Mega Buddy Challenge event in Pokémon Go – All Mega-Evolved effects, spawns, shiny Pokémon, field research tasks, and timed research tasks

A new Mega-Evolved Buddy challenge is here in Pokémon Go, and it’s the final one that wraps up a trio of events following the release of Mega-Evolution. The Mega-Evolved feature released late August with mixed reception regarding changes to the game, such as adding a speed reward to raids and how much energy it took to Mega-Evolve a Pokémon. Niantic quickly jumped on that and took feedback from the early release to amend the current features. While it’s still a little bumpy, Mega-Evolution appears to be doing quite well among community members, with more Mega-Evolved Pokémon releasing in the future.

Alongside a new Timed Research series of tasks and rewards for the Mega Buddy event, there are increased spawns, more shiny Pokémon, and field research tasks trainers can grab to earn more Mega Energy. Here’s everything we know.

The Mega Buddy event goes from September 22 at 8 AM to September 28 at 10 PM in your local timezone.

All increased Pokémon Spawns

These are all of the Pokémon that you can expect to see randomly popping up in the wild far more frequently than usual. All of them will also have a higher chance of having a large size.

• Arbok
• Doduo
• Dunsparce
• Exeggutor
• Furret
• Hariyama
• Hitmonchan
• Hitmonlee
• Jynx
• Lapras
• Mantine
• Onix
• Pinsir
• Skarmory
• Snorlax
• Wailmer
• Wobbuffet

New Shiny Pokémon

Duduo and Dodrio will have their shiny versions available in the game, and you can find them in the wild. While they are incredibly rare to locate, hopefully, the increased spawns make it far easier to add these new Pokémon to your collection.

Timed Research

A new Timed Research will be available throughout the event. You can find these tasks in your Today view. You want to make sure to complete them all to gain access to the upcoming Halloween Timed Research set to release during the week of Halloween. The research will unlock the chance for you to evolve your Gengar into Mega Gengar for the first time.

Field Research

The field research tasks are quests you can receive from Gyms and from Poké Stops throughout your area. These event-exclusive Field Research tasks reward you Mega Beedrill, Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur energy that you can use to Mega-Evolve your respective Pokémon.

We’ll update this section when we learn what event-exclusive tasks those are.

Mega-Evolved Effects

Throughout the event, Mega-Evolutions now last three times as long. You can now use your Mega-Evolved Pokémon for 12 hours rather than only four hours. Make sure you to Mega-Evolve them at the start of the day to use them whenever you want to raid or practice battling a friend.

The Mega Buddy event ends on September 28 at 10 PM in your timezone.