Pokemon Go players booted up the mobile game to find the world invaded by the franchise’s original stars, Team Rocket. Additionally, from taking over Pokestops and challenging trainers to fights, the cruel villains have also disrupted the local ecology, modifying the kinds of Pokemon that players are likely to find.
As part of the game’s Team Rocket invasion, players would spot monsters like Rattata, Zubat, Magnemite along with Meowth a lot more frequently until August 1st, 1 PM Pacific Time. One might even get the chance to catch a Shiny Ekans or a Shiny Koffing.
The theming is great because, well, who doesn’t love Team Rocket, but overall, it’s a little too shallow to hold players’ attention for long.
In addition to having a higher spawn rate than usual, players will also have a higher chance of hatching those Pokémon from eggs over the next week. Also, raids will feature monsters significant to the franchise’s baddies.
After a brief preview earlier this week, the Pokémon Go Team Rocket event started in earnest this afternoon. The biggest modification is the appearance of Team Rocket grunts, who have claimed the game’s ubiquitous Pokéstops as their own. As such, these landmarks currently offer scant resources to trainers looking for more items, and the only way to return them to normal is with a good, old-fashioned Pokémon battle.
These battles play out just like they do at a Gym or against another trainer, the real-time aspect necessitating frantic tapping and smart shield use to block super attacks. They can be pretty tough if the player has not been training his Pokémon for the last few months. After losing, the Team Rocket trainers purposely leave one of their Shadow Pokémon behind, allowing players to catch them. With a simple purification, which costs Stardust and Candy, these Pokémon are cast out and have become much stronger, a characteristic that carries over to future training and evolving. Players short time hunting down Team Rocket didn’t yield any special Pokémon, just the usual collection of starters like Squirtle and Charmander, but it’s possible that this will change over time.
Unfortunately, the invaded PokéStops are proving to be quite hard to find — hopefully, these brand-new monsters are truly much easier to spot.
