As part of yet another celebration of Pokémon GO’s one year anniversary, Niantic has announced that legendary Pokémon are officially being added to Pokémon GO. The first legendary Pokémon will be revealed during the Pokémon GO Fest in Grant Park, Chicago. Pokémon GO Fest takes place this Saturday, July 22.

Legendary Pokémon will appear as Legendary Eggs at Gyms. After a global timer they’ll hatch into a Legendary Raid Boss, using the recently added cooperative Gym Raids. These Legendary Bosses represent the toughest battles in the game. Judging by the trailer, it will take a large group of people to defeat one. Defeating the Legendary Pokémon will let you catch it for yourself.

The addition of Legendary Pokémon coincides with this Saturday’s Pokémon GO Fest in Chicago. If event-goers catch enough Pokémon during the event, the first Legendary Pokémon will be revealed. It will be up to trainers at Grant Park to defeat the Legendary Pokémon. If they succeed, it will begin appearing in Raid Battles around the world.

Thus the Legendary Pokémon is the “Mystery Challenge” of Phase 2, and the Global Reward of Phase 3 is that Pokémon spawning in the world.

While Legendary Pokémon are incredibly strong, they can’t be left to defend Gyms so as not to unbalance the game. You can use them to attack Gyms and go on Raids, however.

The identity of the first Legendary Pokémon won’t be revealed until it (hopefully) shows up at Pokémon GO Fest. Pokémon GO currently contains the Gen 1 and Gen 2 rosters. Legendary Pokémon would include the Legendary Bird trio of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, as well as Mewtwo from Gen 1. Gen 2 added the cover Pokémon Lugia and Ho-Oh. All those Pokémon are shown in the trailer above, though Gen 2 also had the trio of Legendary Beasts, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune.

If you’re not at attending Pokémon GO Fest, you can tune into the livestream on Twitch and YouTube. You can also follow the hashtag #PokemonGOFest. The livestream will be hosted by Rachel Quirico, Britanni Johnson, Kelly Link, and Brandon Martyn.

Pokémon GO Fest takes place this Saturday, July 22 from 10 am – 7 pm Central.

 


This article was written by

Eric has been writing for over eight years with bylines in Dicebreaker, Pixelkin, Polygon, PC Gamer and Tabletop Gaming magazine, covering movies, TV shows, video games, tabletop games and tech. He reviews and live streams D&D adventures every week on YouTube. He also makes a mean tuna quesadilla.