Pokemon Go: What is a mega raid and what should I know about them?

Last Updated on: 3rd August 2022, 09:08 am

Pokemon Go has boss battles known as raids that appear regularly at the gyms throughout the game, but what is a Mega Raid?

Fortunately, this is a pretty easy one to answer – though, of course, some players might not want to throw themselves into a boss fight that they’re not sure about, so it’s not surprising some might want and answer to exactly what is a mega raid upfront.

That’s a pretty good approach for these, as it happens. Mega Raids are of comparable difficulty to Legendary Raids, and the rewards aren’t necessarily much better.

What is a Mega Raid in Pokemon Go?

Mega raids are a type of boss battle in Pokemon Go comparable to legendary raids. The differences are found in what you’ll battle, facing Mega Pokemon such as Mega Pidgeot, and the rewards involved. Unlike legendary raids where you can capture what you defeat, Mega raids do not allow you to capture a Mega Pokemon, just the Pokemon that can Mega evolve.

These tend to be some of the more difficult non-player fights available in Pokémon Go, though the rewards debatably make this worthwhile.

With our first question of ‘what is a Mega raid’ now out of the way, we can move on to how to find Mega raids. The good news there is that they can be found very easily, just by looking at the appearance of the egg that appears in the Gym.

There is also a distinctive symbol above the egg that is exclusively used for Mega raid eggs, which makes determining if an upcoming raid spawn is a Mega raid or not in Pokemon Go even easier. When hatched, these eggs will spawn a Mega-Evolved Pokemon, such as Mega-Venasaur, Mega-Charizard and the like. This Pokemon will then be the boss of the Mega Raid.

The result of the egg will be a Mega Raid for the Pokemon selected. Mega Raids are as strong or in some cases stronger than Legendary raids, so they should be approached with a fair level of caution for any Trainer who hasn’t done a few of them before new to them.

If you’re still at a stage where you’re not really sure of the answer to ‘what is a mega raid’, you probably want to approach them with caution.

Having Type-Advantages is a good start of course, and so is having the numbers. Consider using the likes of PokemonGoFriends to get some last-minute allies if your team for a Mega Raid looks a bit weak. Niantic has designed the mega raids featuring the likes of Mega Blastoise, Mega Lopunny and the like to be difficult to do with small teams.

If you need advice on where to find Pokemon Go friends to help out with raids, try here. Just remember people can only join to help when they have invitations, remote raids or not – as long as they have the raid pass or remote raid pass to join you, anyway.

The battles themselves can be some of the longest and most difficult in Pokemon Go, so make sure not to go in unprepared.

Are Mega Raids and Mega Pokemon important at all?

In all honesty, not particularly. Aside from just knowing what they are from answering ‘what is a mega raid’, so that you know to avoid them if you’re not interested in a considerable challenge, Mega Raids are only really used to gather Mega Energy for Pokemon to Mega Evolve them.

This means doing them is mandatory if you want to turn your Charizard into Mega Charizard Y, for example.

However, Mega-evolutions are recorded in a separate Pokedex from typical Pokemon, making them less appealing to the typical collection-focused group of players. Additionally, the mega levels CP increase and the mega form itself only lasts a short time – unlike the benefits of using say, candy XL – meaning that it is not a one-and-done upgrade like typical Pokemon evolution.

That lowers the value of mega evolution quite drastically for players who find them to be a bit of a hassle.

The other rewards for clearing a Mega raid include a chance to capture the pre mega evolve Pokemon, for example, Venusaur, Blastoise, Charizard. You’re also given some experience and a selection of items comparable to the rewards of a legendary raid, such as rare candy, golden razz berries and the usual selection of potions and revives. Perhaps some TMs if you’re lucky as well.

Still, even with the extras in mind given the raid difficulty involved, just getting a max evolved starter Pokemon or the likes of a Beedrill if you fought say Mega Beedrill, and some items as the usual raid rewards feels… quite underwhelming.

Even in that scenario, we are also assuming your team performs well enough to good a good number of premier balls and thus enable you to capture those Pokemon. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn’t descend from the heavens to grant you extra premier balls to make it easier, the same number of balls mechanic from typical raids also applies here – it’s entirely possible to not get enough and miss out on the Pokemon too.

On the upside, you’re not dealing with a Landorus or Tapu Lele here. You’re not missing out on as much if you don’t capture the Pokemon for beating Mega Kangaskhan as you would be if you failed to capture a legendary pokemon in a raid.

Is there anything else to know about Mega Raids and Mega Energy in Pokemon Go?

Not particularly, in simple terms Mega Raids are just very strong raid battles. If you have little to no trouble with Legendary raids then it might be time to move on up to Mega Raids and see just how well you can do.

As always you’ll want to be employing Type-Advantage as much as possible though because Mega raids are definitely not easier to win than the raids you’re used to already.

With our original question of “what is a Mega Raid in Pokemon Go” now answered, If you’d like to read more you can find Pokemon Go articles, stories, and guides on The Click right here, and more pieces written by me personally here.