Niantic has added Hoenn’s Eon duo Latias and Latios into Pokemon GO!. Trainers are now able to encounter them at raid battles as of today, April 2, just like the other legendaries so far. The similarities don’t end there either. When the Johto trio Raikou, Suicune, and Entei made their appearance, they were spread out among the different regions of the world and rotated around after a certain amount of time. That’s how it works with the dragons – Latios currently dwells in North America, South America, and Africa. Latias awaits players in Europe and Asia, but they won’t stick around for too long.
The two will switch places on May 8, giving players a little over a month to find their dragon. But now we come to the bad news. Latias and Latios will vanish from Pokemon GO! on June 5; so if you haven’t found them by then, you’re out of luck until Niantic decides to run the event again at some point. Since Pokemon GO!‘s inception in 2016, plenty of other legendaries have made the rounds before disappearing from raids, so this latest pattern is no surprise. One outlier is Mew, which can only be captured by completing special research assignments from Professor Willow.
These research assignments embody Pokemon GO!‘s version of a “story mode.” Mew can only be quested for once but has a scripted catch rate. It will break out of two Pokeballs before the third one captures it. Because Mew released so close to April 1, it’s a bit dubious how many of the capture videos out there are actually legit, but this one was posted on March 30. The actual method of capture also matches up with the general consensus of how the process works. The poster notes that it is not himself featured in the video but another player.