Ahoy! A few days Niantic announced changes to Mega Evolution, and those changes are now live globally! As part of a celebration for the update, there is an event now called "A Mega Moment" that lasts until Sunday May 1st at 8 pm local time. The following Pokémon will appear more in the wild:
- Bulbasaur
- Charmander
- Squirtle
- Slowpoke
- Gastly
- Mareep
- Buneary
- Snover
All of them can be Shiny. There are also event Field Research tasks for Mega Energy.
Part of the event includes a Special Research with the same name. The first step requires to catch 3 Pokémon and leads to encounters with Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. Here are my encounters from it.
Later in the Special Research you can choose a path between the evolutions, and you will receive Mega Energy for the Pokémon whose path you choose!
Mega Levels
Part of the update includes Mega Levels. Your Mega Evolved Pokémon can now increase in Mega Level and unlock additional bonuses. When you click on the Mega Icon to the left of your Pokémon's name you will be prompted with these info parts about the Mega Evolution changes. Here are screenshots of them.
You still have to use Mega Energy for the first Mega Evolution of a Pokémon that you do, but now it won't necessarily require Mega Energy to evolve again afterwards. That is if you wait until the rest period is over. Which requires a full 7 days. However you can still use Mega Energy to Mega Evolve it again while it's still in the rest period! And right from the start that's still the same energy that was already required now to Mega Evolve a Pokémon that you've already Mega Evolved.
Example: Venusaur costs 200 Venusaur Mega Energy to Mega Evolve for the first time. After that it was 40 Mega Energy to Mega Evolve it again any time. Now if you Mega Evolve your Venusaur, and once the 8 hour Mega Evolution active time is over, it would need to rest for 7 days. But you can still Mega Evolve it again immediately for 40 Mega Energy! So nothing has really changed there. Except that it requires less Mega Energy as time passes (and 0 if it has rested for 7 days). Earlier today my Venusaur required 39 Mega Energy after some time already passed.
This next photo shows the Mega Levels:
Any Mega starts at the Base Level. Which is still the exact same bonuses that were already granted from having a Mega Evolved Pokémon active! With the exception of the 7-day Mega Evolution rest period. Which doesn't really matter as you can still use the same amount of Mega Energy as before to immediately Mega Evolve again.
High Level: The resting period goes from 7 days to 5 days, a greater reduction in Mega Energy required to Mega Evolve, chance for XL Candy from catching Pokémon sharing the type of your active Mega Pokémon and a catch XP bonus.
Max Level: Resting period is further reduced to 3 days and an even more massive reduction in Mega Energy required to evolve. The chance for getting XL Candy from catching same-type Pokémon as your active Mega Pokémon increases. The catch XP bonus is enhanced.
Right now I don't know yet what the reduction will be at those levels and how much the XP bonus will be.
You can only increase a Pokémon's Mega Level once a day and every Mega obviously has their own Mega Level. But you can switch between Mega Pokémon as it will just bring your Mega back to their normal state when you Mega Evolve a different one. So you can increase multiple Mega Pokémon's Mega Levels in the same day.
For this reason I finally Mega Evolved my Charizard into Mega Charizard X and my Altaria into Mega Altaria today. Here are their Mega Pokédex registries.
When I did that, I found out it now also costs only 40 Mega Energy to Mega Evolve into Charizard Y. I thought it would require 200 too as it's also a new Mega. But I used a Dragon-type moveset Charizard for Mega Charizard X. So when I finally get a Fire-type Charizard with Blast Burn that one will require the full 200. I do wonder if I increase this Charizard's Mega Level, if a different Charizard is Mega Evolved it will have the same Mega Level or not.
That's something I will try out this weekend with a Beedrill I've used in PvP. Once I Mega Evolve my Beedrill again I can then Mega Evolve a different one and compare the level. If that works, I could already increase some other Pokémon's Mega Level even though I don't have perfect stats for that Pokémon yet.
I think some Pokémon might have had their base Mega Energy cost increased. It said I needed 300 to make this Altaria, and I'm pretty sure in the past it was 200. But I did have 400 luckily.
For Mega Lopunny I didn't have enough Mega Energy yet, I was at 150 and needed 200. But today I found at least 2 Event Field Research tasks for 5 power ups with 25 Lopunny Mega Energy. After completing them I Mega Evolved Lopunny and got the Mega Pokédex registry.
I'm not completely sure about if I'd wanna increase this one's Mega Level. It's not so useful, for the catch bonus on Normal-types I feel it's better to use Pidgeot as it also provides a bonus for Flying-types. I might just walk with it sometimes though, we'll see.
Event Field Research Tasks
This event has event Field Research tasks for Mega Energy for all the Pokémon that currently have their Mega Evolved form in the game already. Except for Kangaskhan as it just came out with this event.
- Power up Pokémon 5 times: 25 Mega Energy
- Power up Pokémon 10 times: 70 Mega Energy
It's best to do the power up 10 times, as it's the most Mega Energy per power up, but of course if you need some Mega Energy for a Pokémon and can find the power up 5 times for them, that's great too! Like I showed earlier with the Lopunny Mega Energy quests I found!
I'm definitely gonna have to look for Absol and Aerodactyl Mega Energy. I don't any Mega Energy at all for Aerodactyl and only a little bit for Absol. So far I found one for 25 Absol Mega Energy. I'll try to find more this weekend.
Mega Kangaskhan Raid DayOn Sunday, May 1st from 11 am through 2 pm local time a Mega Kangaskhan Raid Day will be taking place! During this time Mega Kangaskhan will appear more frequently in Mega Raids. If it's the same like older Raid Days, then every Gym should be hosting a Mega Kangaskhan Raid for full 3 hours during that time. The odds for getting a Shiny Kangaskhan will be higher. You can receive up to 5 free Raid Passes from spinning Gyms during this event, and also up to 2 hours after. So the most ideal time would be to play during those 3 hours if you wanna make the most of them.
I personally don't really do Mega Raids, but since we'll be getting 5 passes I will be using those during the Raid Day!
Have you evolved some Mega Pokémon to increase their Mega Levels a little bit since the event started?