Spring Marathon kicks off Tuesday with Flittle hatching from 5 km eggs for the first time. The week builds from there: three region-locked Ultra Beasts replace Nihilego on Wednesday, Mega Glalie takes over Mega Raids, and Deino Community Day Classic closes out Saturday with Brutal Swing Hydreigon.

Flittle makes its Pokémon GO debut. The Psychic-type from Paldea (Gen 9) evolves into Espathra with 50 Flittle Candy. You'll get Flittle from 5 km Eggs and via the GO Pass: Spring Marathon. Marathon Visor Pikachu also debuts, available through Timed Research and GO Pass progression with a chance to be shiny.

The event's 5 km egg pool includes Flower Crown Pichu, Flower Crown Togepi, Flower Crown Happiny, and Flittle. Free Timed Research rewards 21,000 XP and a Marathon Visor Pikachu encounter (expires May 18, 8:00 PM). Field Research gives Cherry Blossom Eevee and Flower Crown Buneary encounters.

The free GO Pass: Spring Marathon activates Tuesday at 10:00 AM. The Deluxe version ($4.99, or $6.99 with +6 Ranks) adds milestones: Tier 1 gives 2x XP for spinning PokéStops (3x for Deluxe), and Tier 2 cuts Egg Hatch Distance in half.

Check the links below for the full event info.

Sources: LeekDuck | Official Blog

Clear your egg inventory before Tuesday morning. GO Pass Tier 2 cuts hatch distance in half, so a 5km egg drops to 2.5km in your free Incubator. Hunt Flittle with the free Incubator on 5km eggs, and save Super Incubators for 10km eggs — stacking the Super (2/3 distance) with GO Pass (½ distance) drops a 10km egg to ~3.3km of walking. With all nine egg slots running in parallel, a long walking session during the event week can clear a meaningful chunk of your inventory.

If you grab the Deluxe pass, pop a Lucky Egg while spinning PokéStops during the 3x bonus. That stacks to 6x PokéStop XP, which adds up fast on a walk through a dense stop cluster. Pair it with the half-hatch-distance milestone to clear your egg inventory at the same time.

Deino takes over as the featured spawn in a Community Day Classic, a rerun of Deino's original 2022 CD for trainers who missed it or want better IVs and more Candy. Spawns are massively boosted for three hours, with shiny odds at the standard Community Day rate of ~1/25.

The Headline: Brutal Swing

Evolve Zweilous into Hydreigon during the event or up to 9:00 PM local time to learn Brutal Swing, the exclusive Charged Attack: Dark-type, 65 power in PvE / 55 power in PvP. This is the same move from Deino's 2022 CD, so the rerun is your shot if you missed it or want a better IV Hydreigon.

Brutal Swing makes Hydreigon a solid non-Mega, non-Shadow Dark-type raid attacker. It's a usable option against Psychic and Ghost bosses, which makes Shadow Cresselia in raids this week a worthwhile pairing. Pokébattler ranks several Mega and Shadow picks higher (Regigigas, Giratina-Origin, Mega Beedrill, Lunala lead the list), but a fully-evolved Hydreigon stack is exactly what you'll have after farming this CD Classic.

PvP Notes

Hydreigon plays best in Master League and Master League Premier Cup. The recommended moveset for both leagues is Dragon Breath / Brutal Swing / Fly. Shadow Hydreigon currently sits in the top 50 of Master League on PvPoke (rank #43 as of May 11). The Brutal Swing upgrade is what pushes it into the meta conversation. If you have a Shadow Deino or Shadow Zweilous in storage, evolve it during the window. By typical CD Classic rules the exclusive move applies to both regular and Shadow forms, though Niantic's announcement doesn't explicitly call this out, so confirm before evolving.

Bonuses

3x Catch XP runs the full three hours, which makes this a strong Lucky Egg session. Pop one at 2:00 PM and quick-catch your way to 6x XP per throw. Incense activated during the event lasts a full 3 hours (excluding Daily Adventure Incense). Lure Modules last 1 hour, and from 2:00 PM to 9:00 PM regular Lures attract Deino at the boosted shiny rate with a chance of a Special Background encounter. Field Research tasks reward Stardust, Great Balls, and additional Deino encounters. An optional Special Research story costs $1.99 and grants three Deino encounters with Special Backgrounds.

Hundo CPs to Watch For

Deino (wild catch): 910 CP L30 / 986 CP L35 weather-boosted (Windy or Fog)

Weather Boost

Windy boosts Dragon-type spawns and Fog boosts Dark-type; either one applies to Deino. Windy is more common in May for most regions. Weather-boosted catches have higher levels and CP floors.

Evolution Cost

125 Candy total per Hydreigon: 25 Deino to Zweilous, then 100 Zweilous to Hydreigon. With Pinap Berry during the three-hour window, you'll bank enough Candy for multiple evolutions.

Veteran: XL Candy Farm

This is a strong XL Candy farming window if you're Trainer Level 31 or higher (the unlock requirement). Every Deino you catch has a chance to drop XL Candy, and that chance scales with the Pokémon's encounter level. Weather boost adds +5 levels to wild encounters, which is why CD + weather is prime grinding time: more high-level catches, more XL drops. If you're pushing a Hydreigon to L50, Pinap everything during the three-hour window and transfer anything below 93%.

Sources: Official Blog | LeekDuck

Spring Marathon's 2x Catch Candy overlaps with Community Day Classic. Every Pinap Berry on a Deino yields 12 candy instead of the normal 3. Stock Pinap Berries before Saturday. You need 125 candy total (25 + 100) to reach Hydreigon from a single Deino.

Starting: Master League (no CP cap) and Catch Cup: Memories in Motion: Great League Edition.

The Catch Cup limits entries to 1500 CP and only allows Pokémon caught during the Memories in Motion season (March 3 – June 2, 2026). Your collection of event catches from the past two months is your roster. Pokémon caught before March 3 are ineligible regardless of CP.

This format rewards active players who caught strong Great League Pokémon recently. Spring Marathon spawns and Deino Community Day catches both count, so anything you catch this week is immediately eligible.

Sources: LeekDuck | PvPoke

Catch Cup restricts you to Pokémon caught during the Memories in Motion season. Trade your Spring Marathon catches with a Good Friend (1/1/1 IV floor) for the best chance at strong PvP IVs. Good Friend gives the lowest trade IV floor, which means the widest possible roll into low-attack, high-bulk stat products that thrive in Great League.

Rotating in Wednesday, May 13: Three Ultra Beasts arrive, each locked to a different part of the globe through May 19. Though they are region-locked, you can still use Remote Raid Passes.

Premium counters:

Budget counters:

No Mega Rayquaza? Staraptor does real work here. Three trainers with Staraptor teams can clear this comfortably.

Same double-weakness to Flying as Buzzwole, same counter team. Pheromosa has massive Attack (316) but paper-thin Defense (85), so it drops fast. Two trainers with strong Flying teams can duo this.

Premium counters:

Budget counters:

Premium counters:

Budget counters:

All three Ultra Beasts have ~1/20 shiny odds and can be raided with Remote Raid Passes.

Premium counters:

Budget counters:

You catch a base-form Glalie after the raid, with a chance to be shiny.

Shadow Cresselia continues through June 2. Psychic-type, weak to Bug, Dark, and Ghost.

Premium counters:

Sources: LeekDuck | Pokebattler | Pokémon GO Hub

Buzzwole's double Flying-type weakness means even budget Flying-types like Braviary and Unfezant deal serious damage. If you don't have Mega Rayquaza, a team of six powered-up Staraptor still gets the job done with 3-4 trainers.

Dynamax Growlithe returns to Power Spots for Max Monday. Growlithe is a Tier 1 Max Battle costing 250 Max Particles. Fire type, weak to Ground, Rock, and Water. Growlithe isn't a meta powerhouse, but if you're building toward Arcanine, the Candy and Max Particles help. Otherwise, it may be best to treat this Max Monday as a Max Particle conservation day.

Sources: LeekDuck | GO Hub

Tier 1 costs only 250 MP. If you're saving particles for higher-tier Max Battles later (Registeel, Dynamax Legendaries), one clear is enough for the collection entry. Don't burn your daily soft cap on repeated Growlithe runs.

Pokémon GO launched "Choose Your Path" on May 5, a branching Timed Research experiment designed to fill weeks without major events. You pick one of three paths at the start: Explore (5x PokéStop XP), Catch (1.5x catch XP for Nice throws or better), or Battle (5,000 bonus XP per raid). Each path has its own tasks but leads to the same final reward: three Pinap Berries and five Rare Candies.

The community response landed somewhere between skepticism and cautious interest. "This sounds like it could be the start of the end of pogo," one player posted, arguing the modest rewards signal Pokémon GO reducing content investment for off-weeks. Others pushed back, calling it a low-effort bonus that's better than nothing during a dead stretch. Past the 500 Stardust and 5 Poké Balls you get at the start, the path rewards are admittedly thin (no premium items), and locking you into a single path for the week limits experimentation.

The first round wraps Monday, May 11 at 8:00 PM local, just over 14 hours before Spring Marathon kicks off Tuesday morning. Pokémon GO has positioned this as a recurring weekly format for event-less weeks, so expect it to return whenever there's another quiet stretch on the calendar for now.

Sources: GO Hub | LeekDuck | GameRant | mein-mmo