Pokemon Go Players Allegedly Spot Ho-Oh Raid in Japan

Pokemon Go players could see a new Legendary Raid Boss appear this weekend.

Multiple players reported spotting a Ho-Oh EX Raid in Japan on Saturday, seemingly tied to the the "Pokemon Go Travel" video series. The raid was spotted via third party trackers at the Uradome Coast in Japan, which is located in Tottori Prefecture. Pokemon Go is also hosting a Safari Zone event at the Tottori Sand Dunes this weekend.

Ho-Oh is the only Legendary Pokemon from the first two sets of Pokemon games that hasn't appeared in Pokemon Go. While players anticipated that Ho-Oh would appear at the Pokemon Go Stadium event in Japan over the summer, Pokemon Go revealed Mewtwo instead and has used Mewtwo as the test subject for its controversial EX Raid feature.

While the raid popped up on scanners, players in person couldn't see or access the raid when they traveled to the gym in real life. However, the gym did have a "Pokemon Go Travel" logo in its photo disc, another sign that Pokemon Go held the raid as part of their week long video series.

Since players couldn't see the Ho-Oh raid in person, we should warn players that this could be some sort of glitch or hoax as trackers can be manipulated or tricked. However, since only one Ho-Oh raid appeared and was tied to a "Pokemon Go Travel" gym, we're guessing that its appearance was tied to the Niantic-sponsored video series and isn't some sort of hoax.

No players publicly commented online that they received an invitation to the Ho-Oh EX Raid, which makes it sound like this was either a test run or some sort of private event.

With Ho-Oh appearing so close to the Safari Zone event, we wouldn't be surprised if Niantic officially released Ho-Oh sometime this weekend during the event.

When Ho-Oh does finally appear in Pokemon Go, it'll be the second strongest Pokemon according to CP stats. A powerful Fire/Flying dual-type, Ho-Oh has a superior Defense stat and strong Attack stats. Ho-Oh originally was so overpowered, Pokemon Go developers actually nerfed its stats earlier this year to prevent it from overwhelming opponents.

We'll have more updates on Ho-Oh if/when it finally appears in Pokemon Go!