Niantic announces upcoming Mega Rayquaza debut in Pokemon GO

Mega Rayquaza has been one of the most hotly anticipated mega evolutions currently missing in Pokemon GO. Fortunately, Niantic has finally announced the debut of this entity. Also known as the Sky High Pokemon, Rayquaza is a Generation III dual-type Legendary Pocket Monster with a Dragon-and-Flying type combination.

This entity arrived in Pokemon GO on February 9, 2018, as part of the Hoenn Celebration event. Its shiny variant made its way into the game on July 31, 2019. In the mainline game series, Rayquaza serves as the Pokemon Emerald mascot and will often be seen resolving the conflict between Kyogre and Groudon. But when is its Mega variant coming to Pokemon GO?

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When is Mega Raqyquaza coming to Pokemon GO?

It has been announced that Mega Rayquaza will arrive with Pokemon GO Fest 2023. The Sky High Pokemon's mega-evolved variant will first appear in London, Osaka, and New York City. After that, it will debut around the world during the GO Fest.

Keeping in tune with Rayquaza's mega evolution requirement in the mainline series, Pokemon GO trainers will not be able to mega evolve it with simply Mega Energy. They will also need to teach the Legendary Pocket Monster the Charged Attack Dragon Ascent.

Players will be able to do this with the help of meteorites, which are new items in the popular AR title. Trainers can get their hands on it by completing a few chosen research tasks during GO Fest 2023.

New bonuses have also been announced. As revealed in the official blog post, they are as follows:

• While attacking with Mega Rayquaza in a Raid Battle or a Gym battle, the attacks of other Trainers’ Pokémon challenging that same raid or Gym will deal more damage. Their Pokémon’s attacks will deal even more damage if the attack is Flying-, Psychic-, or Dragon-type.
• When Rayquaza is Mega Evolved, catching Flying-, Psychic-, or Dragon-type Pokemon will grant you additional XP, additional Candy, and an increased chance of earning Candy XL.
• Like other Mega-Evolved Pokemon, Rayquaza’s Mega Level will increase the more times it Mega Evolves, improving these bonuses.

Mega Rayquaza will be available as a Mega Raid boss during the Pokemon GO Fest 2023 in-person events in the three aforementioned cities. Although the encounter will available be available to all players, only those with tickets will get to collect Mega Energy. The latter will also be eligible to participate in an event-exclusive Special Research questline.

The worldwide debut of this entity is slated to be on August 27 with the Pokemon GO Fest 2023: Global. Players who log in on the mentioned date will receive a Special Research story that provides them with Meteorite.