Team Rocket are taking over Pokemon Go this weekend

Paul Cotton

A massive Team Rocket take-over is coming to Pokemon Go. We don’t know the full extent of their plans yet but something big is coming!

The event will begin Friday, March 6, 8am and finish Monday, March 9, 10pm local time. “The professor and team leaders have been following Team GO Rocket’s movements and noticed that they’re planning something big,” the official Pokemon Go blog revealed.

Whether the “something big” Team Rocket are planning is specifically for this event or if it is something that will continue beyond hasn’t yet been made clear. Elsewhere, changes have been made to the strength of Shadow Pokemon, something which some trainers aren’t best pleased with.

The March reward for defeating Giovanni is the legendary Pokemon, Entei…

Team Rocket event

We do know the following will be happening as part of the event, though:

  • Poison and Dark-type Pokemon will be appearing more frequently in the wild
  • Other Pokemon related to Team GO Rocket will be appearing more often too
  • Notably one of these is Absol, the Disaster Pokemon
  • Skorupi’s shiny form will be released for the event

There is an event within this event, too. In what is a little similar to the Community Day structure, additional changes will occur between 2pm and 5pm local time on Saturday, March 7. This three-hour window relates more to Team Rocket’s plans than changes to the Pokemon Go environment.

The following will be happening during this mini-event of sorts:

  • Team GO Rocket leaders Arlo, Cliff and Sierra – and even Giovanni himself – will be easier to find at PokeStops
  • Rescued Shadow Pokemon will have a chance of being shiny – “you’ll be able to rescue all six of the Shadow Pokémon that Trainers have seen left behind by the Team GO Rocket Leaders”
  • When using a Charged TM you’ll be able to change Shadow Pokemon’s default Charge Move Frustration
  • Twice as much Stardust can be earned by defeating the leaders or Giovanni
  • As a special bonus, the Team GO Rocket music will be playing throughout the event

As we said above it isn’t abundantly clear whether the big changes in store for Team Rocket are the ones in this event. We’ll have to wait and see whether Niantic have anything in mind in the coming weeks.