What We Still Don't Know About Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Go

By Christian Hoffer


Yesterday, Pokemon Go broke the Internet in half when it announced that Legendary Pokemon would appear in the game on Saturday. If you've been following our Pokemon Go coverage, this didn't come as a surprise, but the thought of finally completing our Pokedexes is still incredibly exciting.

While Pokemon Go explained the basics of how players can find and catch Legendary Pokemon, there's still a lot we don't know about these rare and powerful Pokemon. It also doesn't help that there's a TON of misinformation getting spread around, with some sites spreading around conjecture as fact.

So rather than rehash what we do know about Legendary Pokemon, here's a few things that remain a mystery:

Will Players Catch Legendary Pokemon?

In the trailer released yesterday, Pokemon Go depicted a series of epic Legendary Raids that culminating in everyone who participated automatically getting a Legendary Pokemon. Many people (myself included) took that to mean that players wouldn't need to "catch" Legendary Pokemon like they do with Raid Bosses in normal non-Legendary Raids.

However, there's no indication that Pokemon Go is going to start handing out Legendary Pokemon. In fact, Niantic's official press release says quite the opposite. "Trainers can search for unique Legendary Eggs at Gym locations around the world," the press release reads. "Players can team up with friends and other Trainers to join Legendary Raid Battle to defeat the Legendary Pokémon and earn a chance to catch it."

Niantic's own PR makes it sound like obtaining Legendary Pokemon isn't a sure thing. We'll have to see how the actual Legendary Raid mechanic works on Saturday to find out. 

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How Powerful Are the Legendary Pokemon?

The new Pokemon Go trailer also gave fans a hint as to how powerful the new Legendary Pokemon would be. The trailer gave each Legendary Pokemon a CP between 28,000 and 35,000 CP. Those are pretty powerful CPs...but they're all in the range of current Raid Bosses all in the game. 

Based on those (clearly placeholder) figures, the new Legendary Pokemon won't be any harder to beat than Level 4 Raid Bosses like Tyranitar, Charizard, or Rhydon.

Since the Legendary Raids are supposed to be the toughest bosses in the game, we're wondering if the trailer understated their CP a little bit. Although there are some Pokemon in Pokemon Go that are just as powerful as Legendary Pokemon, we can't help but wonder if the game will crank up the difficulty a bit to make things more of a challenge. 

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How Many Legendary Pokemon Will Be Released at First?

As of right now, there are nine Legendary Pokemon programmed into Pokemon Go. The trailer showed off six of the Pokemon: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, Lugia, and Ho-Oh. However, that doesn't mean that all six will automatically be released into the wild. 

In fact, Niantic's press release about the Legendary Pokemon seems to imply that only one Legendary Pokemon will appear at first. "Trainers from all corners of the earth must work together to catch Pokemon during the Pokemon GO Fest Challenge Windows to unlock in-game bonuses and the chance for the first Legendary Pokemon to appear at Pokémon GO Fest," the press release says. "If Trainers successfully defeat the Legendary Pokemon in Chicago, that Pokemon will start appearing in Legendary Raid Battles around the world beginning July 23, 2017."

If Niantic's press release is correct, we should expect to see only one Legendary Pokemon in the wild at first, which makes sense considering that Pokemon Go will likely draw out Legendary Pokemon for the rest of the summer. 

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How Do I Get Invited to a Legendary Pokemon Raid?

The new trailer did make clear that Legendary Raids won't be for all players. Certain players will be invited to attend Legendary Raids via a Legendary Raid Pass that's distributed automatically. 

However, we still don't know what sort of criteria is involved in choosing who gets a Legendary Raid Pass. An article about Legendary Raids sent a month ago implied that players would be chosen based on how active they were in the game, but even that's pretty vague. 

Will players be chosen based on their proximity to the site of the Legendary Raid? How far will players be expected to travel for the chance at a Legendary Pokemon? Will Raids be distributed based on a player's Level, how many Pokemon they have in gyms, or some other criteria? 

We won't start getting answers to this question until July 23, when the first Legendary Raid Boss appears in the wild. 

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