After the start of the Ultra Bonus in Pokémon GO, Mewtwo can no longer learn the charged attack Shadow Ball. Therefore, you should teach it quickly with TM now.
When Mewtwo moves from EX Raids to normal Raids on September 20 at 10:00 PM, it will no longer be able to learn the charged attacks Shadow Ball or Hyper Beam. Anyone who already has Mewtwo in their collection can still use charged TMs to ensure that the Pokémon can learn one of the attacks. It is advisable to have Mewtwo with Shadow Ball.
The “Mewtwo for everyone” is different from EX Raids
Due to the Ultra Bonus, Mewtwo is released for T5 Raids. These are the normal legendary battles. This gives every trainer the chance to add this rare Pokémon to their collection. But it does not have the same attacks it could learn before. Here, Mewtwo was defeated by a horde of Rattata.
What is new? The attacks Shadow Ball and Hyper Beam will soon be exclusive to the Mewtwo you catch in EX Raids.
How can Mewtwo still learn the attacks now? Use charged TMs until September 20 at 10:00 PM to teach Mewtwo Shadow Ball or Hyper Beam.
Which attack is better? Mewtwo with Shadow Ball is currently significantly more effective than Mewtwo with Hyper Beam. It is therefore a strong attacker against Mewtwo itself and also against some legendary bosses from Generation 4.
Should one keep Hyper Beam Mewtwo? If you have several Mewtwo, you should at least keep one with the Hyper Beam attack. Perhaps the meta will change so that the attack becomes more important. Otherwise, you have it for your collection.
Which charged attacks does Mewtwo have during the event? When the event starts, Mewtwo will initially only have the charged attacks Focus Blast and Psychic. Whether Niantic will introduce a new attack for the event to make gathering even more worthwhile is still unclear. The community hopes for attacks like Psystrike (Mewtwo’s signature move), Psycho Cut, or Seer.
Can Mewtwo ever learn Shadow Ball or Hyper Beam again?
This question is currently on the minds of the community. Niantic framed the announcement in such a way that there are two possibilities:
- Mewtwo can never learn Hyper Beam or Shadow Ball again – Only until the start of the event on September 20
- or Mewtwo can learn the attacks Shadow Ball and Hyper Beam again in EX Raids after the event
On Reddit, a user found a note in the Japanese announcement indicating that these attacks may no longer be learned by Mewtwo afterwards.
Whether this translation is actually correct will only be seen when Mewtwo appears in EX Raids again. What is still unclear.
Why is Niantic doing this?
Now some trainers are asking why the Mewtwo from the Ultra Event can no longer learn these attacks.
Niantic values the trainers’ hard work: By only allowing Mewtwo from EX Raids to learn these strong attacks, Niantic is making Mewtwo stronger than those that will soon be available in all raids. If there were stronger attacks for the event Mewtwo, that bonus would be gone. Then, the EX Raid Mewtwo would simply be rare specimens.
Why should the new ones be weaker? There was an uproar in the community when it became clear that now every trainer has the chance to get Mewtwo. Trainers who could already catch Mewtwo in the rarer EX Raids took extra time to travel to raids. They thought it was unfair that now every trainer with less effort should be able to get the same Mewtwo.
Through this change, trainers who already own Mewtwo now have something special.
