Pokémon Go adds Mega Evolutions to PvP – but not for long

A bunch of Pokemon facing off against each other

(Image credit: Niantic)

Pokémon Go is receiving a major, temporary shake-up, as Mega Evolved pocket creatures come to the game’s competitive PvP battle mode.

To celebrate Pokémon Go’s recent Mega Evolutions overhaul, Niantic has announced it’s rolling out a surprise Battle Day on Sunday, May 29. The day-long event will let Trainers take their Mega Evolved pokémon into the Go Battle League’s Master League, letting you pit your souped-up pocket creatures against others for a limited time.

During the event, the maximum number of battle sets you can play will be raised from five to 20, meaning you can take part in 100 total battles. You’ll be able to earn Stardust as a victory bonus and pick up the Gladian’s Pants avatar item for completing a set at any rank. Unfortunately, if you’ve already unlocked that item, you won’t be given anything else as compensation.

Mega shake-up

Mega Evolved pokémon can usually only be used in co-op Raids, and have never before made their way to competitive PvP battles. Their inclusion is bound to shake up Pokémon Go’s metagame and throw some popular strategies off-kilter, but you’ll only have to deal with those changes for a single day.

Niantic overhauled Pokémon Go’s Mega Evolutions system only last month. You’re now able to Mega Evolve your pokémon for a one-time cost, rather than having to spend energy every time you want to boost the strength of your fully-evolved pocket monsters. They can gain experience, too, advancing to new Mega Levels each time you pump them full of extra energy.

The changes were intended to solve many of the frustrations that players had been facing for years. The new system makes the rewards of Mega Evolutions more worthwhile, and prevents players from having to slog through tedious raids.

Alongside announcing the PvP event, Niantic revealed the dates of this season’s community days in a separate blog post. The next three months’ community events will take place on:

Saturday, June 25
Sunday, July 17
Saturday, August 13

We can expect more details about their bonuses and promo content in the coming weeks.

Go Battle Day: Stardust Surprise will launch on May 29 and run from 12am to 11:59pm local time.

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Callum is TechRadar Gaming’s News Writer. You’ll find him whipping up stories about all the latest happenings in the gaming world, as well as penning the odd feature and review. Before coming to TechRadar, he wrote freelance for various sites, including Clash, The Telegraph, and Gamesindustry.biz, and worked as a Staff Writer at Wargamer. Strategy games and RPGs are his bread and butter, but he’ll eat anything that spins a captivating narrative. He also loves tabletop games, and will happily chew your ear off about TTRPGs and board games.