Two months ago, Pokémon Go developer Niantic told Eurogamer it would launch a blockbuster slate of new features over the course of this summer, following its controversial restructure of the game’s popular Remote Raids gameplay.
Today, Niantic has pulled back the curtain on the first of these – the genuinely exciting introduction of Shadow Raids, which Niantic describes as merely the “tip of the iceberg” compared to everything else still in store.
Speaking to Eurogamer in a further interview on what’s next for the game, Pokémon Go’s development team also discussed in more detail why that Remote Raid nerf was so necessary.
Watch on YouTubeHow Shadow Raids work
But first, details of Shadow Raids themselves. As you’d expect, Shadow Raids will let players battle, defeat and capture Shadow Pokémon – the cool-looking versions of creatures that Team Rocket have souped up for themselves. As with regular raids, Shadow Raids will come in a variety of different difficulty levels – Tier 1, Tier 3 and Tier 5, the latter of which will feature Shadow Legendary Pokémon. To kick things off, this means the ultra-powerful Shadow Mewtwo. (And yes, it will also be Shiny-possible.)