During the weekend, the big Pokémon GO Fest 2026 took place. MeinMMO author Paul Kutzner was there and had as much fun as he hadn’t in a long time.
In line with the 10th anniversary of Pokémon GO, the big GO Fest 2026 took place last weekend. As part of the anniversary, this year’s event was completely free, and all content was unlocked without the need to purchase a ticket.
This provided a lot of variety in the game. And even though I was physically unwell and couldn’t go outside to hunt, I still had a great time playing from within my apartment during the event. It showed what was otherwise lacking in the game for me, and probably many other trainers.
Shinys, bonuses, and strong raids
Every monster was clicked: With the increased shiny chance, I didn’t want to miss out on any potential shiny specimen. This meant that I clicked on all wild Pokémon that had wandered near my apartment.
As someone who has been there since the beginning of the game, albeit with breaks of several years at times, there are few monsters in the wild during normal Pokémon GO gameplay and most events that are relevant or interesting to me.
The GO Fest changed exactly this with the permanently increased shiny chance. After all, a new shiny could be waiting everywhere, or a previously owned specimen that could then find its way to my Switch via Pokémon Home.
Especially exciting for me were the shiny variants of Unown in the “?”-form, Lucario with 3*, and the Marill. For the latter, I’m still considering whether to transfer it for raids to Pokémon Scarlet. I was also able to snag the two regional monsters Tropius and Bisofank as shiny.
Really strong bonuses: The global challenges of the event were solved in most hours after about 15 – 20 minutes. From this point on, really strong catch bonuses were activated: three times the amount of stardust and candies, and even ten times the amount of experience points for a catch.
This meant that, starting from this point, even normal monsters that were of little interest to me were caught. With a great throw, more than 11,000 experience points for a single throw were possible relatively easily. With an activated lucky egg, even double that amount.
This made monsters that did not appear as shiny interesting to catch, and the motivation to just take everything was immense. This also meant that I activated incense multiple times throughout the day to attract even more Pokémon.
The two Mewtwo forms: Of course, the two Mega Mewtwo evolutions were interesting to me. After all, I wanted to add both variants to my team. This was personally quite easy for me, unlike many other trainers.
Early Saturday, I was invited to a remote raid by trainers from my friend list whom I knew from previous events. Since the lobby consisted of 17 or 18 trainers, I was able to easily secure the first Mewtwo form. I then received the second evolution through the limited research of the event.
Since new monsters of this strength cannot frequently be introduced into the game, especially with many strong attackers already present in Pokémon GO, it was just a nice bonus. Despite this, strong Pokémon are undeniably one of the biggest motivators in the game for me.
More events like this, please: In my opinion, Niantic did a lot right with the event. Even despite my limited ability to participate, it was a complete success for me. If I had been able to go out properly, the haul would likely have been much higher.
The event showed how much fun Pokémon GO can be when every single catch can be relevant or at least provides decent candies and experience points. This also brings excitement to seemingly weak monsters, which is really enjoyable.
Even though I assume that in the future such strong events will hardly be available for free in the game, I would still wish for it. Because I haven’t had such joy in the game in a long time.
What did you think of the event? Did you have as much fun? Feel free to write it in the comments. The current month also offers several contents even after the GO Fest, such as events or raid bosses. What they are, you’ll find out in our overview with all events in July 2026 in Pokémon GO.
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