Pokémon GO Halloween 2019 is a special spooky Halloween themed in-game event that takes place from October 17, 2019 to November 1, 2019. Pokemon GO’s Halloween 2019 event features Darkrai raids, shiny Yamask, Spiritomb, Halloween costumed starters and new dress-up avatar items.
Players will receive 2× Candy for catching, hatching and transferring Pokemon. More Ghost- and Dark-type Pokémon will be appearing in the wild, in Eggs, and in raids.
Event | Pokémon GO Halloween 2019 |
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Starts On | October 17, 2019 (1 p.m. PDT) |
Ends On | November 1, 2019 (1 p.m. PDT) |
Bonuses | 2× Catch Candy 2× Hatch Candy 2× Transfer Candy |
Pokémon GO Halloween 2019, graphic by Couple of Gaming
Darkrai makes its ominous debut in Pokemon GO

Darkrai will be appearing in five-star raids as a special limited Raid Boss. Players can defeat Darkrai by using a variety of Fighting and Fairy types they’ve collected before. Be careful – Darkrai is stronger than some of the earlier bosses you may have encountered. Darkrai (also known as The Pitch-Black Pokemon) will be available only during the event period as a Tier 5 raid boss.

Check out our detailed counters guide here: Darkrai Raid Counters Guide
Shiny Yamask is coming
Yamask is making its Halloween debut in Pokemon GO, both normal and shiny form. Yamask is also known as the Spirit Pokemon. Yamask evolves into Cofagrigus, making this a great opportunity to get two new shiny Pokemon.
Yamask and Cofagrigus could be interesting for Trainer Battles. Cofagrigus has excellent Defense stat and access to Dark Pulse Dark, which is very unusual. Usually, Ghost types don’t have access to Dark-type moves, which makes Cofagrigus rather interesting.
Halloween themed raid bosses
Tier | Raid Bosses |
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Tier 1: | Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle (all costumed), Drifloon, Misdreavus, Klink |
Tier 2: | Mawile, Sneasel, Yamask, Sableye |
Tier 3: | Granbull, Sharpedo, Skuntank, Gengar, Alolan Raichu |
Tier 4: | Tyranitar, Umbreon, Alolan Marowak, Absol |
Tier 5: | Darkrai |
Halloween themed quests
Pokemon GO Halloween 2019 features frightful and fun Field Research tasks for a limited time during this event. The list below contains all Research Tasks that you can complete during this event (coming soon):
Research Task | Reward |
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Halloween: Catch 5 Gastly or Shuppet |
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Halloween: Catch 10 Ghost-type Pokémon | ×1000 Stardust |
Halloween: Evolve 3 Drifloon or Stunky | ×1 Rare Candy |
Halloween: Make 3 Excellent Throws in a row |
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Halloween: Defeat a Team GO Rocket Grunt |
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Halloween: Take 5 snapshots of Ghost-type Pokémon |
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Boosted Ghost- and Dark- type spawns
More Ghost- and Dark-type Pokémon will be appearing in the wild, in Eggs, and in raids. The official announcement mentions Gastly and Murkrow. We will update this page as more information comes in.
A Spooky Message 2019
Spritomb, the Forbidden Pokemon, is also making a return, with the “A Spooky Message” quest line. A Spooky Message was originally released in 2018.
New Shadow Pokemon arrive

Prepare to rescue new Shadow Pokemon from Team GO Rocket. As Halloween spirit sets in, the following Pokemon will appear in Team GO Rocket Battles: Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Electabuzz, Magmar, Lapras, Mareep, Seedot, Nuzleaf, Sableye, Trapinch, Cacnea, Shuppet, and Duskull.
New Team GO Rocket Pokemon will be available after the Halloween 2019 event ends. If you’re not interested in catching Shadow Pokemon, some of the additions could make you rethink that. Purifying a Shadow Pokemon nets you a Level 25 Purified Pokemon, and what’s better than a purified Lapras? Two purified Lapras.
New Team GO Rocket Shadow Pokemon will start appearing on October 17, 2019.
Pokemon with Halloween costumes

Pokemon wearing Halloween costumes will be appearing, some in in raids and some in the wild. If you’re lucky, you might event encounter these Pokemon as shiny Pokemon:
- Bulbasaur wearing Shedinja costume (raid)
- Charmander wearing Cubone costume (raid)
- Squirtle wearing Yamask costume (raid)
- Pikachu wearing Mimikyu costume (wild)
Pokemon wearing the Halloween 2019 costume can not evolve. These Pokemon will only be available during the Pokemon GO Halloween 2019 event.
New avatar items
Five new items are coming to the Style Shop:
- Pikachu Onesie
- Mimickyu Bag
- Zubat Bag
- Cubone Cap
- Litwick Cap
At this moment we don’t have additional information on these items, but we will include prices as soon as they are public.
Strategy Guide
Halloween event always has a special place in our hearts, mostly for being the first released special Pokemon GO event – back in the day. As often with these events, it’s easy to forget the benefits and focus only on one thing (Darkrai). In order to prevent that, we’ve created a handy list of things you need to track and should do to get the most out of this event.
Transfer every Pokemon you don’t need.
With 2× Transfer Candy, keeping Pokemon in your inventory is not recommended. We usually use this event as an excuse to filter out and clean our Pokemon Storage, getting a massive amount of Candy in the process.
Keep transferring Pokemon you don’t want to keep your inventory clean throughout the event. Don’t forget to clear your Pokemon storage before the event ends on November 1st.
Especially important: transfer your excess Legendary Pokemon. This is a once a year opportunity to gain more free Mewtwo / Raikou / Kyogre / Groudon candy.
Maximize catching rare spawns
Obtaining Candy for Pokemon with low spawn rates is usually done with the help of Rare Candy, but Rare Candies are difficult to get. Therefor, we recommend hunting for rare spawns during the Halloween event period.
Combine the 2× Catch Candy with Pinap Berries in order to get 4× Candy from your catches. As always, event bonuses stack on top of existing item bonuses.
2× Catch Candy applies for raids as well, which creates an interesting opportunity to use your Silver Pinap Berries more frequently. Raid Bosses with high catch chance (like EX raid Mewtwo) are an excellent opportunity to get more Candy easily.
Hunt for Shiny Yamask
Ghost types are not common spawns during day hours, and catching some shiny Ghosts has proven to be a challenge. Use this event to get a shiny Yamask, as we have a feeling it won’t be easy to obtain afterwards. Yamask spawns will be boosted during the event.
Hatch 10 KM eggs at your own pace
10 KM eggs give a lot more Stardust and Candy than lower distance Poke eggs. Make the most of this by hatching them during the event with an active Star Piece.
Official announcement
The #PokemonGOHalloween announcement is here! Expect:
🎃 Double Candy rewards
🎃 Pokémon like Duskull and Yamask
🎃 Thrilling new avatar items
🎃 A spooky Special Research
🎃 Raids featuring Darkrai, and Pokémon wearing costumes!https://t.co/Ipv31kko3H pic.twitter.com/8Y70ZrnxPg— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) October 14, 2019