Team Rocket Event Featuring Shiny Ekans and Koffing Starts in Pokémon GO

The original villain team from the first Pokémon games, Team Rocket, has recently infiltrated Pokémon GO as Team GO Rocket. As part of the villainous team’s introduction to the game, a new in-game event has started.

Niantic recently announced a new event that focuses on Pokémon traditionally owned by members of Team Rocket. This event is currently underway as of today (July 25) at 1:00pm PST/4:00pm EST and will continue through next Thursday, August 1, at 1:00pm PST/4:00pm EST. During this time, players will be able to find Shiny Koffing and Shiny Ekans in the wild, in Eggs, and in Raids. This, of course, is a nod to the fact that the two most famous members of Team Rocket, Jessie and James from the anime, originally owned an Ekans and a Koffing respectively. Also during this event, a number of specific Pokémon that have been owned by various Team Rocket members in the first and second Generation mainline games will hatch more frequently from Eggs, including Rattata, Ekans, Sandshrew, Zubat, Meowth, Machop, Magnemite, Grimer, Gastly, Drowzee, Cubone, Koffing, Murkrow, Sneasel, Houndour, and Poochyena. Raids will also “feature Pokémon that we believe are significant to Team GO Rocket.”

With Team GO Rocket’s inclusion in the game, Shadow Pokémon have also been introduced – you can find out more about how to catch and purify them from our guide by clicking here.