Two categories of creatures dominate “Pokemon Go” during October. They are ghost- and dark-type pocket monsters. That should come as no surprise seeing as how the fall month is associated with Halloween and things that go bump in the night.
That’s reflected in the raids, Research Breakthrough encounters, the Community Day and Spotlight Hours. October starts off great with the introduction of Zarude and the movie tie-in event, but the rest of the month is underwhelming from all the announcements so far.
Players will see a rerun of several legendary and mythical Pokemon. The most exciting of the bunch are Genesect, which runs from 10 a.m. Oct. 1 to 10 a.m. Oct. 12. It has the move Douse Drive, but unfortunately, it will not be shiny. The other big raid is the debut of Mega Absol, which runs from 10 a.m. Oct. 22 to 10 a.m. Nov. 5. It is a pure Dark-type Pokemon and will find use in Raids though it is frail. It will be the Mega to use when players are short on trainers for the other legendary raids this month.
Those include Altered Forme Giratina, which takes up a majority of the month. It will appear from 10 a.m. Oct. 12 to 10 a.m. Oct. 22. For those looking for Candy XL or a shiny, this is a good chance to acquire both. Darkrai will appear in raids from 10 a.m. Oct. 22 to 10 a.m. Nov. 5. It can also be shiny and it will have the move Sludge Bomb for the first time. That Charged Move isn’t meta changing. Many prefer Focus Blast because it can take out certain counters in Go Battle League. Additionally, with the introduction of Yveltal, Darkrai doesn’t have the same sheen as it did before. Again, this is the first time that players will have a chance to earn Candy XL for Darkrai so it would be worth doing. Plus because it’s a mythical Pokemon, it cannot be traded so it’s best to delete extras during double candy transfer events.
RESEARCH BREAKTHROUGH AND SPOTLIGHT HOUR
The October Research Breakthrough is Yamask, which is a good Pokemon for PvP now that its evolution, Cofagrigus, has Shadow Claw. It can be shiny, so let’s hope that it will appear in the “Pokemon Go” Halloween event or other celebrations. Along with the Research Breakthrough, players will also get one Remote Raid Pass and other items via a 1 PokeCoin bundle each week.
As for the Spotlight Hours, everything is decent but unspectacular. Drifloon (Oct. 5), Gastly (Oct. 12) and Murkrow (Oct. 26) each can see play in Go Battle League. Players will occasionally see their evolutions in competition. Better yet, all of these Pokemon will have shiny variants available. Gothia (Oct. 19) is the weakest selection of the bunch but it also has one of the best bonuses, which ix double catch XP.
I’d put the priority on Gastly and Gothita for the Spotlight Hours for October. They have double Stardust and double XP, respectively. Strangely, players don’t have a double transfer bonus this month. Both Drifloon and Murkrow have the double-XP-for-evolving bonus. That suggests that the Halloween event may have a candy bonus involved. Let’s hope it’s more treat than trick.
Lastly, October’s Community Day features Duskull from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 9. Its final evolution Dusknoir will know the Charged Move Shadow Ball. The Pokemon choice is underwhelming and I wouldn’t go too hard during the event.
