The Pokémon Go Battle Showdown 2019 is a week-long event featuring Fighting-types, shiny Mankey and shiny Machop, a new Fighting-type move called Power-Up Punch and various other event bonuses. Battle Showdown 2019 lasts from March 5 to March 12, 2019, so be sure to get the maximum out of this exciting time!
| Pokémon GO Battle Showdown 2019 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| STARTS | March 5, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. PST (GMT +8) | ||
| ENDS | March 12, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. PDT (GMT +8) | ||
| Bonuses Features Move |
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Event Features
- Fighting-type Pokémon like Mankey, Machop, Makuhita, and Meditite will appear more frequently in the wild!
- If you’re lucky, you may encounter Shiny Mankey and Shiny Machop!
- 2x Catch, Battle and Raid Stardust rewards.
- 2x XP for Gym Badges.
- Earn up to 5 Rewards per day from Trainer Battles, including Rare Candy.
- Earn up to three rewards per day from challenging team leaders, including Rare Candy.
- Power-Up Punch will now be permanently available for certain Pokémon, such as Poliwrath, Hitmonchan, Kangaskhan, Medicham, and Lucario.
Increased Spawns
You may find these heavyweights appearing more frequently in the wild!
Battle Showdown Potentially Shiny Spawns
With two new shinies coming in, the pool of Fighting-types that can be shiny has essentially doubled and now features four shiny families. For sake of brevity, we’re only including the base evolution forms in the shiny table below:
| Normal | Shiny |
|---|---|
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Battle Showdown Research Tasks
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 3 Makuhita or Meditite |
Combusken
|
| Catch 5 Fighting-Type Pokémon |
Machoke
|
| Make 2 Excellent Throws in a Row |
Hitmonchan
|
| Win 3 Raids | Fast TM |
| Use a Super Effective Charged Attack in 7 Gym Battles |
Charge TM |
Event Guide
The Battle Showdown event is an excellent opportunity to farm Stardust, hunt for specific shiny Pokemon and perfect your Fighting team. Considering the large number of different bonuses, we’re sure this event will be appealing to a large number of players.
Catch Stardust is doubled, which ensures a solid influx of dust throughout the week, which can easily be boosted further with the occasional Star Piece. With raids rewarding double Stardust, you’ll have something to do even if you don’t enjoy the PvP heavy aspect of the event.
On the other hand, Trainer Battles are the real star of this year’s Showdown, with Rare Candy rewards available from both regular PvP and from fighting Team Leaders. We know that a lot of our readers don’t enjoy PvP as much as raiding, but a Rare Candy is always welcomed! Prioritize finishing up your daily Trainer Battles before heading out to shiny hunt, that way you can have solid separation of concerns while farming.
Seeing as this event is focusing on fairly rare Fighting types, I’d say it would be a good idea to catch as many as your Poké Ball stash and storage allows. Machamp is a beast in raids, Hariyama is a solid team member, Medicham is great in a number of PvP match ups.
Here are some key areas we think you should focus on during the event:
- Star Pieces – don’t forget to use your stashed Star Pieces. Battle Showdown 2019 gives you a lot of opportunities to easily gain farm Stardust, so use’em if you got’em!
- Shiny Hunting – go after the increased Mankey and Machop spawns to add these new shiny releases to your collection. Don’t forget, Makuhita and Meditite can still be shiny too!
- Golden Gym Medals – are you trying to increase your gold badge collection? With 2x XP for Gym Badges, now is the time to do it! See our guide on Ways to Gain Gym XP and don’t be shy to hit the gym every day
- Trainer and Team Leader Battles – PvP each day to receive the extra rewards and don’t forget to do Team Leader battles! Sure, they can feel like a drag sometimes, but Rare Candies are invaluable resources for serious Pokemon GO players.
- Last, but certainly not least, have fun!! Get us out with your fellow Trainers to hunt, battle, raid, trade and have a blast.
