega Raid Day (7/16 Update: It’s basically revealed to be Mega Lucario). Worst-case scenario is Niantic tries to encourage more people to raid Mega Aggron. Unless you really like it or its shiny, that could be skippable. However, we’re currently missing Mega Lucario and Mega Metagross, both of which could be at least somewhat useful for their candy generation, and Mega Lucario could be a neat battler for raids and gyms. Again, though, we’ll have to wait and see.

7/8 Update: The drip information isn’t terribly helpful here, but at least the wording that the Mega-‘mon is making its debut means it’s not just Mega Aggron, or Mega Scizor or Mega Steelix for that matter. Mega Metagross or Mega Lucario are the ones most people are hoping for, but Mega Mawile is also possible. As always, we’ll update this as we learn more.

7/16 Update: And we’ve got confirmation that Lucario not only is going to be the Mega release, but it’ll have a new Fast Attack, the unreleased move Force Palm. Even if it’s not very good, Lucario has access to Counter, arguably one of the best Fast Moves to date. While the above graphic is fairly useful, readers should know that Mega Steelix provides both super effective damage and grants extra XL Candy, so unless you’re short-manning it, it may be better to use Mega Steelix.

7/23 Update: We now have stats on Force Palm, and TLDR, maybe keep one or two with it for raids, but otherwise, Counter is superior, at least for Lucario. It’s slower and does more damage, but Lucario isn’t a bulky ‘mon, so building up Charge Attacks is the better strategy for it in general.

As usual, let’s cap things off with the Spotlight Hours. Unless you love Pikachu or double catch XP, you can probably skip the Spotlight on July 2nd. Double catch candy and Spheal isn’t bad for July 9th if you’re a new player or a shiny hunter, but the main Spotlight here is double Nihilego candy in raids! Yes, we’ll have raid hour and Spotlight at the same time, so unless Niantic screws up, it’s a nice overlap.

July 16th has Binacle, but the main feature is double transfer candy only days after Go Fest. You’ll probably have a lot to sort through, so hopefully get it done Monday night so you can clean house on Tuesday! July 23rd with double Diglett’s cute, but it’s not super useful, and few people really mass evolve anymore, so it’s got limited use unless you’re a Diglett fan or shiny hunting. July 30th has Togedemaru, which isn’t bad, but at least there’s double stardust, which is always useful. 7/16 Update: Togademaru can be shiny during this event now.

As always, though, check back for updates, especially after Go Fest when Niantic will probably give more details on the Ultra Unlock events. 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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