Pokemon Go Grass Event Guide
What should you do
- Catch Venusaur, or catch and evolve Bulbasaur and Ivysaur, to complete your Gen 1 Pokédex.
- Catch Exeggcute to evolve Exeggutor with Solar Beam to take on Blissey (and Vaporeon) in Gyms.
- Catch Tangela to complete your Gen 1 Pokédex.
- Catch Maganium, or catch or evolve Chikorita and Bayleef to complete your Gen 2 Pokédex.
- Catch Sunkern (and get a Sun Stone evolution item) to evolve Sunflora to complete your Gen 2 Pokédex.
- Catch and evolve any other Pokémon you might be missing for your Pokédex, and Kanto and Johto medals.
- Stock up on Tangela to evolve Tangrowth in Gen 4.
- Catch and evolve any as many grass-types as you need to get gold in the Gardener medal and receive a 1.3x bonus towards catching all future grass types.
Also and most importantly: Get out, enjoy, take your family and friends and Have FUN!
What is this Pokémon Go grass-type event of which you speak?
Here's what Pokemon Go announced:
Professor Willow's research into Pokémon habitats around the world has uncovered some interesting findings. His initial reports indicate that we'll see an influx of Grass-type Pokémon sometime this weekend. These Pokémon will appear in the wild more frequently starting the afternoon of May 5, but only for a short period of time. We anticipate that Pokémon will return to their normal habitats on May 8, 2017 PDT.
Help us contribute to Professor Willow's ongoing research by catching as many Grass-type Pokémon as possible this weekend. While you're out with friends and family, don't forget to document your findings using the Pokémon GO AR camera and share your screenshots on social media using #PokemonGO.
Lures will last for 6 hours
Lure Modules will cause Pokemon to automatically spawn around a Poke Stop, usually for a span of about thirty minutes. However, Lure Modules will work for 6 hours this weekend, meaning that you can place a single Lure and use it for most of the day. Because of the mini-event, the Lures should attract mainly Grass-type Pokemon instead of Pokemon that would usually spawn near the Poke Stop.
When does the grass-type event start and end?
Here are the official times:
- Start: Friday, May 5, 2017 (presumably at 1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT?)
- End: Monday, May 8, 2017 (presumably at 1 p.m. PDT / 4 p.m. EDT?)
For the previous couple of events, Pokémon Go gave specific start and end times. Not so for the grass-type event. Those previous events started and ended at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, so that's the best guess for the one as well.
Do you have to be near grasslands or grass spawns to benefit from the increased rate?
Probably not! The Valentine's event was frustrating for those outside Porygon or Chansey biomes. The Water Festival, though, corrected for that and made everything more universal. Best guess is that the grass-type event will do the same.
What are the grass-type Pokémon in Pokémon Go?
Pokémon Go has so far introduced the Pokémon first encountered in the Kanto and Johto regions. That means Gen 1 and Gen 2, and includes:
- Bulbasaur
- Ivysaur
- Venusaur
- Oddish
- Gloom
- Vileplume
- Paras
- Parasect
- Bellsprout
- Weepinbell
- Victreebel
- Exeggcute
- Exeggutor
- Tangela
- Chikorita
- Bayleef
- Maganium
- Bellosom*
- Hoppip
- Skiploom
- Jumpluff
- Sunkern
- Sunflora*
Note: Bellosom and Sunflora don't spawn in the wild, like other Pokémon that require an Evolution Item to evolve. So, even though both are grass-type, you won't be able to catch them, even during this event. You'll need to get Sunkern and Oddish and Gloom, and Sun Stones, so you can evolve Bellosom and Sunflora.
Sounds like a great time to get gold in the Gardener medal for grass-types, doesn't it?
It does indeed! If by some chance you haven't gotten your grass-type Gardener gold yet, you should make sure you get it by the end of the grass-type event — and the 1.3x catch bonus it will give you going forward!
How do the increased spawns work?
Typically, you get spawns or cluster spawns for common Pokémon like Pidgey, Rattata, Sentrat, Hoothoot, etc.
For the Grass Event, there's a high probability any or all of those common spawns will be replaced with a grass-type spawn instead, like Bulbasaur, Chikorita, Bellsprout, etc.
Same with rare spawns. For the duration of the event, if a Chansey, Porygon, or Snorlax would have spawned, there's a good chance it'll be replaced by a Venusaur, Meganium, or Tangela instead.
That's terrific news for people in water climates who have few to no rare grass-types.
What about... Shiny Bulbasaur?
The water event pought Shiny (gold) Magikarp and (red) Gyarados are both live. No word yet on Shiny Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, or Venusaur, but fingers crossed!