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Mega Evolution (GO)

Revision as of 07:35, 20 August 2023 by Swampert rox (talk | contribs) (Clarifications)

Mega Evolution (Japanese: メガシンカ Mega Evolution) is a temporary transformations that certain Pokémon can undergo. Mega Evolution was introduced to Pokémon GO on August 27, 2020. Like in the core series, Mega Evolution significantly increase a Pokémon's stats and potentially change its type, but its moves will remain the same. However, rather than using a Mega Stone, an eligible Pokémon instead consumes Mega Energy to activate this temporary transformation. In addition, several type-based bonuses take effect while Mega Evolution is active, and become more powerful for Pokémon that have undergone Mega Evolution many times.

Promotional artwork of Mega Evolution from Pokémon GO
In-game artwork of Primal Reversion from Pokémon GO

Primal Reversion (Japanese: ゲンシカイキ Primal Regression) was introduced on February 18, 2023. Rather than using the Blue Orb or Red Orb, eligible Pokémon consume Primal Energy to activate Primal Reversion. In Pokémon GO, Primal Reversion is treated as a special type of Mega Evolution. The two operate nearly identically, but Primal Reversion is more powerful: it grants bonus effects to more types than Mega Evolution, and its damage bonuses in Gym and Raid Battles remains active the entire time a Primal form is in the party, not just when it is the active party member.

Activation

Activating Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion for a Pokémon the first time costs a large amount of species-specific Mega Energy or Primal Energy. Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion last eight hours, after which that Pokémon will enter a rest period for several days. As the rest period counts down, the Energy cost to reactivate Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion decreases proportionally until it reaches 0 at the rest period's end. Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion can be activated anytime during the rest period, so long as the player has enough Energy.

Repeatedly activating Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion on the same Pokémon will increase its Mega Level or Primal Level. A higher Mega or Primal Level reduces both the initial Mega or Primal Energy activation cost and the length of the rest period, making frequent activation far cheaper and easier.

A player can only have one active Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion at a time. Activating Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion on a second Pokémon will revert the first to its base form and start its rest period.

On top of the Mega Energy cost, activating Rayquaza's Mega Evolution also requires that it know the move Dragon Ascent. Rayquaza can learn Dragon Ascent by consuming a Meteorite.

Shadow Pokémon and Clone Pokémon cannot Mega Evolve, but Purified Pokémon and other event forms can.[1] Active Mega-Evolved Pokémon cannot be deployed to defend Gyms, traded, or powered up. Trading a Pokémon resets all progress towards Mega Levels or Primal Levels, and its recipient must pay the full initial amount to activate Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion.

Costs

The following shows the possible costs to activate Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion. The subsequent activation costs decreases with the Pokémon's Mega Level or Primal Level.

Initial cost Base Level
  		High Level
   		Max Level
   
100 20 10 5
200 40 20 10
300 60 30 15
400 80 40 20

Effects

Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion temporarily boosts the Attack and Defense base stats of a Pokémon, with some forms having different types. Activating Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion will restore a fainted or damaged Pokémon to max HP. Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion can be used in all types of battles, except most formats of the GO Battle League.

Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion both grant bonuses to types that are related to that transformation.

    • For Mega Evolution, type bonuses are applied to the Mega-evolved Pokémon's types
    • For Primal Kyogre, these bonuses are applied are to Bug, Water, and Electric types, the same types boosted by Rainy weather.
    • For Primal Groudon, these bonuses are applied are to Ground, Fire, and Grass types, the same types boosted by Sunny weather.
    • For Mega Rayquaza, these bonuses are applied to Flying, Dragon, and Psychic types, the same types boosted by Windy weather.

When used in Gym and Raid Battles, Mega Evolution and Primal Reversion provides special damage bonuses to all allies:

  • ×1.3 damage for all moves whose types are boosted by Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion
  • ×1.1 damage increase for all other ally Pokémon's moves

For Mega Evolution, including Mega Rayquaza, the Mega-Evolved Pokémon must be present on the battlefield for the damage bonuses to be active. For Primal Reversion, the Primal form only needs to be present in the party; the damage bonuses are active even if the Primal form Pokémon is never sent out, or is fainted and unable to battle.[2]

Multiple players can use Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion in the same battle, but the damage bonuses will not stack. Each attack will recieve only the highest applicable damage bonus.

Outside of battle, special bonuses are applied for catching Pokémon that have at least one of the Mega Evolution's or Primal Reversion's boosted types:

  • Bonus Candy from catching (also applied to any Pokémon caught from a raid)
  • Increased chance of Candy XL from catching (unlocked at High level)
    • The chance increase is a flat rate, depending on Mega Level, added to success rate of each weighted coin toss for a Candy XL.
  • Bonus XP from catching (unlocked at High level)

Once a Pokémon's Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion is registered to the Pokédex, walking any Buddy Pokémon that belongs to its evolutionary family will also yield its respective Mega Energy or Primal Energy whenever it finds Candy (at 5 Energy per km). Energy can be found this way regardless of whether there is a Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion active.

Level

Mega Levels were introduced on April 28, 2022, as part of an update to Mega Evolutions. As a Pokémon's Mega Level or Primal Level increases, the additional perks for Mega Evolving it improve. Each Pokémon can increase its progress towards the next Mega or Primal Level by undergoing Mega Evolution or Primal Reversion, up to once per day. Mega and Primal Levels are completely reset if a Pokémon is traded.

It takes at least 30 days for a Pokémon to reach Max Level, Mega Evolving it once each day. For a Pokémon that costs  100/200/300 to initially Mega Evolve, it would take at least  406/783/1160 total to reach Max Level within the minimum 30 days required, and waiting exactly 24 hours in between. If the player chooses to only perform subsequent Mega Evolutions without using Mega Energy, it will take at least 157 days (about 5 months) after the initial Mega Evolution to reach Max Level. In both ideal cases, the player cancels the Mega Evolution immediately to initiate the rest period timer.

Bonus Base Level
  		High Level
   		Max Level
   
Mega Evolutions required 1 7 30
Rest period 7 days 5 days 3 days
Mega Energy cost reduction 80% 90% 95%
Catch Candy Bonus  1  1  2
Increased Candy XL Chance — +10% +25%
Catch XP Bonus — +50 XP +100 XP

Mega and Primal Raids

Main article: Raid Battle (GO)

Mega-Evolved Pokémon and Primal Reversions may appear as Raid Bosses for Mega Raids and Primal Raids, respectively. Upon completion, the raid rewards a large amount of Energy that correspond to the Raid Boss, and the amount depends on how quicky the raid was completed. Each Mega Raid yields between 150 to 250 Mega Energy, and each Primal Raid yields between 60 to 100 Primal Energy. Upon defeat, the Raid Boss will revert to its normal form and can be caught as such during the bonus challenge.

As Pokémon GO does not feature certain Mythical Pokémon in raids, Mega Diancie Energy was instead made available through Carbink raids during GO Fest 2023.

List of Mega Evolutions and Primal Reversions

Resource Pokémon Boosted Types Initial Cost Release date
  Venusaur Mega Energy   Mega Venusaur     200 August 27, 2020
  Charizard Mega Energy   Mega Charizard X     200 August 27, 2020
  Mega Charizard Y    
  Blastoise Mega Energy   Mega Blastoise   200 August 27, 2020
  Beedrill Mega Energy   Mega Beedrill     100 August 27, 2020
  Pidgeot Mega Energy   Mega Pidgeot     100 September 18, 2020
  Alakazam Mega Energy   Mega Alakazam   200 September 12, 2022
  Slowbro Mega Energy   Mega Slowbro     100* June 8, 2021
  Gengar Mega Energy   Mega Gengar     200 October 23, 2020
  Kangaskhan Mega Energy   Mega Kangaskhan   200 April 29, 2022
  Pinsir Mega Energy   Mega Pinsir     200 May 11, 2023
  Gyarados Mega Energy   Mega Gyarados     300* February 9, 2021
  Aerodactyl Mega Energy   Mega Aerodactyl     200 January 7, 2022
  Ampharos Mega Energy   Mega Ampharos     200 January 19, 2021
  Steelix Mega Energy   Mega Steelix     200 December 1, 2021
  Scizor Mega Energy   Mega Scizor     200 August 10, 2022
  Houndoom Mega Energy   Mega Houndoom     100* October 1, 2020
  Tyranitar Mega Energy   Mega Tyranitar     300 July 25, 2023
  Sceptile Mega Energy   Mega Sceptile     200 December 3, 2022
  Blaziken Mega Energy   Mega Blaziken     200 December 3, 2022
  Swampert Mega Energy   Mega Swampert     200 December 3, 2022
  Gardevoir Mega Energy   Mega Gardevoir     200 February 8, 2023
  Aggron Mega Energy   Mega Aggron   200 September 16, 2022
  Medicham Mega Energy   Mega Medicham     100 March 8, 2023
  Sableye Mega Energy   Mega Sableye     100 June 29, 2023
  Manectric Mega Energy   Mega Manectric   100* March 16, 2021
  Altaria Mega Energy   Mega Altaria     300* May 15, 2021
  Banette Mega Energy   Mega Banette   100 October 20, 2022
  Absol Mega Energy   Mega Absol   200 October 22, 2021
  Glalie Mega Energy   Mega Glalie   200 December 15, 2022
  Salamence Mega Energy   Mega Salamence     300* January 10, 2023
  Latias Mega Energy   Mega Latias     300 May 3, 2022
  Latios Mega Energy   Mega Latios     300 May 3, 2022
  Kyogre Primal Energy   Primal Kyogre       400 February 18, 2023
  Groudon Primal Energy   Primal Groudon       400 February 18, 2023
  Rayquaza Mega Energy   Mega Rayquaza     400 August 4, 2023
  Lopunny Mega Energy   Mega Lopunny     200 April 4, 2021
  Abomasnow Mega Energy   Mega Abomasnow     200 December 1, 2020
  Diancie Mega Energy   Mega Diancie     300 August 4, 2023

Updates

  • Prior to September 3, 2020, subsequent Mega Evolutions required 25% of the initial Mega Energy (instead of 20%)
  • Prior to October 15, 2020, Mega Evolution lasted four hours (instead of eight).
  • Prior to 0.189.0 update, there was a bug that caused Mega-evolved Pokémon to be more powerful depending on the level the Pokémon was powered up from.
  • Mega levels and its related perks were introduced on April 28, 2022. [3]. Prior to this update:
    • For a Pokémon with multiple Mega Evolutions, the cost reduction only applies to forms it has previously Mega Evolved into. So if a Charizard has previously evolved into Mega Charizard X for the first time, then it would cost  40 to evolve into Mega Charizard X again, but  200 to evolve into Mega Charizard Y.
    • A Pokémon that has previously Mega Evolved and is then traded will still cost a reduced amount to Mega Evolve.

Trivia

  • Costumes are not displayed on Pokémon that are Mega Evolved.

References

  1. ↑ Mega Evolving your Pokémon — Niantic Support
  2. ↑ Primal Boost remains active even though The Primal Reversion Pokemon is NOT in battle
  3. ↑ Celebrate the Global launch of the Mega Evolution update with Mega Kangaskhan and a Mega Moment event!
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