Spring is in full swing, and this week has the kind of lineup that makes it worth putting the phone on charge before you head out the door. Sustainability Week is wrapping up, a returning Legendary drops into raids on Wednesday, and Saturday brings one of the biggest Max Battle events of the season. There's something here for every kind of Trainer.

Gigantamax Venusaur, Gigantamax Charizard, Gigantamax Blastoise, and Gigantamax Gengar return to six-star Max Battles for three hours. Each one can be shiny. The Max Particle cap jumps to 1,600 during the event, Power Spots refresh more often, and you earn 8x the normal Max Particles per spot visit. You also get up to three Special Trades for the day.

Earlier on Saturday, from midnight through 5:00 p.m. local time, walking earns you 2x Max Particles, and the distance required to collect them drops to 1/4 the normal amount. The daily Remote Raid limit also doubles from 10 to 20 (active from Friday, April 24 at 5:00 p.m. PDT through Saturday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. PDT). An optional ticket ($4.99) adds 6,400 Max Particles, 25,000 XP, one Max Mushroom, and 2x XP from Max Battles.

Check the link below for the full event info.

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Gigantamax Venusaur, Gigantamax Charizard, and Gigantamax Blastoise are outclassed in just about every way by Gigantamax Rillaboom, Gigantamax Cinderace, and Gigantamax Inteleon. It may be worth waiting until Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon return for stronger options.

If you played the first iteration of this event, you may be able to sit this one out unless you’re shiny or hundo hunting.

All three open leagues rotate in: Great League (1,500 CP max), Ultra League (2,500 CP max), and Master League (no limit). Win rewards carry 4x Stardust all week, so this is a good stretch to grind.

Rotating in Wednesday, April 22: Tapu Koko, the Electric and Fairy-type Guardian Deity from the Alola region, rotates in Wednesday, April 22 at 10:00 a.m. and stays through Tuesday, April 28. Ground and Poison-type moves deal the most damage to it. You need at least two Trainers to take it down. Tapu Koko can be caught with a chance to be shiny.

Hundo Tapu Koko can be caught at 1810 CP (or 2263 CP in Rainy and Cloudy weather).

Tapu Koko is an overall inferior raid attacker, but stands out as the S-Tier #7 Fairy-type attacker.

Tapu Koko finds most of its PvP usefulness in the Master League, where it ranks at B-Tier #109.

Rotating in Wednesday, April 22: Mega Sharpedo, a Water and Dark-type, takes over Wednesday, April 22 at 10:00 a.m. and runs through April 28. Fighting, Fairy, Electric, Grass, and Bug-type moves all deal super-effective damage to it. You need at least two Trainers. After the battle, you catch the standard (non-Mega) Sharpedo with a chance to be shiny.

A perfect IV Sharpedo catches at 1246 CP, or 1558 CP if the weather is Rainy or Foggy.

Note that Mega Sharpedo itself is D Tier as a raid attacker and outclassed in both Water and Dark by stronger options, so this week is mostly about farming Mega Energy rather than chasing a meta pick.

Shadow Latios continues appearing in five-star Shadow Raids through May 5. Latios is a Dragon and Psychic-type Legendary, weak to Bug, Dark, Dragon, Fairy, Ghost, and Ice-type moves. It ranks 9th among Psychic-type attackers (S Tier) and 28th in Master League GO Battle League (PvPoke), making a high-IV catch worth keeping. Shadow Latios can be caught with a chance to be shiny.

Hundo Shadow Latios can be caught at 2178 CP (2723 CP in Windy weather).

Raid Hour runs Wednesday, April 22, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time with Tapu Koko featured across gyms.

For Tapu Koko, Ground-types lead the counter list. Primal Groudon with Mud Shot and Precipice Blades is the top pick, with Mega Garchomp and Shadow Groudon close behind.

For Mega Sharpedo, Fighting- and Grass-types lead the counter list. Mega Lucario with Force Palm and Aura Sphere tops the rankings, followed by Mega Sceptile and Mega Heracross.

Dynamax Regirock makes its Pokémon GO debut this Monday. The Legendary Rock-type Pokémon is weak to Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, and Steel-type attacks. Power Spots refresh more often throughout the day, and Regirock stays available at Power Spots through Sunday, April 26.

Dynamax Regirock ranks as an A-Tier Dynamax Pokémon (Pokebase). It ranks poorly as a Dynamax attacker and healer, but earns its keep as a Dynamax Defender (S-Tier according to Pokémon GO Hub).

Regirock ranks poorly as a Rock-type raid attacker, but clocks in as an A-Tier option for Ultra League PvP (Pokémon GO Hub).

Dynamax Regirock can be shiny. Hundo Regirock is 1784 CP.

Gigantamax Kingler, Gigantamax Inteleon, and Crowned Sword Zacian top the damage charts against Dynamax Regirock. Zacian’s Behemoth Blade Adventure Effect strengthens your party's attack in Max Battles. It may be helpful since Dynamax Battles cap at 4 Trainers. Designate someone on your team to be a healer with Blissey during Dynamax phases. Finally, use Latias as a defender, as it either resists or takes neutral damage from Regirock’s attacks.

Sustainability Week runs through Monday, but finding Silicobra has been the loudest frustration of the event. All players were told was that it would appear in "desert-like areas," which turned out to be far more restrictive than most expected and even rarer in confirmed desert zones.

Researchers on r/TheSilphRoad spent the first days of the event cross-referencing reported spawn locations against the USGS World Terrestrial Ecosystems 2020 dataset, a publicly available map that classifies land at 250-meter resolution. The leading theory: Silicobra spawns ties to areas the dataset labels "Land Cover: Sparsely or Non-vegetated." Players in Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand stress-tested the theory and found their local sightings matched those map zones precisely. By April 16, reports suggested that spawns may also require a "Dry" or "Desert" climate tag on top of the land cover classification, further reducing eligible areas. Dexerto covered the full community investigation here.

On April 17, @NianticHelp acknowledged the issue and announced an adjustment, saying Silicobra encounters had been tweaked to align with its natural habitat and would appear slightly more often in desert-like areas. The response got over 200K impressions, which tells you how many Trainers were watching for it. If you're still hunting before Monday's deadline, this guide from One More Catch walks you through using OpenStreetMap to find qualifying terrain near you.

Sources: Dexerto | The Gamer | One More Catch