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The time is finally upon us. Mewtwo, the powerful Legendary Pokemon and one of the first teased by Niantic when it launched Pokemon Go (opens in new tab) a year ago, is finally coming to the game. Trouble is, the official announcement revealing his impending arrival is so vague and confusing that players have no real idea what to do or how to catch him.
“Earlier today, Trainers battled against the Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo at the Pokémon GO Stadium event in Yokohama, Japan. Thousands of Trainers in attendance were able to successfully catch Mewtwo and add it to their Pokédexes,” Niantic says in a news release (opens in new tab) about the genetically engineered Pokemon. “In the coming weeks, you, too, will have the opportunity to battle and catch Mewtwo with the new Exclusive Raid Battle feature.”
Exclusive Raids can only be accessed by players who have “recently” defeated a Raid at that same location. So in other words, you’ll have to defeat a Raid (which, if you’re just catching up, are the new super-tough fights that periodically appear at Gyms and require multiple players to defeat) and then, if that same Gym location is going to be host to an Exclusive Raid, you’ll get an invite to return and battle Mewtwo (though Niantic claims that other Pokemon will start appearing via Exclusive Raids as well).
Over on Reddit (opens in new tab), players are frustrated by Niantic’s vagueness. There’s no word on what, exactly, “recently” means in this case. “Does it mean ‘defeated the last raid boss at this gym’? Does it mean ‘defeated a raid boss at this gym during the last 48 hours’? In my eyes this is pretty crucial information here,” one user writes.
And personally, I agree. I’m also curious if there will be any kind of indication about where an Exclusive Raid will pop up. Will players know where an Exclusive Raid will spawn, or do they just have to fight across town and hope one of the Raids they beat ends up becoming an Exclusive Raid? If it’s the latter, that really sucks for anyone not willing to spend money or Poke Coins, since you only get one free Raid Pass at a time.
Mewtwo has always been my very favorite Pokemon since Pokemon Red / Blue, even as more powerful creatures have appeared in subsequent games. It’s a bit of a downer that what could’ve been an exciting addition is instead inspiring jeers and sighs. Here’s hoping we’ll get more info and players devise strategies so everyone has a chance at adding him to their Pokedex.
