Thanks to the efforts of players all around the world Pancham is about to arrive in Pokémon GO. The “Playful Pokémon” was unlocked thanks to players catching over 500 million Fairy-type characters. Depending on where you are, he may already be available actually, but some will have a little while still to wait. Once he’s unlocked though there are specific ways to catch him. To help, here’s how to catch Pancham in Pokémon GO.
How to Catch Pancham in Pokémon GO
First off, depending on your time zone you may have a bit longer to wait, so let’s break this down into important questions.
When does Pancham Debut in Pokémon GO
Pancham will be unlocked at 10am on May 11th in your local time zone. He’ll then be added to the game so you will likely always have some way to find him, whether it’s in the wild, in raids, or by hatching eggs. However, these will be exclusive to some events, or locked for some time. At this debut you will see the same methods available until May 17th at 8pm when it will change and we’ll update this guide to reflect the new methods. So keep reading to find out where to find Pancham.
Where to Find Pancham
For this first initial offering of Pancham in Pokémon GO players will find him in raid battles at nearby gyms. Unless Niantic decides to surprise everyone and change things up from May 11th to the 17th players will only be able to catch Pancham by defeating him in raid battles and catching with Premier Balls. Be sure to work with local players or global friends to coordinate invites to remote raids if you need it, otherwise you’ll be reliant on what raids spawn near you.
However, things will definitely change on May 18th at 10am when Pancham might or might not stop appearing in raids. What will definitely happen is he will shift to being available in “strange eggs” which are the 12km eggs you receive when you win a battle with a Team GO Rocket leader. If you haven’t caught enough Pancham to evolve him into Pangoro by then you’ll want to grab some incubators. One last question, before we go though.
Can Pancham be Shiny in Pokémon GO
As the character has just been added to the game, there is no Shiny Pancham yet in Pokémon GO. Expect to see this change eventually, but often it can be years before a new species gets its shiny version added to the game. So while a Community Day would be nice, it might be 2023 before we all see it.
But that’s how to catch Pancham in Pokémon GO during both the Luminous Legends X and Y events. Be sure to check back for any updates later on.
