G’day PoGO lovers! The Weather Week event is upon us, with an abundance of Castform, double stardust per catch, and … some other stuff! Let’s take a quick look at the event details and consider some of the top PvP priorities for the event.
Event Details
Date & Time 📅
- Starts Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. local time
- Ends Monday, March 18, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. local time
Bonuses 🎁
2x Stardust for catching Pokémon
Catch Pokémon with Weather Boost to earn extra
Stardust.
Increased chance to encounter Shiny Castform
Priority 1: Helioptile
Hear me out. Helioptile is my number 1 priority for this event – specifically due to the relative rarity of its spawn rate since its release.
In terms of performance, at first glance Heliolisk has what one might call a fairly middling performance in the open Ultra League meta. Heliolisk isn’t exactly hanging around in battles for that long due to its frailty. This doesn’t really paint the full picture though. With the addition of Breaking Swipe to its repertoire, Helio actually has a decent enough bait move to play with. It is super spammy and powerful, it has really decent coverage with Grass Knot / Thunderbolt as the second charge move which helps it hit Water and types hard, and it has a really nice Normal sub-typing which allows it to resist some of the big bad Ghost types in Giratina, Trevenant and Jellicent. With the right team build and strategic game play, Heliolisk can put in some serious work. It’s worth checking out some of ThoTechnical’s content if you’re looking for some ideas on how to optimally use it.
Heliolisk struggles a bit in the Great League, due to the spammy-ness of the many mudboys that are lurking in wait.
In terms of IV’s, I think you want to eke as much bulk out of your build as possible, as there are no obvious downsides that appear in the sims. This means you’ve got an excellent opportunity to grind for some with decent IV’s and XL candy.
Priority 2: Amaura
Aurorus is one of my personal faves. It can be a bit tricky to build around in heavy Fighting type metas, but in the right situations, it can put in serious work. In the Ultra League, where I think it has the most play, it is an excellent counter to common , Dragon and Fire types. With the combo of Powder Snow, Weather Ball Ice and Meteor Beam, Aurorus has an almost perfect combo of having a spammy moveset with the threat of serious nuke damage. It depends on your team combo but it typically has the best play in the back with shields down, so that it can nuke away with the incredibly powerful Beam. Just keep it away from Poliwrath and Annihilape!
There are a few more Fighting and Water types in the Great League meta, and with the recent rise of the mudboys, Aurorus can have a little bit of trouble in the open meta. However, it still has a very decent win rate and in the right team it will put in serious work for you.
In terms of IV’s, research level IV’s don’t tend to matter too much to Aurorus, as its typing and attacking power are doing the hard work for you. Personally, I’ll be hunting the shiny, which I still don’t have!
Priority 3: Lickitung
Mmm, yet another Lickitung feature. Niantic are absolutely trying to level the Great League playing field with all of these Licki spawns in recent times. If you don’t have one, let’s just say that you do want one for the Great League. You probably also want to pitch for a bulky variant, although there are some use cases for some with slightly higher attack. Mega Evolve your maxxed out Pidgeot / Lopunny / Kangaskhan and get those XL candy because it will cost you full freight to get the most amount of bulk out of your Lickitung.
Lickilicky is also pretty decent in the Ultra League, but definitely more of a spice pick or for limited metas. It’s also seriously tanky, but has slightly less coverage with Shadow Ball compared to Power Whip. It’s an amazing answer to the ever-present Giratina and Cresselia, and absolutely has a time and place for its use!
Priority 4: Take Advantage of x2 Stardust
2x stardust is always nice, and with Paras spawning in the wild during the event – there are very nice stardust gains on offer during this event! It could be worth throwing down a star piece or 2 during your grinding hours to optimise your time spent.
Just to dive a little bit further into the amount of stardust you can get from Paras spawns – if you can find a nest of them in the right weather, it could definitely be worth your while!
| Pokémon | Base Stardust | Weather Boosted | Star Piece | Weather + Star Piece |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Paras
|
500 | 625 Sunny Rainy |
750 | 938 |
Priority 5: Regice
Regice
Regice is available in 5 star raids throughout the Weather Week event. Overall, Regice is more of an alternate pick for the open Ultra League, but it definitely has some play! You probably want the charged move Thunder for your cheaper charged move and coverage – but this isn’t available during this rotation. Still, if you haven’t built one yet and you need the candy, this is a good opportunity to help with that. In terms of the Master League, Regice’s lack of stat product and slow pacing starts to show up more in the highest CP meta, but it can definitely be a spice pick and catch some teams out with its versatile moveset.
Notable Mentions
These guys can’t really break into the top priorities, but each have their place in PvP:
- Normal and Rainy form Castform have a lot of utility in certain limited metas, and could often be seen in previous Silph tournaments. The bulkier the better, these guys are actually decently spammy and have good coverage moves. Unfortunately they really don’t have much play in the open meta, but if you can get your hands on some decent IV variants they are worth hanging onto (you will also want a little bit of XL candy for them too, FYI).
- Drifloon is typically seen every year around Halloween, so they fall down a bit in the priority pecking order because they have been common enough spawns. Drifblim has fallen away in recent times from the open Great League meta, but it is still decent enough!
- Swablu has also been a fairly recent spawn in recent years, and Altaria was unfortunate collateral in the recent nerf to Sky Attack. It now takes just a little bit too long for Altaria to reach its cheapest charged move, and although you could argue it is still very decent, it definitely lacks some of its previous flexibility. The other annoying thing is that Swablu are going to be predominantly spawning in windy weather, which means you will not be able to obtain one with as much bulk as you might like. And furthermore – Altaria needs its community day move Moonblast to be optimally used, and that isn’t available during this event (and was only recently featured in the Sinnoh Tour, so who knows just how long it will be before it’s available again for free…). If that hasn’t completely dissuaded you, if you find one you like, definitely hang onto it for the future.
- Tyranitar isn’t very good in PvP – but it’s a monster in PvE. It’s worth doing a few of these raids for the Mega energy while they’re around. They are a relatively easy trio, and we’ve got a raid guide to help you strategize.
With the rest – the variability of the weather makes it hard to really justify their priority. If its snowing wherever you are, I don’t think I would recommend grinding for Snover… but if you do, stay safe out there!
Thanks for reading, I hope this quick guide has helped you prioritise your PvP grinding for this event, and as always, you can find me on Twitter or Instagram for more analysis. Good luck with your XL grinding and the shiny hunt!
See ya later,
JTizzle
