How Gigantamax Battles works in Pokemon Go

Gigantamax Pokémon are here to make a big splash to all Pokémon Go players.

Gigantamax Charizard in Pokemon Go
Image via the Pokemon Company. Remix by Dot Esports

The Gigantamax Battles have arrived in Pokémon Go, and these intense encounters will be some of the largest battles you’ll find in the mobile game to date. You’ll need to bring your community together to complete a Gigantamax Battle, and there’s a lot to remember before you start one.

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If you’ve been launching Dynamax Max Battles since the start of the Max Out season, Gigantamax Battles will be familiar to you. However, there are several notable changes you’ll want to keep in mind before jumping into these encounters, and you want to make sure to bring plenty of people with you. Gigantamax Battles won’t be as easy, and you need to get your best Pokémon with you. Here’s what you need to know about Gigantamax Battles work in Pokémon Go.

Where to find Gigantamax Battles in Pokémon Go

How to Dynamax Pokémon in Pokémon Go
Bring your best Dynamax Pokémon to beat Gigantamax encounters. Image via Niantic

You can find Gigantamax Battles at the same location Dynamax Pokémon show up: Power Spots. These rotate around your local area while you play Pokémon Go. If there’s a Power Spot location at a park, it may move to a church in a few days or another notable location highlighted by Google Maps. However, Gigantamax Battles happen more frequently than the ones for Dynamax Pokémon.

Traditionally, a Dynamax Max Battle remains available at a Power Spot for two or three days. A timer at the Power Spot shows how long it will remain active before switching to a new location in Pokémon Go. Gigantamax Battles are available for a much shorter time and rotate around your area much faster. Because of how quickly these Gigantamax Battles rotate around the community, you and other players you want to work with must act much faster to defeat them. Thankfully, a timer still displays how long you have until a Gigantamax Pokémon disappears.

How to beat Gigantamax Pokémon in Pokémon Go

As you might imagine, Gigantamax Pokémon battles take more effort than the standard Dynamax Pokémon that appear at Power Spots. These are considered difficult encounters, and Niantic only offers them for a short period. You can consider them similar to Elite Raids.

You’ll need to meet a few requirements before launching a Gigantamax Battle: several Dynamax Pokémon to use in battle, enough players, and at least 800 Max Particles. You can get Max Particles by walking around or spinning Max Particles from Power Spots you visit in your local area while playing Pokémon Go.

You will need more players to complete a Gigantamax Battle than the Dynamax encounters. The team format remains the same, where you’ll bring at least three of your strongest Dynamax Pokémon with you to the battle, alongside three other players for a total of four Pokémon Go players on that team. However, in this raid, you can create up to 10 teams, each of four players, for 40 Pokémon Go players to join together. Thankfully, 10 players should be more than enough, which means you need roughly three teams to defeat a Gigantamax Pokémon, but having more always helps.

Can you use Remote Raid Passes for Gigantamax Battles in Pokémon Go?

Unfortunately, you still cannot use Remote Raid passes for Gigantamax Pokémon encounters. You need to work together with your local community. This is how it is at launch, which has been the case for other features. Elite Raids are a good example, as the team has prevented players from using Remote Raid Passes to complete these encounters. However, they have had instances of allowing players to use a Remote Raid Pass for a limited time, but this is not always the case for Pokémon Go.

Although it won’t be available at launch, hopefully, Niantic will review this information, see how the Pokémon Go community reacts to this challenging content, and make necessary changes.

Author
Image of Zack Palm
Zack Palm
Zack Palm has been writing about video games for the past five years. He spends his free time trying to learn about a new board, reading high-fantasy series, or working on his latest DnD character.