Pokemon Go Reveals September Events, Including Raid Battles, Special Research, and More

The month of September has a lot in store for Pokemon Go players, and Niantic has pulled back the curtain on what fans can expect. New Raid Battles, Special Research, and Spotlight Hours are just a few of the things that players can expect to see over the next few weeks! Players will have the opportunity to catch some rarer Pokemon, and participate in a number of different events, even if they have to do so remotely. Fortunately, the developer has made it a bit easier to do just that over the last few months! Niantic has released full notes for the month's events, which can be found below.

September Research Breakthrough encounter

From Tuesday, September 1, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Thursday, October 1, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT −7), Alolan Raichu, the Mouse Pokémon, will be available as a Research Breakthrough encounter. If you're lucky, you might even encounter a Shiny one!

A month of different Legendary Raid Bosses!

Look forward to challenging a different Legendary Raid Boss during every week of September!

• From Friday, August 21, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Thursday, September 10, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT −7), Heatran will be available to challenge in five-star raids.
• From Thursday, September 10, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Friday, September 18, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT −7), Cresselia will be available to challenge in five-star raids.
• From Friday, September 18, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Friday, September 25, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT −7), Articuno will be available to challenge in five-star raids.
• From Friday, September 25, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. to Friday, October 2, 2020, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT −7), Zapdos will be available to challenge in five-star raids.

Each week in September, there'll be a Raid Hour event on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. local time featuring that week's Legendary Raid Boss in five-star raids.

Pokémon Spotlight Hours

In the month of September, Pokémon Spotlight Hour will take place every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. local time, and each hour will spotlight a different Pokémon and special bonus!

• Tuesday, September 1, 2020: Eevee will be in the spotlight, and you'll earn twice the XP for catching Pokémon.
• Tuesday, September 8, 2020: Houndour will be in the spotlight, and you'll earn twice the Candy for catching Pokémon.
• Tuesday, September 15, 2020: Tentacool will be in the spotlight, and you'll earn twice the Candy for transferring Pokémon.
• Tuesday, September 22, 2020: Spearow will be in the spotlight, and you'll earn twice the XP for evolving Pokémon.
• Tuesday, September 29, 2020: Skitty will be in the spotlight, and you'll earn twice the Stardust for catching Pokémon.

GO Battle Night

On Thursday, September 24, 2020, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. local time, you'll receive twice the Stardust for winning battles, completing sets of battles, and ranking up in the GO Battle League. You'll also be able to complete 20 sets of GO Battle League battles, up from the regular five sets, for a total of up to 100 battles.

Victini Special Research: Investigate a Mysterious Energy

At the end of September, you can look forward to helping Professor Willow uncover the mysteries of the Mythical Pokémon Victini, the Victory Pokémon, in a new Special Research story—Investigate a Mysterious Energy! If you accessed the exclusive Pokémon GO Fest 2020: Rocket Straight to Victory Special Research during Pokémon GO Fest 2020, completing this new Special Research will earn you Victini Candy.

Jessie and James might be blasting off soon!

Great job keeping Team GO Rocket's balloons at bay, Trainers. We're getting word that Jessie and James will no longer appear in Pokémon GO starting on September 30th, so if you haven't battled them yet, keep an eye out for that Meowth balloon before they make their escape!

In addition to the above events, fans will have Community Day to look forward to, and September's representative will be Porygon. Fans were given the opportunity to vote for September and October's featured Pokemon last weekend. Porygon took home the top spot in the poll, while Charmander came in second, making it October's featured Pokemon. The two beat out Caterpie and Grimer.

It's interesting to see that Jessie and James will no longer appear after the month of September! The iconic Meowth balloon from the Pokemon anime was added earlier this summer. It seems that other members of Team Rocket will continue to appear in the skies, but the bumbling duo will not. As such, those looking to obtain a purified Ekans or Koffing will want to do so before the end of September!

What do you think of September's Pokemon Go events? What are you most looking forward to next month? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!