As more details emerged about the Season of Legend events, a pattern is emerging. It revolves around the Forces of Nature. Landorus was the initial legendary announced and soon after the Searching for Legends event involved ground-, rock- and steel-type Pokemon.
That plan will hold steady for the Charge Up event, running from 10 a.m. March 16 to 8 p.m. March 22. The event comes at the same time as the debut of the Therian forme of Thundurus, which technically will be the first new legendary Pokemon to come out in a few months.
Themed around electric-type Pokemon, the event will “focus on catching, evolving and powering up” this category of pocket monsters. Here are the ones to keep an eye out for during the celebration.
POKEMON IN THE WILD
If you’re missing a few shiny Pokemon in your collection, the Charge Up event could be a godsend. It features several pocket monsters with hard-to-find shiny versions. They include the following:
Alolan Geodude (shiny available)
Voltorb (shiny available)
Electrike (shiny available)
Stunfisk
Tynamo
I would try hard for shiny versions of Alolan Geodude, Electrike and Voltorb in that order. The first two have not been as common as in the past and that makes running across their variant colors rare. Voltorb has been everywhere lately because of the Kanto Tour event but getting a blue version of the Pokemon would be an achievement.
Normal Stunfisk is a decent pickup for Go Battle League along with Alolan Geodude. The latter is a great pick for the Kanto Cup or even the Great League Remix. The Alolan Golem and its electric- and rock-typing make it effective against the meta.
Tynamo is worth keeping an eye on. When it’s evolved into Eelektross, the Pokemon is reminiscent of a weaker Electivire. Unfortunately, the EleFish Pokémon lacks a good fast move. Spark and Acid aren’t great. That’s a shame because the diversity of its charge moves — Thunderbolt, Dragon Claw, Crunch and Acid Spray, according to GamePress — is intriguing and offers plenty of coverage options. If Niantic ever adds a better Fast Move or changes one midseason, it could raise Tynamo and Eelektross’ profiles.
POKEMON IN EGGS AND RESEARCH
These two parts of the game aren’t that exciting. During the event, special Pokemon will be hatching from 5km eggs with players getting a chance at the following pocket monsters:
Pichu (shiny available)
Elekid (shiny available)
Electrike (shiny available)
Shinx (shiny available)
Joltik
Tynamo
Stunfisk
If your hunting for rare shinies, any of those first four would be worth the effort. The others aren’t as exciting but again Tynamo is worth keeping an eye on in case of future changes.
The event-exclusive Field Research tasks focus on electric-type Pokemon encounters, which can be attractive depending on what shiny one is trying to get. The Mega Ampharos and Mega Manectric energy rewards are notable because it’s always iffy when trying to gather players for Mega Raids. Usually, trainers go hard when a Mega Evolution makes it debut and then the interest peters out. Doing some of these tasks will help players gather enough energy to evolve at least one of these Pokemon.
WHAT SHOULD YOU BE RAIDING
The debut of Therian forme Thundurus will draw the most attention and trainers will be focused on getting a good version of that Pokemon. That should be followed by Mega Manectric, which is making its debut. It’s the second electric mega evolution after Mega Ampharos. Its stats don’t stack up as well as the evolved Wool Pokemon but Manectric does have Wild Charge, which is a powerful electric move. That’s backed up by the Fast Move Snarl, which is good at generating energy.
As for the other raids, the option to get a shiny Voltorb, shiny Shinx and shiny Klink are tempting at one-star raids. Alolan Raichu is a good option for three-star raids because it’s a decent PvP Pokemon in Great League and players have a chance at getting a shiny.
The Bonus for the event is a higher chance of obtaining an Evolution Item from opening gifts. If players are running low on Upgrades, Dragon Scales, Sun Stones, King’s Rock, Metal Coat, Sinnoh Stones or Unova Stones, this is a big deal. For those who have enough of those items, the bonus is a disappointment.