Niantic hosts a 9th anniversary event featuring rare Shiny Mega Rayquaza and a special Community Day celebration.
Niantic is hosting Pokémon GO's largest anniversary celebration to date for the game's ninth birthday. The centerpiece of the event is the debut of Shiny Mega Rayquaza in 5-Star Legendary Raids, with boosted Shiny encounter rates drawing trainers out into the streets in numbers not seen since the early days of the game.
A special Community Day weekend features the return of Charizard with an exclusive Blast Burn move and a Party Hat Pikachu available only during the anniversary period. Field Research tasks during the event grant substantially increased Stardust and Candy rewards, making it an ideal time for players to power up their strongest Pokémon.
Niantic also announced Pokémon Home Sync v2, which streamlines the transfer of Pokémon between GO, Scarlet/Violet, and HOME with dramatically reduced waiting times. An upgraded AR Mode that utilizes iPhone LiDAR sensors creates more convincing augmented reality overlays, placing Pokémon in the real world with improved depth and environmental awareness.