G’day PoGO lovers! The Global Sinnoh Tour is running this coming weekend from 10am Saturday to 6pm Sunday, local time. There’s a lot happening throughout the event, and everyone will have their own take on what their priorities should be. Let’s take a look at some of the main priorities and considerations for the weekend to help you with thinking about your plan for the event!
Priority 1: Dialga and Palkia
Without a doubt, the number 1 priority for most players will be to try and get their hands on the origin forms of Dialga and Palkia. By now, you likely will have chosen either the Diamond or Pearl path, which will play a part in which pokémon you encounter that have their signature attacks.
On the PvP side of the fence, both signature moves represent straight upgrades for Dialga and Palkia, with Palkia receiving a slightly higher benefit thanks to Spacial Rend being a lower energy charge move compared with its alternatives. The availability throughout the weekend means you’ll also have the opportunity to grind for XL candy to power them up for the Master League.
From a PvE perspective, both Origin form Palkia and Dialga are in the top 10 Dragon type attackers, so there is long term value in powering them up – although not exactly a budget build.
Priority 2: Take Advantage of Bonuses
There are 3 bonuses running throughout the weekend: 1/2 hatch distance, 1/2 trade stardust, and up to 6 special trades per day.
Trading up to 6 special trades per day is a significant upgrade on normal circumstances, in particular meaning you have the enhanced opportunity to do additional legendary and lucky trades with friends over the weekend (and for cheaper than usual!). This is helpful as coordinating multiple legendary trades isn’t always as straight forward as it might seem! I would recommend allocating some time to complete these trades throughout the weekend, and hopefully you get lucky with some of these trades along the way.
The 1/2 hatch distance is also handy, although I don’t believe there are currently many incubator rewards up for grabs, meaning you’ll need to part with your money to purchase some through the store. Personally, I am frustrated by the decision to lock Pachirisu and Carnivine behind eggs, especially with Chatot as the third possible hatch (which is a common spawn… not sure who’s idea this was but frankly it’s a horrible one). Regardless, this is your best bet of acquiring some of these rarer mons throughout the weekend.
Priority 3: Mega Evolve for XL Candy
I’ve gone into a lot more detail on this already in a separate article for the event. Overall, this is ultimately your personal preference whether you want to focus on grinding for XL candy over the weekend. If you do, there are clear benefits to focussing on mega-evolving to increase the XL drop rate. There are a number of mons appearing that you really want XL candy to maximise their outputs in PvP, such as Lickitung, Garchomp, Bastiodon, Skuntank, Rhyperior and Mamoswine – as well as the aforementioned Dialga and Palkia. You could just mega evolve your Dragon types over the weekend, or you could try and rotate through others to try and take advantage of the spawns each hour. Either way, it’s best to go in with a plan to support your XL grinding!
Priority 4: Final Chance for Rare Spawns?
This is a little bit more speculative. But my take is that this will be one of the last opportunities for a long time to get your hands on decent IVs for the following mons: Lickitung, Gligar, Shieldon, Gible, and Rhyhorn. All of these mons and their evolutions are meta staples in PvP, while Garchomp, Rampardos and Rhyperior are all more than useful in their respective Ground and Rock type attacking roles. Lickitung and Gligar currently see the highest amount of play in the open Great League, and it feels like Niantic has been trying to equalise the playing field by putting Lickitung into a number of events and egg pools to support newer players in building theirs up for the Great League. Typically though with the new seasonal rotations format, this doesn’t last forever! So take advantage of the opportunity to hunt down some decent variants while they’re still around this season.
Also, dare I say it… but Pachirisu is around, like, never. Annoyingly, this is one of your best chances of getting some of these (and their XL candy) to help start your Great League build, or even just to complete your dex! Carnivine is also a region locked mon, so this might be the opportunity to complete the dex for many players.
Finally – White Stripe Basculin is going to available on routes, and can evolve one day into Basculegon, which isn’t in the game yet but could be a spice pick in PvP.
Priority 5: New Shinies
Like most people, I love shinies! The likes of Carnivine, Chatot, Pachirisu, Chingling, Stunky and Skuntank will see their shiny debuts throughout the event. Shiny drop rates are typically slightly higher throughout these global events, so hopefully you get lucky throughout the weekend! I’ll be the happiest PoGO player alive if I manage to hatch a shiny Pachirisu! I sense a theme emerging…
The new shinies brings us to the next priority…
Priority 6: Masterwork Research
For those who have purchased the Masterwork Research line, at the end of what appears to be a very long questline you will have the opportunity to encounter shiny Shaymin! While this research is not time-locked, having access to a vast array of Sinnoh wild spawns will absolutely contribute to your completion of this quest more rapidly. Is shiny Shaymin worth $4.99 USD? That is ultimately up to you. I personally did not shell out for the recent Keldeo paid research line, which felt like a good decision at the time, but I would now like to have it in my storage for powering up, as who knows at this point when it will be back.
Priority 7: Hisuian Form Raids
Who knew that we were going to see the Hisuian forms of Typhlosion, Decidueye and Samurott in raids throughout the global Sinnoh Tour? Not me, for sure.
Am I happy about this? I’m a little conflicted, as I didn’t get to participate in the OG Typhlosion day, and this is a nice opportunity to get some of these for the Ultra League. But I’m also a bit frustrated for the general public. It feels like the whole ‘raid day’ thing was a huge money grab, eliciting a sense of FOMO for players to raid for these new mons, when they are now all appearing in 3-star raids over a whole weekend. Anyway, they’re back, still without their signature moves, so I’ll leave it to you to decide how much you prioritise these raids throughout the weekend when you’ve got bigger dragons to fry.
Priority 8: Set Your Limits
This one might sound a little contradictory, given I’ve just been describing the opportunities surrounding the rare spawns and raids. With all of the hoopla about Origin forms, removal of remote raid limits and opportunities for new shinies, it can be easy to keep raiding, hatching and ultimately spending money beyond what you originally intended to do throughout the day. It makes sense to enter the day with an idea of how many passes you’re willing to purchase, what your legendary XL candy goals are, and how long you want to spend outside grinding! At the end of the day, the most important goal is to look after yourself and enjoy the event!
I hope this quick guide has helped you prioritise your priorities for the weekend. Good luck with your XL grinding and the shiny hunt!
See ya later,
JTizzle
