Pokemon Go Announces Gengar Raid Challenge

Pokemon Go is giving players a post-Halloween treat with a Shiny Gengar on the line.

The mobile game announced plans to host a special Gengar Raid Challenge on November 3rd, with players getting free raid passes and a chance to capture a Shiny version of the popular Ghost/Poison-Type Pokemon. While the mini-event wasn't announced via social media, it currently appears in the in-game news section and was later confirmed to be on November 3rd (as the announcement blurb mentions that it's "this weekend") by Niantic's Help Twitter account.

The Special Raid Challenge will be set up similar to the assorted Legendary Bird days earlier this summer, in that Gengar will appear as a Raid Boss in all gyms for a three hour period. Players will receive free raid passes by spinning the photo discs at gyms, which can then be used to battle Gengar. Players can only receive one free raid pass at a time, so players can't just take their free raid passes and stockpile them for use at a later date. All Gengar caught during the event will know the charge move Psychic.

The most enticing part about this challenge is the Shiny Gengar, which is a slightly different color shade of purple compared to its normal non-Shiny form. Shiny Pokemon are usually very rare, but these Special Raid Challenges usually have boosted Shiny rates.

As of right now, we don't know whether the Shiny variants of Gastly and Haunter will also be added to the game after the Special Raid Challenge is complete. While it would make sense, we're running in unprecedented territory as this is the first time that the game has specifically released a Shiny version of an evolved Pokemon without mentioning its pre-evolved forms.

The mini-event will take place during your region's normal Community Day hours, which are listed below:

Asia-Pacific Region: 12 PM to 3 PM JST

Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India: 10 AM to 1 PM UTC

North and South America: 11 AM to 2 PM ET.