Pokemon GO is singing in the rain with its latest event. It’s Water Festival 2019 time! Last year’s iteration of the famous water festival event brought double candy and stardust for egg hatches, unique 3km eggs, three times the catch stardust for water-type pokemon, and the return of the powerful Kyorge legendary 5-star raid.
This year’s event is somewhat similar. However, with the Pokemon GO Fest stardust bonuses coming just before, the focus this time around is on the pokemon available throughout. Let’s dive into the details.
Pokemon GO Water Festival 2019 Dates and Times
The Pokemon GO Water Festival 2019 kicks off on Aug. 23 and ends on Aug. 30. Start and end times are 1 p.m. PDT across the world (i.e. don’t rely on your local time). That also means European territories are looking at a late start. But it’s still a full week of fishy fun!
It’s singing out the summer rather than ringing it in like last year’s event in June, but it also lasts seven fewer days this time. On the bright side, this means these relatively tame Water Festival creatures shouldn’t interrupt your regularly scheduled spawns for too long.
Water Festival 2019 Spawns
This year’s version of the Pokemon GO Water Festival shouldn’t have you chasing Wailmer around your typically dry cities. They’ll certainly spawn more often, naturally increasing the possibilities of capturing last year’s debut shiny. But other pokemon like Magikarp and Wooper (whose shiny variant is already available) will appear a lot more, too. It’s a good time to get a Gyarados if you’re still stuck on the Mew mission!
While the three amphibians above will appear more frequently just about anywhere, the following pokemon are scheduled to appear more often around bodies of water:
- Poliwhirl
- Seaking
- Lapras
- Qwilfish
- Mantine
- Lotad
- Feebas
- Piplup
- Buizel
- Finneon
Pokemon GO Water Festival 2019 Shiny Pokemon
Just like last year’s event — and every Pokemon GO event in recent memory — Water Festival 2019 brings with it brand-new shiny variants. Notice the plural there? That’s right! This year’s event adds not one but two new shiny pokemon: Shiny Carvanha and Shiny Barboach. That means popular PVP evolutions like Shiny Sharpedo and Shiny Whiscash finally make their debut.
On top of currently available shiny pokemon, the list of boosted spawns with shinies available is as follows;
- Magikarp/Gyarados
- Wooper/Quagsire
- Wailmer/Wailord
- Barboach/Whiscash
- Carvanha/Sharpedo
- Lapras
- Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise
- Poliwag/Poliwhirl/Poliwrath/Politoed
- Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo
- Feebas/Milotic
Unconfirmed but likely water-type pokemon with shiny variants already available include:
- Horsea/Seadra/Kingdra
- Slowpoke/Slowbro/Slowking
- Psyduck/Golduck
- Krabby/Kingler
- Azuril/Marill/Azumaril
- Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert
- Totodile/Crocanaw/Feraligatr
- Clamperl/Gorebyss/Huntail
- Kabuto/Kabutops
- Omanyte/Omastar
- Wingull/Pelipper
As you can see, there’s a lot of potential shiny pokemon to be looking out for during Water Festival 2019 week.
Pokemon GO Water Festival 2019 Raids
No Pokemon GO event would be complete without matching raids. This year’s Water Festival doesn’t bring Kyogre back into the fold. Although it’s still available through the weekly research reward throughout August. Instead, the festival brings Mesprit, Azelf, and Uxie back into the 5* raid pool in their respective regions.
They’re not rotating just yet, but that does at least give returning players a new chance to catch these elusive Gen 4 Psychic-type Legendary Pokemon from the Sinnoh region. Region-exclusives are as follows:
- Uxie (Asia-Pacific)
- Mesprit (Europe, Middle East, Africa, India)
- Azelf (Americas, Greenland)
On the lower end of the raid spectrum, Blastoise, Vaporeon, and Lapras are confirmed to enter the raid rotation. We expect many more Water-type Pokemon to wash up into gyms, too.
Gyarados and Sharpedo are great counters to the psychic trio kicking it up in regional raids over the Water Festival week, but Uxie having access to Thunder as a charge move causes problems. This Tyranitar the better overall counter if available. General tips are available here.
Pokemon GO Water Festival 2019 Strategy
Outside of shiny hunting, players without a full Tyranitar squad should use this opportunity to grab a Gyarados with Bite/Crunch to take on Psychic-type raids like Alakazam, Mewtwo, and the Psychic trio up during the event.That 400 candy requirement has been a real gatekeeper in the past, but the Water Festival usually makes light work of it. If it manages to elude you, Sharpedo (which can now be shiny) fills in as a glass cannon alternative.
Once you find all the available shinies and get yourself a Gyrados or two, there’s little left but to hit up as many 5* raids as possible. Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf are region-exclusives. Paired with their slim week-long availability, you have yourself some good trade fodder for international buddies. Stock up!
Water Festival 2019 New Moves – Crabhammer
The more unique aspect of Water Festival 2019 is the introduction of a new signature move — something typically reserved for things like Pokemon Go Community Day. Here, Kingler and Crawdaunt will gain access to Crabhammer, a Water-type charge attack.
We don’t know the stats of the move in question just yet, but considering Sharpedo dethroned Kingler as the non-legendary water-type Pokemon with the highest ATK, the introduction of this new move could bring Kingler back into the fold.
Crawdaunt, on the other hand, will likely move up slightly. It just probably won’t be enough to make a real difference. It’s still generally weaker than the other two. We’ll have to wait on solid stats to really put it into perspective!
Pokemon Go Water Festival 2019 Thoughts
Overall, what is typically a throwaway event that offers little more than agonizingly weak spawns, this year’s Water Festival is a catch-up event with a ridiculous amount of shiny pokemon for people to cram into a single week-long sprint. Good luck, trainers!
