Pokémon Go’s latest timed event focuses on the Pokémon Horizon’s anime series and adds a new Pikachu variant into the game for players to grab for a limited time—Captain Pikachu.
Usually, Pikachu spawns are quite common in Pokémon Go, especially during a timed event, but Niantic has decided to make Captain Pikachu much more illusive than it should be.
How to catch Captain Pikachu in Pokémon Go
Captain Pikachu is only available from 10 am, March 5, until midnight, March 11, local time. It only spawns for the duration of the Pokémon Go Horizons Celebration event and, like many other variant Pikachu before it, it likely won’t ever return in the future.
There are three prominent ways to get it, but all are a pain. While it can spawn in the wild, Captain Pikachu has a ridiculously low spawn rate, which makes it a hassle to try and find its shiny form.
You can also find it via a rare photobomb. It is one of four Pokémon that can be found randomly when taking a snapshot of your Buddy Pokémon throughout the event. The other three Pokémon are Charizard, Sprigatito, and Fuecoco. For example, my five Photobombs for the event were four Sprigatito and one Charizard.
The last and, sadly, the most reliable method to get a Captain Pikachu spawn is through a specific field research task. Throughout the event, you can get a timed field research task called Hatch 2 Eggs, from which you have a 1/4 chance of getting a Captain Pikachu encounter. You have a 1/3 chance of getting a Pikachu through the Win a Raid field research. This is still not a guarantee, but at least you have better odds here than any other method.
