When can players catch Apex Shadow Lugia in Pokemon GO?

A new threat is lurking in Pokemon GO, the dreaded Apex Shadow Legendary Pokemon, Lugia and Ho-oh. These forms were added as a big draw for players to participate in the Pokemon GO Tour 2022.

Focusing on Apex Shadow Lugia, players may know it as the mascot of Pokemon Silver. Some players may also have it as their deciding factor for whether they want to buy the Gold Ticket or the Silver Ticket for the GO Tour event. Players will still be able to catch both of these Legendary Pokemon regardless of their ticket.

These Legendary Pokemon were essentially locked behind a $12 paywall. Large groups of players may not have known about these Pokemon or may have missed out on their chance to catch them. If this is the case, these players may also want to know if they will ever have a chance to encounter them again.

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Apex Shadow Lugia in Pokemon GO: A distant memory or will it return?

Shadow Lugia as it appears in Pokemon GO's promotional imagery (Image via Niantic)

As it currently stands, Apex Shadow Lugia will not return to Pokemon GO anytime soon. These Apex Shadow Legendaries only appear to exist to give players another reason to buy a GO Tour ticket. The hype that was brought up around this concept could mean that players could see it again next year, though.

Next year's GO Tour will most likely revolve around the Hoenn region. If Niantic continues their set trend of focusing on each region in the order they come out for their yearly GO Tour event. This puts into speculation the possibility for Apex Shadow Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza, though this is far from confirmed.

Where Apex Shadow Ho-oh and Lugia reign supreme over their standard counterparts are their movesets. Their Apex status gives them access to Sacred Fire+ and Aeroblast+, respectively.

These Apex Shadow Pokemon get even stronger versions of their special attacks upon Purification. Lugia gets Aeroblast++ and Ho-oh gets Sacred Fire++. While both versions of these attacks deal the same amount of damage in trainer battles, they have more impact in Raids and Gym Battles, and thus add to their utility in those scenarios.

To summarize, Apex Shadow Ho-oh and Lugia will not be available again in the game any time soon. These were promotional variations of Legendary Pokemon implemented to get players excited for the GO Tour: Johto event that had various details teased at the time.