Pokemon Go Has Made Shadow Pokemon Stronger

Pokemon Go players have a ton of events to look forward to this month, from the debut of the Gen 5 Legendary Thundurus to a Team Rocket takeover, which is slated to kick off this Friday, March 6. Ahead of the event, developer Niantic has made a few tweaks to Shadow Pokemon.

As detailed on the official Pokemon Go website, Shadow Pokemon now dish out more damage when they remain in their Shadow form. To offset this, however, their defense has been reduced, so they'll take more damage in return. It also now costs less Candy to power up a Shadow Pokemon and teach it a new move, and the Shadow Legendary Pokemon that you can rescue from Team Rocket leader Giovanni are more powerful.

It seems the aim of these changes is to make Shadow Pokemon more viable in battle. Before these tweaks, there was no incentive to keep a Pokemon in its Shadow form; not only would purifying a Shadow Pokemon give it a significant stat boost, the Pokemon would also require less Candy and Stardust to power up.

As previously mentioned, the Team Rocket takeover event kicks off on March 6 at 8 AM local time and runs until 10 PM local time on March 9. Throughout that weekend, Dark, Poison, and other Pokemon associated with Team Rocket will appear in the wild more frequently than normal, including the rare Absol. You'll also have your first chance to encounter a Shiny Skorupi.

As part of the takeover event, there will be a surge in Team Rocket activity on Saturday, March 7. From 2-5 PM local time, more PokeStops than usual will be under the control of Team Rocket Grunts. You'll also be more likely to encounter Team Rocket leaders Sierra, Cliff, Arlo, and Giovanni during the event. Not only will you earn twice the normal amount of Stardust when you defeat them, there's a chance they'll have Shiny Shadow Pokemon as well.

There are lots of other events in store for Pokemon Go this month, including a handful of Legendary Raid weekends and the return of the Psychic Spectacular. March 2020's Field Research tasks are also now available, and any Research Breakthroughs you achieve this month will lead to an encounter with the new Gen 5 Pokemon Ferroseed.