Greetings Readers! Pokémon GO Fest 2026: Global has concluded and I hope everyone had a great weekend. It is always one of the biggest weekends on the Pokémon GO calendar, bringing together Trainers, rare raid bosses, boosted Shiny opportunities, and plenty of unexpected moments. For our local community (Jaipur, Rajasthan, India), the event meant two packed days, where the focus was firmly on the debut of Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y. From coordinating large raid groups, to battling the summer heat, to chasing Shiny Background Mewtwo, and celebrating unbelievable Hundo streaks, this GO Fest delivered no shortage of stories, both fortunate and frustrating. It has been some time since I last introduced my community to GO Hub readers, during GO Wild Area Global 2025, so this feels like the perfect opportunity to reconnect!
GO Fest weekends are always about more than simply catching Pokémon. They are about early-morning social media checks for reports from earlier time zones, meeting up with the local community, coordinating raid groups, celebrating impossible catches, and collectively suffering through terrible luck. This year’s GO Fest was no different. For our Jaipur community, Jawahar Circle was once again the natural meeting point. Its circular layout makes it easy to move between Gyms and has plenty of space for larger groups. It has become our go-to location for all Pokémon GO events. The plan for the weekend was simple: raid hard, play together, and chase the ultimate prize: Shiny 100 IV Mewtwo (SHUNDO) with an event Background.
The Early Raid Rush
Day 1 began with the usual routine: checking social media for any new event details and reports on wild spawns from regions where GO Fest had already started. By 10 A.M., most of our local community had reached Jawahar Circle. An hour later, the entire group was assembled, and everyone had a single target in mind: Mega Mewtwo X. Of course, we checked the wild spawns from time to time, but they were never really the priority. Every conversation, and every decision came back to Mewtwo. A Shiny Background Hundo was the dream, while any Shiny Background (BG) Mewtwo or 100 IV (HUNDO) Mewtwo would have been a massive win. Each completed Mega Mewtwo X raid brought another wave of hope. Maybe this would be the Shiny, maybe this would have a Background, maybe this would be the catch. More often than not, though, the encounter screen brought the same familiar disappointment.
Managing a Large Raid Group
Our biggest early challenge was not Mewtwo itself, it was lobby management. We had more than 20 Trainers playing together, which is above than what a raid lobby can accommodate. A few Trainers were inevitably being left behind when everyone rushed into the same lobby. Splitting into two groups was not immediately possible. Several newer Trainers did not have sufficiently powered-up Pokémon or Mega Evolutions, and Mega Mewtwo Super Mega Raids demanded a minimum of 10 Trainers with Mega Evolved Pokémon, rather than the usual 8. We could not simply divide the group and hope for the best.
Thankfully, the Mewtwo encounters gave us enough Mega Level progress to work around the issue. Eventually, we formed two balanced groups, each with experienced Trainers and a few newer players. That arrangement ensured everyone could participate, while remote raiders from our friend lists also helped fill out certain lobbies. For the most part, it worked well. Still, there were a few painful raids where someone failed to break the final shield at the right time. Every raiding group has experienced that one lobby: everyone has invested their passes, the boss is almost down, and that last shield causes the entire group to quit and rejoin. Frustrating, but very much part of the Pokémon GO raid experience.
Countless Raids and Almost Nothing
If coordination was difficult, luck was worse! It felt as if everyone had left their luck at home. No one was getting a shiny, high-IV catches were scarce, and a BG Shundo felt completely out of reach. After multiple Mega Mewtwo X raids, our entire group had only managed a couple of shiny catches and a handful of 96 or 98 IV Mewtwo.
That was it!
No flood of Background catches! No incredible Hundo streaks! No dream Shundos! The weather did not help either. Temperatures were in the high 30s, and the humidity made the outdoor grind even more exhausting. After several hours of raiding, we decided to take a much-needed 45 minute break.
Three Hundos from One Raid
We returned with caffeine, renewed energy, and the optimism that only Pokémon GO players can somehow rediscover after a bad raid streak. Then the unbelievable happened! After hours of disappointing Mewtwo encounters, three Trainers in our group caught Hundo Mewtwo from the same raid. Not one. Not two. Three Hundos from a single completed raid. The reaction was explosive. The cheering was loud enough that I am convinced the entire park heard us. After such a long dry spell, the entire mood of the group changed instantly. The excitement was contagious, and everyone started raiding with even greater energy.
Soon after, Shiny Background Mewtwo began appearing across the group. The lucky catches were finally rolling in; but unfortunately, they were mostly rolling in for everyone else. While Trainers around me celebrated Hundos, Shiny Backgrounds, and strong IVs, I could not even find a 90+ IV Mewtwo. At that stage, my only notable catch was a regular Shiny Mewtwo without a Background. Eventually, I did get a Shiny Background Mewtwo, but it came from the GO Pass Deluxe encounter rather than a raid. It was still a valuable catch, but it did not quite feel like winning the raid lottery.
Rayquaza Joins the Rotation
At 4 P.M., the Dragonflight Summit habitat began, bringing another major fan favourite into the raid rotation: Rayquaza. From that point on, the group’s focus shifted slightly. Mega Mewtwo X remained the top priority, but we also started taking on Rayquaza raids whenever we found them. Unlike Mewtwo, Rayquaza immediately proved more generous to our group. One Trainer caught a Shiny Background Rayquaza on their very first raid, and several more arrived within the next few raids. It was the kind of luck that makes a community event memorable, even when it is not happening on your own account. The hours passed quickly, and suddenly it was 7 P.M. Day 1 had come to an end.
We wrapped up with the usual pending Lucky Trades. I completed a mirror trade for a Shiny BG Mewtwo, hoping for a spectacular result. Instead, I got something just as rare as BG Shundo Mewtwo: A 12/12/12 BG Shiny Mewtwo. Not a Shundo! Not even close! But it was rare in its own hilariously unfortunate way. Bad luck, but make it special!
Day 2 began with the same anticipation, but this time Mega Mewtwo Y was the featured target. In my opinion, Mega Mewtwo Y is the stronger and more desirable of Mewtwo’s two Mega Evolutions, so expectations were understandably high. Unfortunately, my luck from Day 1 somehow found a way to get worse. At the start of the event, I discovered that I was one of four Trainers in our group unable to join raids. No matter how many times we tried, the game simply refused to let us enter the lobby or start a raid. It was clearly an in-game issue, and it persisted for around 15 to 17 raids. Watching the group raid while being locked out was easily one of the most frustrating parts of the weekend. Eventually, I was able to join again, while the other three affected Trainers regained access over the following hour. However, we had already lost some valuable time.
Luck Turns Around
Once the glitch was resolved, we began raiding Mega Mewtwo Y at a faster pace to make up for lost time. The group’s luck, meanwhile, was on another level. One of the Trainers who had also been unable to raid earlier caught the elusive Shundo BG Mewtwo. After being locked out for so long, the Trainer returned to land the rarest catch of the event. That is Pokémon GO luck in a nutshell: terrible one moment, unbelievable the next.
Another Trainer caught four shiny Mewtwo in six raids, although none came with the event Background. Meanwhile, another player pulled multiple Shiny Background Mewtwo in the same short run of raids. The event was clearly going very well for the group. We also completed Dialga, Palkia, and Darkrai raids throughout the day, but Mewtwo remained the unquestionable priority. By then, we had once again divided into two well-balanced groups and were clearing Mega Mewtwo Y raids as quickly as possible.
One Trainer caught back-to-back Hundos, then followed them up with a Shundo Mewtwo. Every group has that one person who seems to absorb all the raid luck in the area. On Day 2, little did we know that we had more than one!
One Final Push
At 3 P.M., the heat forced us to take another break. The weather was even hotter than the previous day, so our planned break stretched to an hour. By 4 P.M., we were back for one final push. I still had nothing meaningful to show for two days of hard raiding, and I hoped the final three hours would finally turn things around.
They did not!
Instead, the group continued to generate absurd stories. We raided at full speed, moving from Gym to Gym with calls of “Shiny!” echoing around the park, followed by the familiar reactions to IV and Background checks: excited cheers, relieved sighs, and plenty of disappointed groans. Then one Trainer caught three Hundos back-to-back. At that point, there was nothing left to do but laugh on the outside and quietly question your existence from inside. By the end of Day 2, our group had accumulated about 12 Hundo Mewtwo, several Shiny BG Mewtwo, and a minimum 25,000 Mega Energy for each Mewtwo form. Meanwhile, across both days, I finished with just one raid Shiny Mewtwo, no 96 or 98 IV Mewtwo and certainly no Hundo. It was a brutal GO Fest for me!
Despite my own terrible luck, the weekend was genuinely fun. Pokémon GO is at its best when a community comes together, walks around, helps newer Trainers, celebrates each other’s catches, and creates stories that last longer than the event itself.
From a gameplay perspective, though, this GO Fest felt underwhelming. The event being free was a major positive, and the boosted Shiny rates on wild spawns were welcome. Pokémon such as Turtonator and Lucario gave the spawn pool some appeal, and having every Unown available through Incense was a genuinely good feature. But these positives were still not enough to elevate the broader event experience.
The most noticeable issue was the lack of meaningful new content:
- There were no new Shiny Pokémon to chase.
- The wild spawn pool did not offer enough excitement for veteran Trainers.
- More regional Pokémon could have appeared through Incense.
- Collection Challenges were noticeably absent.
- The event leaned heavily on Costumes and Backgrounds as its main collectible incentive.
Mewtwo is obviously a massive draw, and Mega Mewtwo raids deserved the spotlight. However, making Mewtwo exclusively the attraction across both days made the event feel repetitive. Once the novelty of raiding faded, there was not much else in the event structure to keep long-time players engaged.
The lack of new gameplay content has been a concern for our community since the Kalos GO Tour. It increasingly feels as though costumes and special Backgrounds are being positioned as major new content, when they are really collectible bonuses rather than substantial gameplay additions. They can be fun, especially for Trainers chasing rare Shiny Background or Costume variants, but they should not replace new shiny Pokémon, better event activities, stronger spawn pools, or more varied gameplay objectives. With more Costumes and Backgrounds already appearing in the upcoming Ultra Unlock: 10th Anniversary Event, it will be interesting to see how far this approach goes.
GO Fest was a reminder that luck can be wildly uneven. Some Trainers walked away with Shundos, multiple Hundos, and rare Shiny Background catches. Others, including me, were left staring at an army of average-IV Mewtwo and wondering what we did wrong.
But that is not really what I will remember most.
I will remember excitement and disappointments with every raid, the loud celebrations, the struggle to keep everyone included in raids, the shared frustration over broken lobbies, and the friendly chaos of a community playing together for two full days. My Mewtwo luck may have been awful, but the GO Fest experience itself was still worth it.
Let us know Trainers! What was your opinion on the event? What did you like or dislike about the event? What is your opinion on Super Mega Raids? (Personally, I would like better rewards from Super Mega Raids, especially rare XL candy drops). And feel free to flex a rare catch!