New Event: Team GO Rocket Invasion
On July 22nd, 2019, Niantic officially released the Team GO Rocket Invasion event. Several trainers are reporting Shadow Pokemon being available to battle across the world, featuring Team GO Rocket Grunts!
Stay tuned to this post for further details.
How to Participate in the Team Rocket Event
The event is currently being rolled out in stages to Pokemon GO accounts. If you can't use this feature yet, check back in a little while.
PokeStops that have the Team Rocket interaction will look slightly "glitched out" at a distance, changing color from black to blue and twitching periodically. Affected stops should fade from blue to black as you approach them.
PokeStops that have been taken over by Team Rocket have an "R" above them and are "greyed out".
Guys! Team rocket pokestop doesn’t look black from far away! It’s slightly darker blue! pic.twitter.com/2b0w6eSmlB
— Kaito Nolan (@KaitoNolan) July 22, 2019
Stops appear to be taken over by grunts for 30 minutes, though there are some conflicting reports saying this timer can decrease after being defeated by another trainer.
Players who interact with these PokeStops will have the chance to fight, and then catch, a "Shadow Pokemon". Battles are done in Master League, though the teams you'll face should be pretty easy, despite the deceptively high CP.
Upon completion, you'll receive a number of Premiere Balls relative to your performance.
- 1x Ball per Alive Pokemon(maximum of 3)
- 2x Ball per Grunt Defeated
- Bonus Balls per Hero Medal level
- Bonus Balls per Purifier Medal level
Shadow Pokemon have red eyes and a ghostly purple shadow animation. They will know the charged move Frustration by default. They can be transfered, traded, and placed in gyms like normal.
Shadow Pokemon also can be purified for a small candy and stardust cost.
- Purified Pokemon learn the charge move Return.
- Purified Pokemon will keep the move Return even when evolved.
- Purified Pokemon get +2 to all IVs when purified (15 max).
- Purified Pokemon are Level 25 with a 10% Stardust AND CANDY discount for powering up
- They also receive a 20% 2nd charge move cost reduction
- Bonuses for Purified Pokemon stack with Lucky Trades resulting in a 55% total stardust discount.
