Pokémon Go Gengar Day start time, Lick and Psychic moves and Gengar Day explained

Gengar Day is the latest of a series of Pokémon Go event days, that have so far covered Gen 1's three legendary birds, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.

This time it's the very effective Ghost-type Gengar that gets the special treatment, with not one but two unique Gengar Day moves, the fast attack Lick and charged attack Psychic.

It's a great chance to get your hands on a Gengar with potentially the best Ghost-type moveset possible, so below we detail everything we know about Gengar Day, including the Gengar Day start time, and below that info on other similar events gone by.

On this page:

Gengar Day start day and start time

On Saturday, November 3rd, Gengar Day will start on:

• Europe, Middle East, Africa, India: 10am to 1pm UK (GMT), 11am to 2pm (CET)
• North America, South America and Greenland: 11am to 2pm (PT), 2pm to 5pm (ET)
• Asia Pacific: 12pm to 3pm (JST)

You can of course keep going after the free Raid Passes - but you'll have to buy Premium Raid Passes to do so.

Gengar Day and Gengar moves Lick and Psychic explained

On Saturday, November 3rd, Gengar will be available in Raid battles for three hours, each with two unique moves: Lick and Psychic.

In particular it's worth noting the significance of Lick. Although the move does relatively low damage per second, it generates a large amount of Energy (used for charge attacks), and that, coupled with the same-type-attack-bonus earned from using Ghost-type moves with Ghost-type Pokémon, makes it the best move to couple with Shadow Ball - and makes Lick and Shadow Ball the most effective moveset overall for Gengar, too.

As usual, spinning PokéStops will also give you up to five free Raid Passes for the day, and there's a (rare) chance Shiny Gengar will make an appearance, too - estimated at about one in twenty if previous event days are anything to go by.

Moltres Day event and Moltres move explained

On Saturday, September 8th, Moltres was be available in Raid battles for three hours, each with the Sky Attack move.

Spinning PokéStops gave you up to five free Raid Passes for the day, and there was a (rare) chance Shiny Moltres would make an appearance, too.

Moltres Day times:

• Europe, Middle East, Africa, India: 10am to 1pm UK (BST), 11am to 2pm CET
• North America, South America and Greenland: 11am to 2pm PST, 2pm to 5pm EST
• Asia Pacific: 12pm to 3pm JST

As with the other events like it, you could of course keep going after the free Raid Passes - but you'd have had to buy Premium Raid Passes to do so.

Summer Tour 2018 dates and previous event details

There are three unique events happening in 2018, all under the umbrella of the 'Pokémon Go Summer Tour 2018'. Even if you can't go, there will be global challenges taking place across all three events, each with unique rewards for all players if you participate.

If players can unlock all challenges within an event, a mysterious bonus reward will unlock on a specific date. If players can unlock every challenge across all three events, there will be a 'Ultra Bonus unlock', which has been revealed to be the addition of Mewtwo to Level 5 Raids!

First of all, here are the dates and Pokémon spawns for each event at a glance:

Dortmund event rewards

Following the completion of all three Global Challenges for Pokémon Go Safari Zone in Dortmund, the following rewards have been unlocked from July 2-9:

• 3x Catch XP
• 2x Raid XP
• 3x Hatch XP
• 1 Hour Lucky Egg duration

Meanwhile, for Europe, there are region exclusive Corsola spawns and increased Roselia spawns (useful for catching Shiny Roselia) between Tuesday, July 3 and Wednesday, July 4, to apologise for issues at the event.

Finally, there is Articuno Day. On Saturday, July 7th, Articuno will be available in Raid battles for three hours. Spinning a PokéStop will give you up to five Raid Passes for the day, and there's a chance Shiny Articuno will make an appearance, too.

Articuno Day times:

• Europe, Middle East, Africa, India: 10am to 1pm UK (BST), 11am to 2pm CET
• North America, South America and Greenland: 11am to 2pm PST, 2pm to 5pm EST
• Asia Pacific: 12pm to 3pm JST

Pokémon Go Fest rewards

Here are the Global Challenges for Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago (rewards unlock July 16-23, with a bonus reward on July 21, Zapdos Day):

Over the course of the event, we saw:

• Increased Plusle and Minum spawns, giving bonus Stardust
• Shiny Plusle and Shiny Minun
• Alolan Diglett and Alolan Geodude spawns

The Chicago event saw a few differences this year. Go Fest will take place over two days instead of one, and moving from Grant Park to Lincoln park, with a "unique and immersive gameplay experience not seen in any of Niantic's previous live events", including a 1.8 mile course with physical installations. There's also the tease of more to do in the surrounding Chicago area, too. By all accounts, it was a big success.

Additionally those attending were the first to catch the Mythical Celebi.

Pokémon Go Safari Zone in Yokosuka rewards

Here are the Global Challenges for Pokémon Go Safari Zone in Yokosuka (rewards unlock September 1 and 2):

Attendees can catch regional exclusive Tropius, Unown and many more, while there will also be increased Feebas and Torchic spawns throughout Japan.

What was Pokémon Go Fest like last year?

In short - it could have gone a lot better. Widespread connection issues meant it was a disastrous fan gathering undid months of goodwill for players, even if the first Legendaries were released without a fight.

Before the issues, this was what the plans were supposed to be.

Based in Grant Park, the community event featured special Pokéstops that spat out 2km Eggs only available at the event, increased Pokémon encounters with never-before-seen creatures in that area (including region exclusive appearances of Heracross, and the super-rare Unown), team lounges for Instinct, Mystic and Valor players, photo opportunities and a unique event Medal - the first of its kind.

Ultimately, though, the Chicago event was all about unlocking rewards, and not just for the local players who made it to the event itself, with rewards going out to the rest of the world's Pokémon Go fans as well.

One of them was Legendary Pokémon, which made their debut during the event, and in the end rolled out to all players worldwide.

As well as participating from home by catching creatures, fans could also follow the events from Chicago live over Twitch.

In essence, the event originally worked as follows:

Catch Challenge and global Mystery Challenge details:

1. Catch Challenge - a) Players in Chicago need to catch Pokémon during designated windows. This unlocked some local rewards, depending on the Types of the Pokémon caught; and b) Players worldwide needed to just catch as many as possible, unlocking one of three tiers of global reward, based on how well they performed. Bronze tier increased the duration of the Bonus for 24 hours, Silver for 48 hours, and Gold was supposed to unlock the Mystery Challenge...
2. Mystery Challenge - If the Chicago players achieved the Gold Tier of rewards, this Mystery Challenge (a Legendary Raid) would have been unlocked. Based in Chicago's Grant Park, completing this would have unlocked a global reward (the release of Legendaries worldwide).
3. Global Reward - While Niantic didn't explicitly say it would have been Legendary Pokémon until the last minute, that's what just about everyone expected - and they were right!

Updated plans after issues:

So, Pokémon Go Fest saw persistent connection issues that impacted the event for attendees.

The result was a full refund for attendees, along with $100 of PokéCoins for each of them too.

Despite the disruption though, as expected, Legendary Pokémon and the various Bonus Rewards were still unlocked worldwide, albeit with 100% capture rates for Chicago players' Legendaries, possibly as compensation for the fact that it was so hard to connect to the game.

The Shared Skies Season is here! The Pokémon World Championships 2024 event is currently running in Pokémon Go! Go Fest 2024 may have been and gone, but you can still play around with the Fusion mechanic. Meanwhile, ticket holders can finish Go Fest 2024: A Shadowy Caper and The Dusk Settles. Don't forget to try out Routes, Gift Exchange and Party Play while you're hunting down rare Pokémon, fighting in the Go Battle League or competing in PokéStop Showcases.

What were previous Pokémon Go events like?

As well as the above on-going and upcoming events, there have already been several others that have happened so far.

Unusual Sightings event in Europe (Summer 2017)

Coming not long after the delay of the Safari Zone events in August, Niantic has announced major European cities will see "unusual Pokémon sightings" until August 21st - including several UK locations. The sightings confirmed so far include:

• Unown (usually incredibly rare, letters E-U-R-O-P only)
• Kangaskhan (usually region-exclusive to Australasia)

It was added Unibail-Rodamco shopping centres would play host to these unusual spawns, as well as their PokéStops having Lures enabled on the weekends of August 12th and August 19th.

Cities that will see unusual sightings include:

• Vienna, Austria
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Helsinki, Finland
• Dijon, France
• Lille, France
• Lyon, France
• Marseille, France
• Nice, France
• Paris, France
• Rennes, France
• Berlin, Germany
• Bochum, Germany
• Gera, Germany
• Leipzig, Germany
• Mönchengladbach, Germany
• Munich, Germany
• Oberhausen, Germany
• Recklinghausen, Germany
• Milan, Italy
• Naples, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Oslo, Norway
• Warsaw, Poland
• Lisbon, Portugal
• Bratislava, Slovakia
• Badajoz, Spain
• Barcelona, Spain
• Cádiz, Spain
• Madrid, Spain
• Sevilla, Spain
• San Sebastián, Spain
• Valencia, Spain
• Valladolid, Spain
• Stockholm, Sweden
• Zürich, Switzerland
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Leidschendam, The Netherlands
• Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
• Belfast, United Kingdom
• Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Cardiff, United Kingdom
• Glasgow, United Kingdom
• London, United Kingdom
• Manchester, United Kingdom

Pokémon Go Safari Zone and Big Heritage events in Europe and the UK (2017)

It's not just the US that gets a special event like Go Fest this summer.

However, following the events of Chicago, the August dates in Denmark, Czech Republic, Sweden and the Netherlands have been postponed until a date later in the autumn. Japan's August event, as well as September dates in Germany, France and Spain are currently to continue as planned.

Mainland Europe will experience Safari Zone events, of which the benefits are twofold. Similar to Go Fest, players will be able to see Pokémon not usually found in the wild here - think region exclusive Pokémon like Kangaskhan and Corsola, and note the little Unown in the top right of the promo image.

Pokémon Go Safari Zone Europe dates and details:

• August 14th - Pokemon Go Stadium (Yokohama, Japan)
• September 16th - CentrO (Oberhausen, Germany); Les Quatre Temps (Paris, France); La Miquinista (Barcelona, Spain).
• October 7th - Fisketorvet (Copenhagen, Denmark); and Centrum Cerny Most (Prague, Czech Republic).
• October 14th - Mall of Scandinavia (Stockholm, Sweden); and Stadshart Amstelveen (Amstelveen, The Netherlands).

At each of the European events, players will receive an in-game medal, special 2km Eggs, and Lures will be activated all day. There will also be rare Pokémon around, like Kangaskhan, Chansey, Larvitar and others, as well as Shiny Pikachu and Magikarp, and various forms of Unown - Raid battles, however, will be disabled in the area to help things run smoothly.

Pokémon Go Park at Pikachu Outbreak in Japan (2017)

Between August 8 to August 15, 2017, two areas in Yokohama played host to special Kanto and Johto-themed parks, with creatures to match. It also offered Mr Mime - usually exclusive to Europe - Unown and the debut of a shiny Pikachu.

It also debuted several new Raid encounters, though it's unknown whether these will be rolled out worldwide.

Pokémon Go Heritage Festival in Chester, UK (2017)

Though technically not on the same scale as previous events, in July 2017 a Big Heritage partnership that got players walking around the historic city of Chester and Chester Castle. No new reveals or exclusive creatures, but it was a different way to explore a city and get numbers together for Raid encounters.

• Pokémon Go PastPorts - this was the only place in the world you can get one so far - but note that it was a real-world thing that got stamped, not an in-game item! It'll allowed you to "Visit four historic camps across the city (to be revealed on the day) to find characters from across the city's history".
• Pokémon GO Map Trail - "use the game to help you navigate around the city to find 10 specific Pokéstops and find the answer to questions on a special Pokémon GO explorers map." Visiting all ten got you a special certificate.
• 120 new Pokéstops and Gyms
• Lots of new Lures dropped around the city.
• A Raid Radio dedicated to the festival that alerts you of nearby players taking on Raids.
• A chance to create your own new Pokéstop.