When you initially get into Pokémon Go, you’ll find yourself roaming around the wild to collect your first set of Pokémon. Alongside increasing your trainer level, you’ll also learn the basics of the game.
As you progress further in the game, more features will unlock, including Gyms and Raids. These two are the two prime game modes where you’ll be battling out with your Pokémon by your side.
Before a Raid officially kicks off, you should notice an egg in front of a Gym near you. Once the egg hatches, the Gym will turn into a Raid, and a timer will kick off, indicating how long you’ll have to beat the Raid. A Raid Pass will be required to participate, and you also need to be present around the Gym that the raid was supposed to take place in. Niantic introduced Remote Raid Passes during the COVID-19 pandemic, however, allowing players to participate in Raids from the comfort of their home.
Raid Hours are global events that take an hour, increasing the spawn rate of a Pokémon or a group of Pokémon in Raids that kick off with the event. Raid Hours also spice up the regular Raids with new Rare, Legendary, or Mythical Pokémon as Raid Bosses. They can also have exclusive moves that can catch you off-guard, so prepare for trouble and expect it to get doubled.
What time and date does Raid Hour go live on Pokémon Go?
Pokémon Go does an excellent job of utilizing local time for all trainers around the world. This means that you won’t have to deal with any time zone converters while planning for the next Raid Hour since each will be tailored for your timezone.
Raid Hours in Pokémon Go usually take place on Wednesdays from 6pm to 7pm local time. On rare occasions, there may be technical difficulties that can prevent Raid Hours from going live. When that’s the case, following the official Pokémon Go Twitter account can let you plan your day ahead since Niantic always lets the fans know before the Raids are supposed to kick off.
How can you prepare for a Raid Hour on Pokémon Go?
If you’d like to avoid spending coins to buy Raid Passes, make sure to spin a Photo Disk at a Gym to claim a free daily Raid Pass. Even if you don’t attend, stacking these passes can prove to be useful when you don’t get a chance to visit Gyms at later dates.
Preparing your Battle Party is another important aspect to beat the raids. Knowing what type of Pokémon you’ll be facing during a Raid Hour will help you put together a lineup that will heavily counter the bosses. You can check out who you’ll be facing during a Raid Hour through the game’s Fandom Wiki page or its social media channels.
Even if you have a lineup that’s powerful enough to take on a Raid, going into a Raid Hour with friends will always be better to guarantee your victory. Raid Hours feature Pokémon that are tougher to beat than regular Raids, and you’ll need all the help you can get.
Since Raid Hours kick off based on local time, it’ll also be a decent idea to double-check whether your phone automatically detects your timezone. If you travel frequently, this setting will prevent you from accidentally waiting a couple of hours for a Raid Hour to start.
Connection stability is also another key factor during Raids. You’ll most likely be on your feet, and a Wi-Fi connection may get weaker as you walk away from the source. Choosing cellular data for Raid Hour can be a more stable choice as your connection quality should stay around the same levels as you walk around the field.
If you’d like the Pokémon Go app to notify you about future Raid Hours you can enable Push Notifications by doing the following.
- Navigate to the Map View and tap the Main Menu button, which is a Poké Ball.
- Click on Settings.
- Scroll down to enable Push Notifications and turn on Events, Offers, and Updates.
Premier Balls are given out at the beginning of Raids, and you’ll only have a limited supply of them. Your raiding conditions will decide on how many you’ll get, and these factors include how many friends you’re raiding with, whether you’re controlling the Gym, or how fast you were while defeating the Raid Boss.
There aren’t any other ways to stack Premier Balls before the Raids, however, and they’ll also disappear from your inventory after the Raids end.
If you’ve never participated in a Raid before, we recommend going through Niantic’s introduction of the system before taking on Raid Hours. It covers the basics like finding nearby Raids and participating in them alongside different types of Raid Passes.
Getting some fighting training with your Pokémon will also prove useful before joining a Raid since you’ll need to understand when to attack and dodge. With quick reflexes, you can beat bosses that are much stronger than you and also avoid using Revives, which are harder to come by.
