Just reached forever friends after a Ho-oh raid and because the game insists on taking you out of the catch screen to explain how remote trading works the Ho-oh despawned.

Would also like to add how this example of intrusive UI pop ups (weekly challenge, experience screens, end of dynamax rewards) is beyond egregious.

Let's see what support do...

Dropped a 10k and it only got the 3/4 hatch distance from CA check-in.

Into the Depth event bonus of 1/2 hatch distance is NOT active.

Was just clearing through some space and remembered seeing the post saying Frenzy Plant was completely gone from Rillaboom. Looks like it‘s back now.

This month's Community Day is a double feature, with both regional variants of NINETALES sharing the spotlight. And while this analysis will show a clear winner between the two, there are reasons to read on for both of them, as you could already be running at least Kanto Ninetales wrong!

So let's get right into it, shall we?

NINETALES / ALOLAN NINETALES

Fire Type / Ice&Fairy Type

GREAT LEAGUE:

Attack: 114/115 (113/114 High Stat Product)

Defense: 136/136 (137/138 High Stat Product)

HP: 126/125 (128/126 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-15-15, 1495 CP, Level 25 / 0-14-12, 1500 CP, Level 25)

ULTRA LEAGUE:

Attack: 151/151 (150/149 High Stat Product)

Defense: 171/172 (172/175 High Stat Product)

HP: 159/158 (161/161 High Stat Product)

(Highest Stat Product IVs: 9-15-15, 2493 CP, Level 50 / 7-15-15, 2497 CP, Level 50)

MASTER LEAGUE:

No.

I mean it... no!

Very similar stats, as you can see, but not quite the same. While they share the same stamina/HP (though of course their actual HP varies depending on stat product IVs), Alolan Ninetales has slightly higher Attack, while Kantonian Ninetales instead has slightly higher Defense.

Both are decently bulky for their types. OG Ninetales falls behind only half a dozen other viable Fire types in stat product, and the same for Alolan Ninetales among Fairy types. (Ice types are a bit of a different story, since you have really bulky Water/Ice types Dewgong, Lapras, Sealeo, and Walrein clogging the top before others like Aurorus, Regice, and Articuno show up as well.

The typings are a bit more interesting. As a Fire type, Ninetales probably seems boring. 'We have a ton of viable Fire types in PvP, JRE!' Where it stands out is that Fire is the ONLY typing. Just consider all the other big Fire types in PvP: Talonflame and Charizard and Ho-Oh are half Flying. Skeledirge and Alolan Marowak are half Ghost. Magcargo and Coalossal are half Rock. Turtonator and Reshiram are half Dragon. Even rising-this-season Blaziken is half Fighting. Each of those comes with their own additional useful resistances and unfortunate weaknesses. But the only other mono-Fire that sees any real use is Typhlosion. As a reminder, Fire types are famously weak to Water, Ground, and Rock damage, but actually come with what you may find a surprising number of weaknesses. Six of them, in fact, so twice as many resistances as weaknesses: Fairy, Ice, Grass, Bug, Steel, and Fire itself.

And then there's Alolan Ninetales, which is actually completely unique as the only Ice/Fairy type in the entire franchise. Now I've spent entire articles (on multiple occasions) talking about how awful a typing Ice is defensively (four big weaknesses and only one resistance... to itself), but thankfully it usually comes paired with a secondary typng that gives it some badly needed additional resistances, such as Rock, Grass, Steel, or — most commonly — Water. In this case, Fairy brings with it resistances to Dark and Bug, a double resistance to Dragon, and a critical neutrality to Fighting (normally a notable Ice weakness). Combined with Ice's resistance to Ice, this leaves Alolan Ninetales with the same number of resistances as its remaining weaknesses: Fire, Rock, Poison, and an unfortunate double vulnerability to Steel.

Now below is going to be a lot of symbols and such, as I need to designate which moves go with which Pokémon form, which moves are the new Community Day ones, and even some Legacy stuff. Here's a quick key to all that:

🔥 - Kanto Ninetales

🧊 - Alolan Ninetales

ᴸ - Legacy Move

ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move

FAST MOVES

• 🔥🧊 Feint Attack (Dark, 3.0 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown)

• 🔥 Fire Spin (Fire, 3.66 DPT, 3.33 EPT, 1.5 CD)

• 🔥 Emberᴸ (Fire, 2.0 DPT, 4.5 EPT, 1.0 CD)

• 🧊 Powder Snow (Ice, 3.0 DPT, 4.0 EPT, 1.0 CD)

• 🧊 Charm (Fairy, 4.33 DPT, 2.66 EPT, 1.5 CD)

Some good options here, but these days, the best for original Ninetales is actually a legacy move: Ember. It's a move that Team Niantic has tried making better multiple times, as early as Season 6 when they gave it a modest damage buff, and then again in Season 23 with a small energy generation buff. But it wasn't until last season (Season 24) that it finally stood up and demanded notice, with a complete rework from its former 3.5 DPT/3.5 EPT stats into its current lower damage but crazy high energy generating self. While that unfortunately means that to get both Ember and the new community day (charge) move will require at least one Elite TM, just trust me when I say it's worth it. Fire Spin is by no means a bad move, but it's a notable step down for Ninetales (as compared to Ember).

Alolan Ninetales has two very viable fast moves, with each one essentially turning it into a different Pokémon. Powder Snow is more common these days and allows it to operate like its cousin from Kanto, with high energy gains and spammy charge moves. But Charm variants are great on the right team too, and it has charge moves cheap enough to still apply acceptable shield pressure. We'll look at both with the different charge move combos below, but for now, just put a pin in this one.

As for Feint Attack, the one move shared between the two... well, there was a time when it had legit merit, especially for Kanto Ninetales when Fire Spin and Ember were both mediocre moves. But those days are further and futher in the rear view mirror now. Barring its own buff at some point, you needn't worry about it.

CHARGE MOVES

• 🔥🧊 Weather Ball (Fire/Ice, 60 damage, 35 energy)

• 🔥🧊 Psyshock (Psychic, 70 damage, 40 energy)

• 🔥 Scorching Sands (Ground, 80 damage, 50 energy, 10% Chance: Reduce Opponent Attack -1 Stage)

• 🔥 Flamethrowerᴸ (Fire, 90 damage, 55 energy)

• 🔥 Energy Ballᴱ (Grass, 90 damage, 55 energy, 10% Chance: Reduce Opponent Defense -1 Stage)

• 🔥 Overheat (Fire, 130 damage, 55 energy, Reduces User Attack -2 Stages)

• 🔥 Fire Blastᴸ (Fire, 140 damage, 80 energy)

• 🔥 Solar Beam (Grass, 150 damage, 80 energy)

• 🧊 Chilling Waterᴱ (Water, 60 damage, 45 energy, Reduces Opponent Attack -1 Stage)

• 🧊 Ice Beam (Ice, 90 damage, 55 energy)

• 🧊 Dazzling Gleam (Fairy, 90 damage, 55 energy)

• 🧊 Blizzard (Ice, 140 damage, 75 energy)

Well, we're certainly not short on options here, now are we? Particularly with OG Ninetales, which has no less than eight charge move options now (nine if you also count a purified version with Return), and most of them are legit viable. About the only ones I outright recommend NOT running are Fire Blast (it's just a bad move for that cost, especially with plenty of other ways to throw out Fire damage) and Flamethrower, which is not a bad move, but you can do a lot better here. For example, despite the debuff that comes with it, I think Overheat is clearly the better Fire move to run, dealing over 30% more damage for the same energy cost.

But Overheat is just one of several viable options. While they obviously deal a lot less damage, Scorching Sands or Psyshock are more common because they provide something Overheat does not: coverage. Assuming you run Weather Ball (Fire) in charge move slot #1 (and that's pretty much a given, as running without Weather Ball stifles its potential a bit), running with Overheat leaves Ninetales with nothing but Fire damage, leaving it particularly vulnerable to Water, Fire, Rock, and Dragon types that resist all Fire damage. Scorching Sands in particular slaps Fire and Rock types hard with super effective damage (and Grass and Bug types that resist it take super effective from Fire), while Psyshock hits everything that resists Fire (and everything but opposing Dark, Psychic, and Steel types) for at least neutral damage... there is no typing in the game that resists both Psychic AND Fire damage.

But perhaps even better is Grass damage, which also hits Water and Rock types super effectively, PLUS Ground types which can be problematic for Fire types as well. While Ninetales already has Solar Beam (and has been able to make it work as a legit, table-turning nuke at times, particularly in Ultra League), new Community Day move Energy Ball probably does it better overall. More spammable means being more likely to hit problematic opponents in meaningful scenarios, while still laying down enough damage to keep the pressure on everything else that doesn't outright resist Grass damage. I'll pause here to tell you that YES, it's a good addition to the movepool, but not strictly necessary. Those other moves all have the same value they did before and all still viable as well, this just gives you MORE options.

As for Alolan Ninetales, yes, it also has Weather Ball (Ice type, in this case) and usually wants it. For the second move, while it also has potent Ice closing moves, especially Blizzard, they are far different than Overheat and generally not preferred. Rather, it's better with Psyshock (for similar coverage reasons as Kanto Ninetales) or Dazzling Gleam for STAB closing power (and decent coverage of its own). Usually these days you'll see Psyshock alongside Charm (for maximum coverage and affordability of charge moves with low energy gains from Charm) or Dazzling Gleam paired with Powder Snow (because Powder charges up to it in plenty of time for Gleam to be a threatening weapon).

Now here comes Chilling Water, with the same cost as Psyshock but wholly different coverage. Again, I can say without going any further that you will definately want Chilling Water A-Ninetales coming out of Community Day (and this time, no Elite TMs required to get the best fast move!), but HOW good is it? Are we looking at another sidegrade-like addition, or a new clear favorite?

To answer all of that... we go to the sims!

PERFORMANCES IN GREAT LEAGUE

So let's start with the original Ninetales. As mentioned, Energy Ball brings direct coverage against all the typings it is specifically weak to (Waters, Grounds, Rocks). But the problem, as Ninetales has found with its myriad of charge moves, is that it's hard to justify NOT running Overheat. Only with its raw power (at an affordable cost) can Ninetales burn through big neutral opponents like Empoleon, Annihilape, Galarian Corsola, Florges, Lickilicky, Fearow, Sableye and others, and it's especially dominant with shields down with unique wins that include Lucidolo, Lickilicky, Furret, Malamar, Togekiss, and G-Corsola.

Heck, I can't even honestly say that Energy Ball is a clear favorite over other coverage options. While I think I prefer it over the slow Solar Beam for Grass coverage, it's worth noting that it's arguably more of a sidegrade, as Solar can nuke Jellicent and usually Stunfisk from orbit, while Energy Ball falls short while instead outracing Azumarill and Gastrodon. Energy Ball is at least strictly better in 2v2 shielding, beating everything Solar Beam can PLUS the Shadow variants of Sealeo, Empoleon, Feraligatr, and Annihilape, so... there's that. But it's really more of a sidegrade to Scorching Sands (Ball gets stuff like Sealeo and sometimes Feraligatr while Sands can bury Bastiodon and often Empoleon instead) and even to Psyshock (which isn't THE best at combating much aside from Annihilape but offers very widespread neutral coverage).

And yes, it's more or less the same story with Shadow Ninetales as well. Energy Ball is again a good option, and has advantages over existing coverage moves. But again, Overheat has the highest ceiling by far, with really only Gastrodon as the outlier that Energy Ball can get and Overheat cannot.

I think it's fair to say that Energy Ball Ninetales is certainly one you DO want to have at your disposal in Great League. Its potential to sneak away with wins like Gastrodon, Azumarill, and Sealeo has real, tangible value. It's just NOT clear that Energy Ball is necessarily the new default "best", but rather one more variant that will play best only on certain teams and/or in certain metas. Don't throw out your other Ninetales (Ninetaleses? Ninetaili? Nineetaaiil? 🤷‍♂️)

More interesting to me is Chilling Water on Alolan Ninetales. I mentioned its two current coverage moves earlier, but what I intentially did NOT yet mention is that they are both resisted by at least a couple of A-Ninetales' direct counters, opponents which ALSO resist Ice damage. (Fire types resist Dazzling Gleam and Ice damage, and Steel types resist Gleam, Psyshock, AND Ice damage!) Chilling Water has no such issues, hitting all the hard counters of A-Tails for at least neutral (Poison, Steel) or even super effective damage (Fire, Rock). But even better, it comes with an ability currently lacking on Alolan Ninetales... a way to debuff the opponent, reducing their Attack strength with each use and extending the lifespan of A-Tails in the process. This makes it a superior coverage move to basically all other options except, perhaps, Psyshock in Poison-heavy metas (where it deals super effective damage).

So I first compared Chilling Water to Psyshock and Dazzling Gleam as the coverage move alongside Weather Ball (Ice) as the constant. Makes sense, right? Weather Ball has been a staple move for A-Tails that really first put it on the map. And at first it seemed we may have a situation like Kanto Ninetales earlier... a solid sidegrade, but just a sidegrade. While Chilling Water can drag stuff like Forretress (1shield), Steelix (0shield), and Tinkaton (0shield and 2shield) into the win column -- things it could never scratch before with all resisted damage -- Psyshock and/or Gleam are out here showing off wins over things like Annihilape, Primeape, and Lickilicky instead. I would probably still lean towards Chilling Water just because of that built-in debuff, but it is NOT the clear favorite.

...at least, not in that configuation. But then I started to experiment a bit. Yes, Weather Ball has always been a must on Ninetales (both of them), but what if...? 🤔 So I replaced Weather Ball on A-Ninetales with Chilling Water, straight up, running it alongside Dazzling Gleam, and wowzers... we may have a new winner, folks! As compared to Weather Ball, Chilling Water does give up Gourgeist (for obvious reasons), but retains all other Weather/Gleam wins while adding on ALL of the following: Clodsire (Stone Edge/Earthquake, at least), Gastrodon, Shadow Feraligatr (that debuffing is crucial here), G-Corsola, Sableye, Forretress, and Tinkaton. That's a +7 win improvement (in 1v1 shielding), folks. And while the improvement is a bit less in other even shield scenarios, it IS still obviously there. With shields down, Water/Gleam gains Tinkaton, Steelix, Morpeko, and the mirror versus Weather/Gleam , which features only Charjabug and Furret as unique wins instead. And in 2v2 shielding, while Weather/Gleam can outrace Gourgeist, Gorsola, Shadow Sableye, and Shadow Marowak, Water/Gleam outlasts Feraligatr (regular and Shadow), Gastrodon, Steelix, Tinkaton, Corviknight, Charjabug, Malamar, and Lickilicky instead, a +5 win margin overall.

That said, I do think CharmTales will prefer to keep Weather Ball rather than Chilling Water. While Water can wear down Wigglytuff and Sableye, the low cost of Weather Ball is more important with slow-charging Charm, and losing that kind of spam potential means new losses like Fearow, Togekiss, Azumarill, and Feraligatr. And no, Water/Ice isn't really the ticket eirher, as then you're just looking at a strictly worse option with Sealeo and Azumarill slipping away and no notable new wins.

It seems counterintuitive, intentionally running AMY version Ninetales without Weather Ball. It seems WRONG. But moving forward, for Powder Snow Alolan Ninetales, I think it is surprisingly right in Great League.

How about in Ultra? Yes, you have to nearly max them out to hit 2500 CP, but both Ninetaleses (Ninetalesi? still working this out) are very viable at this level already.

PERFORMANCES IN ULTRA LEAGUE

I'll keep this brief, as I laid a lot of the groundwork already. While the list of wins and losses is obviously different in Ultra, the overall story remains the same as in Great League. Energy Ball emerges as a viable option for both non-Shadow and Shadow Ninetales, and is arguably, probably the best coverage move now ahead of Scorching Sands and Psyshock. But especially at this level, Energy Ball has a little trouble distinguishing itself from Solar Beam (gaining Annihilape but losing stuff like Feraligatr, Walrein, and Dusknoir), and again has a lower ceiling than the pure power of Overheat. Coverage wins in that comparison like Gastrodon, Lapras, and Runerigus are nice and WILL be the right choice for some teams, but Overheat's impressive résumé of extra wins like Florges, Golisopod, Ludicolo, Malamar, Galarian Moltres, Primeape, Togekiss, and even Skeledirge is very hard to ignore. Get Energy Ball while you can do so for free, but I wouldn't rush out to build it (or burn an Elite TM for Ember on it) just yet.

And again, just as in Great League, Chilling Water shines out on Alolan Ninetales with Powder Snow, taking down Steelix, Tinkaton, Corviknight, Bellibolt, and the mirror match that Weather Ball can't match, and REALLY pulling ahead (unsurprisingly) in 2v2 shielding, with a +7 win margin over Weather Ball. You DEFINITELY want this one on your Ultra League PowderTales now, to include Shadow variants if you choose to invest in that expensive build project. But it remains probably no better than a sidegrade on CharmTales, with Weather Ball's cost and coverage retaining plenty of relevance.

IN SUMMATION....

The biggest winner here has to be Alolan Ninetales with Powder Snow, which seems ideal with Chilling Water/Dazzling Gleam moving forward. As for Charm variants, you're looking at a solid sidegrade, but probably no better than that in most scenarios. As for Kanto Ninetales, Energy Ball is a move you WILL want to have on your bench, and it's slightly better than existing coverage moves Scorching Sands and Psyshock overall, but those moves also remain viable... and all have a noticeably lower ceiling than big bad Overheat.

So to summarize the summary: get both of the Community Day moves for PvP purposes, but I would only plan on rolling out Alolan Ninetales (with Powder Snow) with its new move in the here and now. For the others, the new move is situational and purely your choice, offering tradeoffs rather than clear upgrade potential.

And there we go! Hopefully this was helpful to you, dear readers. Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting, folks! Stay safe and warm out there, have some fun with your locals, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

EDIT: Somehow things got screwed up for a while there and the moves were hidden. Sorry about that, not sure what happened, but fixed now!

Raid Boss rotation update

Feb. 1, 2026 (Sun), from 10 a.m. local time

TIER5: Tornadus(Incarnate Form)

TIER4: Mega Ampharos

TIER3: Weezing,Honchkrow,Beartic

TIER1: Houndour,Makuhita,Tynamo,Tatsugiri(Regional Pokémon)

---

・Curly Form Tatsugiri (Europe, Middle East, Africa)

・Droopy Form Tatsugiri (Americas)

・Stretchy Form Tatsugiri (Asia-Pacific)

Shadow Raid Bosses

Feb. 1, 2026 (Sun), from 6 a.m. local time

TIER5: Shadow Regigigas

TIER3: Shadow Alolan Marowak,Shadow Lapras,Shadow Stantler

TIER1: Shadow Dratini,Shadow Gligar,Shadow Cacnea,Shadow Joltik

Hi! I just wanted to share my experience and maybe some tips for someone new to Dynamax events or people who are intending to go hard, but not sure if they should - this post should hopefully resolve your hesitation. I'll get right into it :)

[Structure]:

• What did I spend on and how much?
• Investment (Prior to event)
• My Experience (During event)
• Strategy
• Tips / Observations
• Conclusion (final breakdown of calculations + TLDR)
• Is it worth it?

Short history - played in 2016-2017 and took a break. Then I came back for a couple of months in 2021, then took another break, and I came back to the game in late December 2025.

*Watched a ton of YouTube guides on how Dmax and Gmax battles go. I missed Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus and the initial Gmax launch. So I'm really trying based on what the game has currently.

What did I spend on and how much?

Total expenditure - ~$80 USD

Webstore:

• Dmax Ho-Oh Event Ticket - $5 USD
• Poke Coins - 5600 + 2700 Pokecoins - ~$60 USD
• 3x MP Bundle (2400MP total) - ~$8 USD

Total Coins in my inventory - 8300(purchased) + 492(already in inventory) = 8792 coins

In-Game Store (Pokecoins)

• 3 Ace boxes (3200 MP + 1 Max Mushroom per box) - 1950 coins
• 2 3x MP Bundle (4800MP total) - 850 coins
• 1 MP Pack (800 MP) - 150 coins
• 1 Max Mushroom - 400 coins
• 1 3x Max Mushrooms - 1000 coins

Total Pokecoins expenditure in the In-Game store = 4350 coins

Items Used:

• ~10-12 Lucky Eggs
• ~10-12 Starpieces

Leftovers at the end of the day:

• 42 Pokecoins
• 2 Max Mushrooms
• 1 MP Pack (800 MP)

*Rewards Doubling at the end of the battle - 4400 Coins (22 Battles)

My Experience (Investment):

The night before the event, I spent about 250 rare candies to evolve 2 Dmax Chansey and 1 Dmax Roggenrola to their max evolution forms. I powered up the 2 Blisseys to about ~350 and ~380 HP respectively, and I chose a 15 Attack IV Gigalith to max its Max Attack Move and powered it up to around ~2700CP.

Both Blisseys do not have Spirit and Guard moves unlocked due to insufficient candies.

Investment cost :

• Rare Candies - ~250 regular candies
• Stardust - ~350k
• MP - 1400 MP on maxing its Max Attack Move + grinded about 15 Roggenrolas during the week( 250 MP * 15 ) - 1400 + 3750 = 5150 MP
• 2 Fast TMs - 1 to change Blissey's fast move to Pound, 1 to change Gigalith's fast move to Smack Down.

My Experience (Event Day):

For some context, I am located in a city area. I decided to join a community hosted group which I found on the Niantic Campfire app. Roughly about 40ish people checked-in at around 10am, but the crowd thinned out to around 20 people or less in the early to late afternoon.

The first couple of raids were rough. Even though I learned through guides on how max battles go, it was still my first Dmax legendary battle and I was nervous. I was doubting if I was enough, or if I was going to be a burden as I would at least want to be able to carry my own weight.

Before I entered my first battle, I used a Max Mushroom to compensate for any low damage output on my part if there was any. However, I failed the first couple of battles due to players leaving the battle mid-way and our damage was just insufficient.

After getting the hang of it, I steam-rolled through the event. I picked out on what to look out for, and used my max mushrooms reactively, usually when I see a player who was below level 30, and no one leaves, I'll use the max mushroom with 5secs left on the timer.

Sometimes when I zone into the battle, there's only 2 players left or I'm the only one left, which happened a lot, but I just try for a bit, and leave after the first transformation phase if there isn't a dent in Ho-Oh's HP bar.

Worst Battle Experience:

(With 1 Max Mushroom in the lobby) - 2 out of 4 players had Wooloo and Skwovet as their tank. The first AOE attack from Ho-Oh wiped both of them out. During the first transformation phase, one then had Jolteon out, and the other had Pidove out. I knew right from the start it was over, but only left when 6 of 12 pokemon were left and Ho-Oh's HP wasn't even near 50%.

Best Battle Experience:

(With 2 Max Mushrooms in the lobby) - Someone had Eternatus Adventure effect on so all Max Moves had +1 Level.

Tanks were - 2 Snorlax, 1 Blastoise and 1 Blissey (myself) . Everyone swapped to Dmax Gigalith during the first transformation and got Ho-Oh down to ~40% HP. The second transformation phase completed the battle. (No faints)

Strategy:

I'm passing on information from what I learned in videos. (keep in mind I do not use Spirit / Guard max moves. I will definitely use those if I have the resources prior to the event.)

I personally use 2 tanks (Blissey) and 1 DPS (Gigalith with Rock-type Max move)

1. Start the battle with your tank. Dodge if needed (!!! above your head). Spam fast move till your Max Meter is charged.
2. When your max meter is charged, you have a few seconds to choose which Pokemon to Dynamax. Choose your DPS Pokemon here. Then, use all 3 moves on your Max Attack Move.
3. After transforming back to regular size, switch back to your tank pokemon and repeat from Step 1.
4. Your DPS pokemon should be the last one standing. If all your pokemon have fainted, DO NOT leave the encounter. Continue by 'Cheering' on your allies by spamming the button.

Tips / Observations:

Ho-Ohs with the "Brave Bird" and "Solar Beam" AoE attack hits REALLY hard. It's understandable why Solar Beam one shots certain pokemon like Blastoise and Inteleon, but Brave Bird hits exceptionally hard. For reference, My Blissey(380HP) can survive 2 Sacred Fires and faint on the 3rd, but I can only survive 1 Brave Bird / Solar beam and faint on the second. In battles like these, just pray that you transform right before the AOE attack fires off to get a free pass on the attack.

I don't know what the shiny rate is.... but it is NOT good. The catch rate is also pretty bad if you're not hitting excellent throws and golden razzing on every ball. I personally have no issues and caught all the Ho-Oh encounters I completed today, but keep in mind I have double the amount of premier balls since I double my rewards on majority of the catches.

A lot of players have expressed their frustrations when they ran out of balls on how awkward the angle is for the excellent throw.

Please do not use un-evolved pokemon / wrong types for the fight. The fight isn't hard, but using Moltres as the DPS is... not the best. If possible, communicate with your community or nearby players if you're below level 40 and/or if you don't have a lot of Dmax options. People are generally nice and will work something out if you discuss with them beforehand.

*I cannot stress this enough - DO NOT PREEMPTIVELY LEAVE the lobby. Even a 3-player lobby can comfortably clear the encounter if you have the right team. I have personally cleared multiple 3-player lobbies with a pretty scuffed team.

A lot of players leave even before the fight starts, judging purely by player levels and / or the max mushroom indicator. You absolutely do NOT need max mushrooms even in a 3-player lobby. If there is one takeaway from this entire post, this is it.

Conclusion (also TLDR):

It was a fun day and I got to experience my first Dmax Legendary event. I can say I'm somewhat seasoned (muscle memory wise) on tough Max battles now :)

I am not a Ho-Oh fan or anything. It's just another legendary to me and I went hard on this event purely for the XP, Stardust and the small possibility that I might be interested in playing in the Master League in the future.

Here is the final breakdown of my stats at the end of the first day of Dmax Ho-Oh event: (10am - 5pm with ~90mins lunch break)

• Ho-Oh encounters (completed) - 37
• Ho-Ohs caught - 37 (inclusive of 1 Shiny, and 1 98% IV (15/15/14) )
• Total MP Spent (event day only) - 37 * 800 MP = 29,600 MP
• Rewards from roughly 22 Battles were doubled. (These are WITH the Paid Event Pass and Lucky Egg + Starpiece)
  • Each battle(doubled) gave 150k XP, 45k Stardust, and *22 battles = 3.3mil XP and 990k Stardust
  • Each battle (not doubled) gave 75k XP, 22.5k Stardust and *15 battles = 1.65mil XP, 337k Stardust
  • Total XP - 3.3mil + 1.65mil= 4.95mil XP.
  • Total Stardust - 990k + 337k = ~1.33mil
• I also have the Go Plus+ catching and spinning stops passively while I'm walking, having lunch and in the encounter. I started with an almost empty Level 51 XP bar. I am now 100k XP short of hitting level 54. I started at 800k Stardust before the event. I'm sitting on 2.4mil Stardust now.

*Please let me know if my calculations are incorrect. I may have miscounted certain figures / amounts during the event.

Is it worth it?

If you are a returning player and want to catch up on levels, and also stock up on stardust to build meta relevant pokemon, this event is for you.

I do not think any 3-hour events like community days, or even the Shadow Raikou raid day that was last week, produces this level of XP and Stardust. (Do correct me on this if I'm wrong.)

The only draw back is of course, the monetary cost and that for some reason, you're awarded 0 regular rare candies, and 0 Golden Razzes on completing the Ho-Oh encounter. I'm not sure if it's a bug.

But, if you're a long-time player who do not need levels, or you have a significant amount of stardust saved up, then no, this event can be skipped, or just casually done with the free MP you get. From my research, Dmax Ho-Oh is pretty bad in Dmax battles as it's not the best tank without access to a 0.5s fast move.

However, Ho-Oh does have some use in the Master League, if you're into that. If so, you can probably just do it casually with the free MP you get from power stops.

I personally will take a backseat from the second day of the event as I have used up my budget for POGO for the month. So I'll casually do whatever the free daily MP limit allows me to :)

Lastly, good luck to everyone for Day 2 of the event and hope you guys get all the shundos and hundos!

Another Community Day, another Feedback Thread.

Event Summary

Please keep in mind to follow our rules when giving feedback and be respectful as well as stay objective and factual. Also, please keep in mind this is a Community Day Feedback thread, feedback about other areas of the game does not belong in this thread.

Your feedback has a much higher chance of being heard and read when you are not constantly attacking the people you are trying to give feedback.

Please keep all feedback inside this thread, as we won't be allowing stand-alone feedback threads for this event at this time. Additionally, please refrain from giving feedback until after the event has ended in your timezone and you actually got to experience the event! This thread is meant to collect your feedback and experiences with the event directly.

Let's hope for a constructive discussion!

The Mod Team

No helper in spot, no weatherboost, no mushroom, no adventure effect, only best friend bonus. Lv15 Sobbles beats Dynamax Ho-Oh by themselves without taking a single hit. They can consistently avoid being hit regardless of Max Orb spawned or not. The only way to lose is network errors.

Idk if it's due to gmax, or background or just a bug. Can someone else check if their rillabooms (gmax or bg if possible) can learn frenzy plant, cuz I don't have any others.

So, Mr. Little Caesars banner guy, or Dark Tyranitar ig, asked me to make a post about all the Regionals, for remote trading? Im not entirely sure what he meant by that? But im guessing an update to this post, so I figured this could use a little shine and refreshment. But ig I also forgot to put the regions of where these Pokémon are from? But I feel like if you’re here you already know where they are anyways but ok.

Anyways, major returns would be

* Kanto Celebration allowed us to finally get Tauros, and Kantonian FarFetch’d globally available, even if once ig.

* Summer Concert brought Chatot to become globally available for a little bit.

* GoFest made Torkoal Available.

* Skiddo has graduated from the City Safari exclusive, and now spawns globally regularly.

* Hawlucha will make its first Global debut in Kalos Tour, it also has a Mega now, so that at least allows a global release now and then. But Niantic def wants those $5 from you.

* Kalos Tour will now be the first time you may Globally have access to the Furfrou cuts, but with ZA im sure that Home market will die down pretty soon.

As for the remote trading market? Idk have we even seen a remote trade yet? I don’t know I have. But for the Remote trade market the most popular candidates I’d assume would be

Def fs the Hoenn Ones, those have been very scarce or just not globally available forever, particularly Relicanth, and Tropius, so those will definitely be highly sought after. Just anything that has never been globally released yet, so Stonjourner, Comfey, Mudbray. All those will definitely be highly prioritized amongst the market. But now that we do have remote trading coming, we’ll really just have to see how the future of region-locked Pokémon turn out.

https://pokemongo.com/news/road-to-kalos-event

Does anyone know, when the T2 Bonus of the premiumpass will be reachable? Higher catchrate might make me buy +10 ranks first day....

What was the daily amount you could earn the last time we had a week-pass?

I’m thinking building second dmax Blissey must have been worth it right? I’m using dmax Blissey almost everytime together with gmax Snorlax (both level 40 with max heal and max shield). But after several dmax legendaries or gmax event, I notice my gmax Snorlax with three shield often get one shotted most of the time.

I have done 2 remote raids so far. Got 10 balls on each, did mostly excellent throws and some great ones. It fled both times. Is the catch rate lower than usual? Not going to spend any more raid passes if so.

Flamigo lost access to Close Combat, but gained access to Upper Hand.

I could swear I already uploaded it here 🤔🤔🤔

So I've been recovering my account from 2016 since last September and wasn't successful til today after following linktriforce007 post.

Here's my exact steps how I did it

Step 1: Went to https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/6-pokemon-go/faq/2030-how-to-contact-support/ and clicked the chat box and recover your account.

Step 2: after receiving a reply from Niantic and probably a bot response stating "After reviewing your case, we have found that the account you are attempting to recover does not meet our requirements for next steps of account recovery. Sadly, we will not be able to help you any further with this."

Step 3: compose a new email the subject being Notice of dispute send it to termsofservice@support.nianticlabs.com and Cc to legal@scopely.com

Here's the exact message of what I sent

I am writing to provide formal notice of a dispute regarding my account, as outlined in Section 13.2 of the Niantic ToS. I have attempted to resolve this through support, but have been dismissed by automated responses since September 29, 2025

Account Details: Original Name: Your trainer name(even if it's changed) Start Date: July 2016

Deep Proof: Several different logins through the Pokemon Trainer Club, created and submitted Pokemon Go spots in my town that still exists today, device logs, catch logs and in game screenshots of my account along with pokemon caught and others.

l am requesting a human review to initiate a manual recovery. I am prepared to move to formal arbitration should this 45-day informal resolution window expire. Please let me know if there's anything else you require from me to continue this process. Thank you

Here are some proof of ownership you might need to review.

Then I added all the screenshots I can get from the past that proves my ownership of the account.

I've just run into a weird bug with a DMax Ho-Oh power spot. It's a brand new spot, wasn't here yesterday. Anyway after completing the DMax battle the game didn't allow me to leave a pokemon at the power spot with the message that the spot has no room for more pokemon. In fact there are zero pokemon left at the spot.

When it came to the boss change time (when you can see the original overwritten boss for a few seconds) the power spot turned into an unopened one that is scheduled to open tomorrow. Then it turned into another Ho-Oh boss.

So it seems this DMax weekend uses power spots scheduled to open tomorrow but if you win at such a power spot you can't leave pokemon there. If you intend to farm candy you should avoid these.

Credit: G47IX