Pokémon Go – Sick Gaming

Posted on September 30, 2022 by — Leave a comment

Pokémon Go Umbreon guide – how to evolve, counter, and use

Years before Pokémon Go, all the way back in Pokémon Gold and Silver, it was pretty hype to see the series change so much from Red and Blue, and the addition of ‘cool’ sounding types like dark and steel made me feel cool too, despite being 12. Game Freak also took the smart move of using an existing Pokémon and giving them a fantastic dark-type evolution, showing that this game isn’t for kids anymore.

Obviously, it was still a kid’s game, but I can’t tell you how enamoured I was after staying up late and evolving a faithful Eevee into the new, mysterious, and awesome Umbreon. The dark-type creature looks incredible, and the fact you had to evolve it at night only made it cooler. Well, if you want to add the best Eeveelution (backed up by our article entirely on how awesome Umbreon is) to your team, our Pokémon Go Umbreon guide is here to help.

We think you’ll love this guide, but when you’re done, be sure to check back on our many other articles covering Pokémon Go, including our fairy Pokémon guide, dragon Pokémon guide, flying Pokémon guide, and our Pokémon Go Genesect guide.

Let’s dive into our Pokemon Go Umbreon guide.

Pokémon Go Umbreon

What is Pokémon Go Umbreon?

Number 197 in the Pokedex, Umbreon is one of the many different evolutions of Eevee, and it originates from the Johto region in Pokémon Gold and Silver on the Gameboy. One of the very first dark Pokémon introduced, this new type helped to balance out the powerful psychic type. Known as the moonlight Pokémon, the cat-like Umbreon can only evolve from Eevee at night when exposed to moonlight, and when it trusts the trainer enough through friendship.

How do I evolve Eevee into Pokémon Go Umbreon?

There are two ways to evolve an Eevee into Umbreon, but one of them only works once. First, like all other Eevee evolutions, there’s a specific name you can call the Pokémon to choose to turn it into one of the many evolutions. For Umbreon, that name is Tamao, and once you evolve an Eevee this way, you have to use the second method for any subsequent evolutions.

The second way to evolve an Eevee into an Umbreon is to make the Eevee your buddy and then walk at least 10km, earning two candies for your effort. Then you get the chance to evolve Eevee, but to nab yourself an Umbreon you must evolve the Pokémon at night.

What are Pokémon Go Umbreon’s stats?

Umbreon’s stats	Result
Base attack	126
Base defence	240
Base stamina	216
Max CP – level 15	916
Max CP – level 20	1221
Max CP – level 30	1832
Max CP – level 40	2137
Base capture rate	12.5%
Base flee rate	5%

Weaknesses

Fighting x2
Bug x2
Fairy x2

Resistances

Ghost x0.5
Dark x0.5

Immunities

What are Pokémon Go Umbreon’s moves?

Quick move

Feint attack (dark)
Snarl (dark)

Charged move

Dark pulse (dark)
Foul play (dark)
Last resort (normal)
Psychic (psychic)

How do I use Pokémon Go Umbreon?

While it can be tempting to run an Umbreon with psychic for your charged move, you miss out on STAB damage, so outside of a few specific instances, it’s best to have your Umbreon use snarl and foul play, and treat it as a nuisance for ghost Pokémon and psychic Pokémon alike. Below is a list of Pokémon that Umbreon is effective against.

Gengar
Dusknoir
Slowking (galarian)
Victini
Hoopa (confined)
Lunala
Marowak (alolan)
Metagross
Jirachi

How do I counter Pokémon Go Umbreon?

As a pure dark-type, sadly there are quite a lot of good counters to Umbreon, especially from bug Pokémon and fighting Pokémon. Below is a list of Pokémon that are effective counters to Umbreon.

Lucario
Conkeldurr
Terrakion
Pheromosa
Volcarona
Blaziken
Zapdos (galarian)
Breloom
Heracross
Buzzwole

There we are folks, you’re no longer in the dark, thanks to our guide on the amazing evolution of Eevee known as Umbreon. If you love Pokémon Go and want even more great guides, be sure to check out our article covering Pokémon Go Deoxys next.

Posted on September 9, 2022 by — Leave a comment

Pokémon Go Deoxys – raids, forms, and how to counter

Nintendo originally introduced this legendary in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the DNA Pokémon known as Deoxys is still one of the coolest legendaries in the series, as well as one of the most versatile. With four distinct forms and some absolutely monstrous stats for each of them, you can use Pokémon Go Deoxys however it best suits you.

In our Pokémon Go Deoxys guide, we explain where you can find it, go over the raid schedule, how best to counter and catch one, as well as go through each of its unique forms. It’s a tricky one to beat, so get your team buffed up and ready to go, and make sure you have plenty of pals on your raid team to boot. Grab some ghost and dark-types, then get training.

We absolutely love Pokémon Go over here at PT Towers, so you can often catch plenty of great guides teaching you how to be the best that ever was. Jump in now and read our articles that cover the best Pokémon Go normal Pokémon, Pokémon Go Hoopa, Pokémon Go community day, Pokémon Go promo codes, or why not check out our Pokémon Go sixth anniversary interview with members of the community, including Serebii’s Joe Merrick.

No need to head to space. Our guide to Pokémon Go Deoxys is right here.

Pokémon Go Deoxys

What is Pokémon Go Deoxys?

Known as the DNA Pokémon, Deoxys is a psychic-type Pokémon initially from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and it sits at number 386 in the Pokédex. With an alien-like form and hints of it being from outer space, many believe Deoxys arrived on a meteor. It also has four distinct forms, which are normal, attack, defence, and speed. These each drastically change Deoxys appearance and stats, as it takes on a size and shape that befits its new abilities.

How do I encounter Pokémon Go Deoxys?

Currently, the only way to encounter Deoxys in Pokémon Go is through five-star raids.

Pokémon Go Deoxys raid schedule

All of Deoxys’ four forms are available in five-star Pokémon Go raids from September 1, 2022, through to September 13, 2022.

How to counter and catch Pokémon Go Deoxys

All four forms of Deoxys share the same type, which happens to be psychic. As a result, Deoxys is vulnerable to ghost, dark, and bug Pokémon. Because of this, here are some of the best counters to use in five-star raids. Remember your weaknesses as well, so while Buzzwole looks like a big beefy boy ready for the task, as a fighting-type, it’s at a disadvantage.

Mega Gengar
Tyranitar
Obstagoon
Hoopa
Darkrai
Chandelure
Mega Houndoom
Weavile
Hydreigon
Yanmega
Mewtwo (Shadow Ball)
Genesect
Mega Scizor

How do I change Pokémon Go Deoxys form?

Sadly, in Pokémon Go, it’s not possible to change Deoxys’ form like in previous entries. If you want to catch one of the specific forms, you need to find a raid with that form.

How do I get Pokémon Go Deoxys shiny?

In Pokémon Go Deoxys isn’t shiny locked, meaning you can find a shiny version if you’re very lucky. The shiny odds are the same as any other raid – the average rate of a shiny is one in 500. However, if you encounter the featured Pokémon in a raid on a specific raid day, the odds increase to around one in 25. It’s still not ideal (you’d better get saving coins), but it’s a bit easier.

That’s all we have today, and we hope this Pokémon Go Deoxys guide helps you to catch the meteoric mythical ‘mon. If you want to keep up to date, be sure to read our guide to the Pokémon Go events next.

Posted on August 27, 2022 by — Leave a comment

American marketers wanted to give Pikachu boobs

Yes, you read the headline correctly. With Pokémon’s 25-year-plus history, there are always little tidbits coming out about how the franchise propelled itself to success across the world, and one of the most recent gleamings we’ve gotten from the history of the series is that, apparently, American marketers wanted to give Pikachu boobs.

Fortunately, we never had to see Pikachu boobs, but we can take a guess at what it might have looked like from listening to Tsunekazu Ishihara’s words when speaking to Alex Pappademas for The Big Hit Show podcast. He described the American redesign as “something like a tiger with huge breasts”, adding that “it looked like a character from the musical Cats”.

I’m pretty sure your own imagination has run wild with what little information we’ve given, so be glad to know that that’s as much as the president of the Pokémon Company was willing to share on this occasion. We hate to think what Mr Ishihara would think about the thicc Pikachu that’s been doing the rounds in recent months, but at least it doesn’t look like something out of the mind of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

A heavy-chested Pikachu redesign isn’t the only bit of fresh information we managed to take from episode 3 of The Big Hit Show. It turns out that the same marketing team responsible for trying to pin the booby on the Pikachu came up with over six sets of alternative names and translations when naming the first 151 Pokémon. However, with what we know their imaginations were capable of, it’s probably for the best these never saw the light of day.

There you have it, all you need to know about the time that a bunch of marketing specialists tried to give Pikachu boobs. For more bare-chested Nintendo-related news stories, check out the latest on Bayonetta 3’s NSFW naive angel mode.

Posted on March 17, 2022 by — Leave a comment

Pokémon World Championships 2022 dates announced

After a few years of delays, rescheduling, and other issues caused by obvious world events, the Pokemon World Championships for 2022 have finally announced their date. So, what dates can you watch this upcoming tournament? The event is being held in the Excel, London, England from August 18 through to August 21.

Invited players do not have to pay a fee, but The Pokemon Company confirmed that a spectator pass will be available to buy for those of you who simply want to attend and watch the Pokémon World Championships 2022. Tournaments are expected to be held for Pokémon Sword & Shield, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Go, Pokémon Unite, and Pokken Tournament DX.

Accompanying the event is another pop-up Pokémon Centre store, where you’ll be able to buy merch, including special items created for the event. The last time a pop-up Pokémon Centre arrived in England, the queues lasted for hours for many eager fans, so get down early if you want to actually get in.

For more information on the event, be sure to check out the Pokémon website for even more details. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, be sure to check out our Pokémon Unite tier list before you dive into the action.

To get yourself even more excited for the upcoming event, be sure to check out the grand finals from last year’s championship below.

When are the Pokemon World Championships 2022?

The Pokemon World Championships 2022 are being held in London, England, From August 18 through to August 21.

If you need a little extra help getting ready for the upcoming competitions, be sure to also have a read of our Pokémon Unite Hoopa build guide, and learn the best way to use the mythical monster.

Posted on December 24, 2020 by — Leave a comment

Pokémon Go’s difficult 2020 was full of ups and downs

This year, Pokémon Go’s players had a rather taxing time keeping up. In an age where going outside and interacting with others was not just frowned upon, but downright dangerous, there have been a lot of new events to tide players over, and some essential new features that had to be developed in a very short space of time.

Pokémon Go in 2020 began in much the same way the previous year ended. Shadow Pokémon boss fights, including battles against Giovanni with the legendary dogs, were still a relatively new idea, while events were skewed towards celebrating the dawn of a new year. It seems like a sick and twisted joke now, but yes, there was a time when we looked at 2020 with fresh optimism.

Events weren’t all that spectacular in the first few weeks, though a small wave of Unovan Pokémon were introduced as the months continued. However, soon the world was plunged into lockdown, looming real-life events were cancelled, and the style of in-game events taking place took a while to catch up with the new normal.

For some inexplicable reason, Niantic is still making Pokémon regional exclusive with few ways to make them more widely available. Sure, some people decided to take holidays abroad (why?), but most people were largely confined to their homes. The good news was that lockdown also coincided with the introduction of PVP battles and these have mostly been free to participate in. For a short time, accumulating winning streaks was how you could get legendary Pokémon such as Landorus, but thanks to rampant cheating it was not consistently robust enough for most players. Soon it became apparent that this was a temporary solution.

It wasn’t long before Remote Raid passes debuted, but it was a while before necessary improvements were made (namely to only use the pass when battles begin). The system is still not perfect though, as the countdown timer for raids is too short for most people to comfortably join, and it would be better to get an idea of how many trainers are looking at jumping into a raid.

On the whole though, Niantic did make one or two big mistakes, but it’s largely kept the ship running in the new normal.

What Remote Raid passes did allow for the first time was international raiding. The significance of this was not realised until just the Lake Trio event. Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf returned to raids. This time around, thanks to Remote Raid passes, players from around the world could invite players to raids that would be impossible for them to participate in otherwise. The response on social media has been a flooded of people inviting others to raid exclusives with them.

There were costs to raids in the Covid era, namely EX Raids. These haven’t returned since the beginning of the pandemic. It’s not the biggest loss though, as there have been plenty of events for those wanting to catch legendary Pokémon. By far the biggest was Go Fest 2020, which was a worldwide event for the first time in history. There were a few teething problems and it was nowhere near as intimate as a real-life event would have been, but by and large it was a successful event (it brought us Rotom for the first time too, which was nice). We also saw the Today View, which shows off all of the current events and bonuses in the app, which is very handy for those wondering if an event was still on.

There was also a time when getting Pokéballs was challenging for rural players, who were no longer commuting to work. Initially Niantic put out bundles costing one PokéCoin, but eventually free gift boxes were introduced to solve this problem. Changes to the buddy system also allow Pokémon to bring you items such as Gifts to send to friends, and Pokéballs to catch Pokémon. Increased Pokéballs from opening Gifts also encouraged friends to interact with each other, seemingly resolving an immediate problem.

It’s highly likely that the new seasonal approach will bring good things and stuff we’ll find frustrating.

What was less successful out of the gate was the debut of Mega Evolution. Lots of people complained about having very few ways to accumulate Mega Energy, a problem that persists in important ways even now. Since Mega Evolution is temporary, some felt its duration was too short, so Niantic extended the duration a bit. Another more recent controversy was with the much anticipated Pokémon Home integration, as it has its own annoyances with how infrequently you can transfer a shiny legendary Pokémon.

On the whole, Niantic did make one or two big mistakes, but it’s largely kept the ship running in the new normal. Looking to the future, it is somewhat brighter in Pokémon Go thanks to the upcoming ‘Go Beyond’ update. Events will soon be dictated by the seasons, meaning those in the southern hemisphere actually get relevant Pokémon for the weather they have. Increasing the cap to level 50 gives players new challenges, while the debut of Kalos Pokémon, like all new generations, is very exciting indeed.

Niantic can do a bit more though, so we’re asking our Delibird to pass on the message to Niantic for our wishes for next year:

Kecleon’s introduction is long overdue. That should be fixed immediately! (If it’s not introduced in the Hoenn celebration week)
Global trade distance, while much better than it was initially, still needs to be extended beyond 50km
Extend the countdown timers for raids so that people have a chance to join them
Allow players to express interest in-app to join raids, so that those nervous about joining a raid can feel more comfortable participating in them. There are third-party apps that can do similar things
Redesign of the Friends list so that you can easily filter ones you don’t have contact with any longer (similarly to tags with Pokémon)
Make the monthly Community Day events last a weekend rather than one day. You could have a break in-between, but two days is better than one
More chances for regionals to appear outside their native region worldwide in events, especially elusive ones like Maractus, Relicanth, and Sigilyph
Events for international players to catch Pokémon like Kangaskhan and Heracross, which are regional Pokémon with Mega Evolutions
Reduce the number of costumed Pokémon that are introduced next year (except for Cowboy Hat Caterpie, because that one person replying to every official tweet has asked for it for so long)

Tough days are still ahead for all of us, and it’s important that Niantic realises the decisions it makes are key to the survival of Pokémon Go into the next year. It’s highly likely that the new seasonal approach will bring good things and stuff we’ll find frustrating.

As it approaches its fifth birthday, Pokémon Go’s position as the top grossing game on Google Play and third most grossing game on the iOS app store is something Niantic will want to celebrate, so here’s hoping for even bigger things next year.

Posted on April 10, 2020 by — Leave a comment

Pokémon Go gets an online leaderboard later today

Right in time for the bank holiday weekend (depending where you are), Niantic is gearing up to drop an exciting new feature in Pokémon Go: online leaderboards. These tie into the Go Battle League feature, and provide you with a list of the top 500 players statistically. The leaderboard hasn’t gone live yet, but you’ll be able to see it at the official Pokémon Go live website as soon as the Go Battle League changes to Master League from Ultra.

The leaderboard will detail the top 500 players’ nicknames, teams, ranks, ratings, and the total number of battles played. This information is taken from the previous day’s statistics, and will update between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC each day. If you want to make it on the leaderboard, you’ll not only have to be a good enough battler, but you’ll also have to ensure that you don’t have an offensive nickname.

To celebrate the launch of the Go Battle League leaderboards, Niantic is hosting a Go Battle Day event on Sunday, which features the Pokémon Marill. The more battles you perform between 11:00 and 14:00 in your local time zone, the higher the chance you’ll have of encountering the fan-favourite Pokémon.

Marill will also appear as a guaranteed reward after your first and third wins, though those who own a premium battle pass will get Marill after every single win. All players will also receive twice the normal amount of stardust for catching Marill.

Niantic is also extending the number of battles you can perform for the entirety of Sunday (in your local time). Rather than the five sets of battles you can typically perform, Niantic is increasing this to 20. That’s a whopping 100 battles for those who want to participate.

If you’re interested, you can go ahead and grab Pokémon Go from the App Store or Google Play right now and get ready for the online leaderboards going live later today. The Go Battle Day event happens on Sunday.