Pokémon GO Fest 2021: Your preparation guide for playing this weekend

July 15, 2021

by Jessica Scharnagle

Pokémon GO Fest is upon us again and same as last year, every trainer around the world is welcomed to participate.

GO Fest is this weekend, July 17-18, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time and features two days of fun Pokémon adventures. There will be special research tasks, rare Pokémon spawns and tons of raids to participate in.

This year is extra exciting because the tickets have been heavily discounted from last year’s $14.99. GO Fest 2021 tickets cost $4.99, and one ticket will grant trainers two days of Pokémon GO Fest events and rare spawns.

This event is said to be a celebration of both Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, and Pokémon GO’s fifth anniversary. Mythical Pokémon and music are the themes for this year’s event.

Whether you are a new Pokémon GO trainer, or you’ve been playing since the game launched, here’s the ultimate guide to help you prepare for GO Fest 2021.

What to do before Pokémon GO Fest 2021

There are several things trainers might want to do before GO Fest even starts. Trainers should decide what their goals are for the event and prepare accordingly.

Clear extra Pokémon and manage your item storage

Many trainers will be catching a large number of Pokémon during the event, so make sure that your Pokémon storage is cleared out to account for at least 400 Pokémon, more if you are placing a heavy preference on catching as many Pokémon as you can.

The current limit for Pokémon storage is 4,500, but that means you’ll be doling out a large amount of cash to get it there. Each expansion costs 200 PokéCoins for 50 additional spots.

Managing your item storage is essential before GO Fest, since you’ll want to have the maximum amount of items that are useful to you. Clear out any excess items that you don’t use or need. I tend to accumulate a ton of Pinap Berries, and I don’t carry anything below a Hyper Potion in my storage in order to make sure I have enough space for a ton of Pokéballs, Incense, Max Potions, Revives and Raid Passes.

Heal your Pokémon and create raid teams

Make sure that your Pokémon are all healed up, because Day 2 focuses on raids. You’ll want to ensure that you have a good amount of revives and potions in order to keep your Pokémon healthy.

In that same vein, check out the raid Pokémon that will be around for Day 2 and create some teams for each type. User Robwaudby on Reddit created a handy guide for creating teams of Pokémon to deal with the raid bosses for Day 2.

Open your friends’ gifts … or don’t

Got a ton of useful stuff in your inventory? I’d wait to open gifts until you’re running low on the essentials. But if your inventory has loads of space in it, it might be useful to open up gifts leading up to the event so you can open more during the events.

Igglybuff, Chingling, Audino “and more” will be spawning from 7 km eggs. So if your inventory can handle the stuff, open up all of your gifts prior to the event, and try to open up the gifts sent to you on event days so that 7 km eggs fill your egg slots before the normal non-event eggs do.

Contents of the eggs are determined when they are sent, not when they are received, so only eggs that are received in gifts on event days will contain the event Pokémon.

Charge your devices

It’s an incredibly obvious tip, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked out of the house for an event like this and realized that I never charged my portable chargers and didn’t bring a cord to charge anywhere else while I was playing.

If you don’t have a portable charger, I’d highly recommend the Anker 10000 mah portable charger that you can pick up at your local Best Buy or on Amazon, where you can get it with one-day shipping. You’ll be able to charge your device twice, and you can plug in multiple devices in case your friends need some juice too.

Pokéball Plus. Image credit: Nintendo

Got a Pokéball Plus? Charge it! They take about three hours to charge, and you’ll get about 10 hours out of that. So when you get home from Day 1, make sure you stick it straight onto the charger, or it may not last long for Day 2.

What to do during Pokémon GO Fest

For both days of the festival, there will be some event effects that take place. Lures will last three hours, hatching distance will be halved, shiny Pokémon spawn rates are increased for ticket holders and six special trades can be made per day.

Pikachu, Chimecho, Kricketot and Audino will see increased spawns throughout the entire event, and players can be photobombed by a special-event Pikachu depending on which Special Research branch they choose. Unown G and F will have increased spawns while using Incense.

In many areas of the world, and certainly in the United States, it will be very hot. Bring some ice cold water, some sunscreen and a snack or two to keep you going throughout the day.

For example, my friends and I often bring multiple bottles of water. We start with one frozen bottle and one cold one. We start right around the time the event begins, and then go until we get hungry. We go our separate ways to pick up food and then meet up at my friend’s apartment to eat and do some trades and storage management. After a break from the heat, we head back out for a few hours and usually end before the event does, but we still send each other raid requests until the event is over.

Day 1

The first day of the event will feature a rotating theme of spawning Pokémon. The themes and increased spawns are listed below. Pokémon with an asterisk only have increased spawns with Incense. For a chart of when each rotation will occur in your time zone, check out this handy chart.

Jungle hour

Scyther
Aipom
Froakie
Ludicolo*
Chatot*
Leafeon*
Serperior*

Desert mountain hour

Skarmory
Shieldon
Hippopotas
Flareon*
Tyranitar*
Flygon*
Throh*

Ocean beach hour

Dratini
Swablu
Alomomola
Gyrados*
Vaporeon*
Azumarill*
Sawk*

Cave hour

Roggenrola
Galarian Stunfisk
Deino
Umbreon*
Gardevoir*
Absol*
Galvantula*

Image credit: stadiumgaming.gg

Raids for Day 1 will include some Pokémon with more recent shiny versions including Galarian Ponyta, Whismer’s evolutionary line and Galarian Zigzagoon. Galarian Ponyta and Galarian Zigzagoon will both be wearing Meloetta-themed hats in their respective raids.

Day 2

The second day of GO Fest is similar to last year’s where there will be a variety of Pokémon to raid that change each hour. Every single legendary Pokémon that is available in Pokémon GO will be up for grabs during one of these hours.

For Day 2, Trainers will earn an extra 10,000 XP per Raid Battle, which makes popping a Lucky Egg during these raids one of the best ways to get XP if you’re looking to level up.

Up to 10 Raid Passes can be earned by spinning Gym Photo Discs which can be used for in-person raids, and there will be a free event bundle containing three Remote Raid Passes. There is also the opportunity to gain eight more Remote Raid Passes by completing Timed Research.

Lastly, all Pokémon that had increased spawns in the wild and through Incense will be available on Day 2 during event hours.

Wind hour

Mewtwo
Ho-Oh
Latias
Latios
Regigigas
Giratina
Cresselia
Virizion
Tornadus

Lava hour

Moltres
Entei
Regirock
Groudon
Heatran
Terrakion
Reshiram
Landorus
Yveltal

Frost hour

Articuno
Suicune
Lugia
Regice
Kyogre
Palkia
Kyurem
Uxie (Asia-Pacific only)
Mesprit (Europe and Africa only)
Azelf (Americas only)

Thunder hour

Zapdos
Raikou
Registeel
Rayquaza
Dialga
Cobalion
Thundurus
Zekrom
Xerneas

Image credit: stadiumgaming.gg

Other features during Pokémon GO Fest 2021

Some Pokémon are premiering their shiny versions for the first time during GO Fest. Unown F, Throh and Sawk will make their shiny debut. Audino, Tympole, Whismur and Chimecho, including any evolutions for those Pokémon, were recently released as shinies and will have increased spawns at the event.

Ticket holders can expect to find new stickers at PokéStops and will experience a surprise when they take a snapshot of a Pokémon during the event.

There also will be hourly challenges for Trainers to complete. If the challenge is completed in time, Trainers will earn a bonus for the remainder of the hour. The current challenge can be found in the Today view.

Completion of Special Research will lead to mythical Pokémon Meloetta. Research Tasks that lead to mythical Pokémon usually take the most effort to complete out of all of the tasks during GO Fest, so be sure to zero in on exactly what needs to be done during the event, otherwise it may take you quite a while to complete all of the tasks to unlock it.

Whether you are looking to catch a ton of Pokémon, complete more of your shiny dex, raid all day or hunt for those rare perfect stat Pokémon, there is something for every Pokémon fan in this year’s GO Fest.

Lead image credit: Niantic