When is Zacian raid hour in Pokemon GO?

Trainers are gearing up to battle Zacian, the Hero of Many Battles, as it prepares to make its debut in Pokemon GO.

The week focusing on Zacian will kick off part 3 of the Ultra Unlock event, which is teeming with surprises. It started at the end of Pokemon GO Fest and has featured a plethora of strong Pokemon in raids, including Dialgia, Palkia, and now the Generation VIII Legendaries.

Zacian is next up on the Tier 5 raid boss schedule, but fortunately, there will also be a raid hour for this Pokemon.

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Legendary Pokemon from Generation VIII gets raid hour

The raid hour for Zacian will officially take place on 25 August 2021 from 6.00 PM to 7.00 PM local time.

This comes a day before week 1 of the event ends on 26 August 2021. After that, Zacian will trade places with Zamazenta as the Tier 5 raid boss. So trainers are only going to have one week to battle and catch this legendary Pokemon.

Zacian’s arrival to Pokemon GO (as well as Zamazenta’s) comes as a surprise. Standard operating procedure for Pokemon GO has been releasing Pokemon through each Generation, starting from Generation I and going forward from there. However, they had only gotten about halfway through Generation VI, before releasing Pokemon from the newest games.

Pokemon fans will recognize Zacian as the mascot of Pokemon Sword. Although it is supposed to have more attack power than its counterpart Zamazenta, both will have equal stats in Pokemon GO.

Movesets have also been unreleased at the time of writing, so the only difference between these Pokemon is that Zacian classifies as a Fairy-type while Zamazenta is a Fighting-type.

As it is a Fairy-type, that means the best way to prepare for this important raid hour is to be stocked up on Steel-types. Pokemon that typically do well against Fairy-types in raids include Metagross (preferably Shadow Metagross), Scizor and Excadrill. Mega Gengar, while not being Steel-type, is another Pokemon that could quickly defeat Zacian in a raid battle.