Pokémon Day is kicking off a little early in Pokémon Sword and Shield. From now until March 2, players can encounter Mewtwo and all of the Kanto starters in Max Raid Battles.
Unfortunately for those looking to add Mewtwo to their team, early reports have deemed the legendary Psychic-type impossible to catch and very difficult to beat.
Mewtwo is currently only appearing in five-star Max Raid Battles. But even though it’s in that category, it’s apparently far stronger than normal Pokémon you might battle. This is because all of the Mewtwo in raids are reportedly level 100 on top of being Dynamaxed.
The Mewtwo can’t be captured at all and are only there to give rewards to players who manage to defeat it, according to Serebii. It doesn’t even prompt the player to throw a Poké Ball like it normally would. Instead, the game just shows the Pokémon leaving.
This has been confirmed by Serebii’s webmaster Joe Merrick, who also confirms that the encounters are coded so that the Mewtwo will not appear as a Shiny variant to avoid disappointing players who would miss out on catching a rare Shiny Pokémon.
This is a nice challenge, but it seems like an unnecessary step to make the Pokémon uncatchable, which has some players ignoring the event entirely.
You can, however, run into Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, along with their second stage forms Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Wartortle in none-five-star raids. These Pokémon are all obtainable and will be around until March 2.
It’s unclear why Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur aren’t present too, but you can easily get them by evolving the other forms.
This event is not ending any of the other events currently taking place in the Wild Area. Rather, it’s just adding more Pokémon that players can find in various dens within the game. You can still find the Gigantimax forms of Grimmsnarl, Kingler, Hatterene, Orbeetlem and Toxtricity in various other raid dens.
