Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 event guide: All bonuses, boosted encounters, and more

Get ready for an odd set of battles.

Pokemon Go Rivals Week featured Pokemon.
Image via Niantic

It is time for a week of battles and challenges as Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 brings a mix of boosted spawns, raids, and research that feature Pokémon known for being rivals—for the most part.

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Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 runs from May 4 to May 9 at 8pm local time, overlapping with the May Go Battle Weekend on May 4 and 5. During this event, you will see several species of Pokémon known for being rivals like Zangoose and Seviper appearing in the wild and raids for a limited time, rotating spawns with each other every two days.

Exclusive Field and Timed Research is also available to complete with even more bonus rewards and encounters with event-themed Pokémon. So, while you will mostly be focused on using your fists, here is a full event guide for Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024.

Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024: Full event guide

Pokemon TCG art for Sawk.
Sawk is ready to battle it out this week. Image via The Pokemon Company

Running from May 4 to May 9 Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 is a bit odd, as it only has a few Pokémon that have lore based on being rivals—whether based on their species or training habits. Despite that, some nice event bonuses will be available, with the biggest being boosted Shiny odds for some of the featured Pokémon.

If you find Zangoose and Seviper, Throh and Sawk, or Heatmor and Durant while they are appearing more frequently, you will have a higher chance of encountering a Shiny. These rival pairs have an odd spawn rotation during the event, however, and here is how you can work around that.

All Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 boosted wild encounters

Here’s every Pokémon you’ll see in the Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024. We’ve added an asterisk (*) next to their name to indicate if they have a chance to appear as a Shiny and included a list of times when specific Pokémon will rotate out of the event.

Alolan Sandshrew*Mankey*Poliwag*
Machop*Gligar*Ralts*
Lickitung*Galarian Stunfisk*

The following Pokémon will be appearing more frequently in the wild during the specified time period and will also have boosted Shiny odds. 

  • May 4 to 6 until 10am local time
    • Zangoose*
    • Seviper*
  • May 6 to 8 until 10am local time
    • Throh*
    • Sawk*
  • May 8 to 9 until 8pm local time
    • Heatmor*
    • Durant*

All Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 event raids

As with wild encounters, an asterisk (*) next to a Pokémon’s name will indicate if they can appear as a Shiny after you defeat them in a Raid.

  • One-star Raids
    • Mankey*
    • Teddiursa*
    • Swinub*
    • Jangmo-o
  • Three-star Raids
    • Zangoose* (May 4 to 6 until 10am local time)
    • Seviper* (May 4 to 6 until 10am local time)
    • Throh* (May 6 to 8 until 10am local time)
    • Sawk* (May 6 to 8 until 10am local time)
    • Heatmor* (May 8 to 9 until 8pm local time)
    • Durant* (May 8 to 9 until 8pm local time)
  • Five-star Raids
    • N/A for event-exclusive raids

All Pokémon Go Rivals Week 2024 exclusive event bonuses and content

  • 10x XP from spinning any Photo Discs at Gyms.
  • Double Catch Candy for the entire event.
  • Boosted odds to encounter Shiny Zangoose, Seviper, Throh, Sawk, Heatmor, and Durant.
  • PokéStop Showcases for Throh and Sawk
  • Go Rivals Weekend runs from May 4 at 12am local time to May 5 at 11:59pm local time.
    • Includes exclusive rewards, bonuses, and research.

This is the first Pokémon Go event on the May calendar as we slowly approach the start of Go Fest 2024 and the next season of content.

Author
Image of Cale Michael
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.