Pokémon Go’s upcoming Gigantamax battles won’t be easy

Rural and regional players will likely miss out on GMAX goodies due to the tough nature of these Pokémon

Niantic

Niantic just officially announced the introduction of Gigantamax Battles and Pokémon in Pokémon Go, a long-awaited feature that builds on top of the recently introduced Dynamax Pokémon mechanic. In a media preview event held earlier in the month, Niantic revealed details for the new raid mechanic, including how it will work, which Pokémon will be available at launch, and how difficult it’s going to be — spoiler: very. 

Gigantamax Pokémon are a mix between Dynamax and Mega Evolution, with unique forms and moves available to the Pokémon once transformed. In Pokémon Go, Gigantamax Pokémon will act almost identically to Dynamax Pokémon, but will have their unique form once transformed, and have access to a unique move, much like in the main series games. 

Players will team up in lobbies of up to 40 players – yes, really – to take down Gigantamax Pokémon in Gigantamax Battles, similar to the Dynamax Battles already in the game. At the launch of the feature, three Gigantamax Pokémon will be available to take on in these raid-like battles: Venusaur, Blastoise, and Charizard. More will be added in the future, like Gigantamax Kingler, Orbeetle, and Toxtricity, which were teased in the feature’s trailer.  

Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur will be available at first / Niantic

Gigantamax Battles are going to be very difficult, though. Niantic tells us that this isn’t just the 5-star tier for Dynamax Battles, but instead something beyond — think Mega Raids. 5-star Dynamax Raids will, instead, be reserved for powerful Pokémon like legendaries. 

While you can join a Gigantamax Battle with as few as one or two people, it’s effectively impossible to win with so few. Niantic tells us that it would be almost impossible to win with fewer than nine or 10 players, so you’ll have to rely on other players if you want to battle and defeat one of these powerful Pokémon. Given players were already struggling with trying to take on 3-star Dynamax Battles as a duo, this is not particularly surprising, but it is still somewhat concerning for some. 

Unfortunately, neither Dynamax Battles or Gigantamax Battles support remote raiding, and there’s no timeline for the introduction of such a feature either, so regional and rural players may struggle to take them down. Thankfully, Gigantamax Pokémon can’t really be used in features outside of Dynamax/Gigantamax battles, like trainer battles or in gyms, so there’s no competitive advantage just yet, but Niantic does say it’s working on implementing the kaiju-like Pokémon in other gameplay mechanics, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that in the future. 

The three Kanto starter Gigantamax Pokémon will be available in Pokémon Go from October 26, 2024 at 10:00am local time to October 27, 2024 at 8:00pm local time.