Pokémon GO has announced a new event where you can get a strong attacker. However, you need to be diligent and hurry.
What kind of event is this? In Pokémon GO, the next hatching day has been announced. It will take place on Saturday, April 18, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. You only have 6 hours to take advantage of the event.
As is usual for hatching days, the short event revolves around hatching eggs. In line with this, there are not only some good bonuses but also a monster that is quite interesting.
Run, hatch, collect
Which monster is available at the event? In this edition of the event, Riolu is in the spotlight. The monster has existed since Generation 4 and is of the Fighting type. It can evolve into Lucario, which also gains the Steel type alongside Fighting.
How do you get the monster? During the hatching day, you will find Riolu in 2 km eggs.
What bonuses are there at the event? The event brings you some bonuses related to hatching:
- Shiny chance for Riolu is increased
- increased chance of 2 km eggs from PokéStops
- halved hatch distance for eggs placed in incubators during the event
- double amount of candies from eggs
- double amount of experience points from eggs
- free, limited-time research where you receive an incubator and 5,000 experience points
- paid, limited-time research for $1.99 (approximately 2 €), where you receive a star piece and 2 super incubators, with the bonus of only needing 1/4 of the walking distance
How can I prepare for the event? If you want to fully take advantage of the event, you can take some points to prepare. Start saving your incubators and collecting coins now, and try to earn the maximum amount of coins every day to get more incubators for the event.
Hatch as many eggs as possible just before the event. This way, you will have enough capacity to receive event eggs directly at the start from PokéStops. However, you need to be careful not to receive any new eggs during this time.
This means that you should refrain from spinning PokéStops, opening gifts, and talking to Mateo at the end of a route from that point onward.
How strong is Riolu? If you evolve Riolu into Lucario for 50 candies, you will get one of the best attackers in Pokémon GO of the Fighting type in the game. You can also use Lucario as a Steel attacker, but it doesn’t shine as much in that role as it does as a Fighting attacker.
If you already have the necessary mega energy to trigger the mega evolution for Lucario, you will even obtain the strongest Fighting attacker in the game. When you can receive the energy again in the game is currently unknown.
Lucario’s strongest moveset consists of the combination of Aura Sphere and Power Up Punch. Since Power Up Punch is an exclusive move, you will need to use a Elite Fast TM to obtain it. If you don’t have one, you can alternatively teach the monster the slightly weaker Fast Attack Counter.
Not only does the hatching day with Riolu take place in April. Already now, content such as events, raids, and Dynamax bosses are known. If you want to get an overview of which content is active in the game and when, feel free to check out our overview with all events in April 2026 in Pokémon GO.
