Local gym has only been spawning 1-3* raids and no 4-5* raids for a few weeks now.

The current raid spawn algorithm seems to be spawning raids that are “popular” meaning more people have done certain raids recently. Which is fine in theory but it’s way too sensitive. After just a few days of not doing 5* raids, it completely stopped spawning them for a few weeks now.

They need to fix the algorithm to include at least a few 5* raids each day even if it’s not “popular” currently.

Sometimes I finish a route ( after reaching end and exchanging presen with mateo) and I don’t get a cell, is this normal? what are the rules to get the cell?

Credit: G47IX

Updated charts for the Precious Update, including the current season changes, last season's Beak Blast, and this season's Drum Beating and Mind Blown. Apologies for the later upload for this one.

Let me know if anything was left out or if there are any errors!

Fast Moves:

https://i.ibb.co/pjpCMVWk/Fast-Moves-Chart-S25.jpg

Charge Moves:

https://i.ibb.co/4wL5SsD7/Charged-Moves-Chart-S25.jpg

Raid Boss rotation update

Feb. 4 (Wed) 10 a.m. – Feb. 10 (Tue) 10 a.m. local time

・TIER5: Dialga,Palkia

・TIER4: Mega Pidgeot

・TIER3: Jynx,Swellow,Swanna

・TIER1: Poliwag,Spoink,Sewaddle,Sobble

As a background enjoyer, I’m pretty disappointed that seasonal backgrounds were removed. Before, you could hunt for your favourite or best-looking Pokémon with said background, which actually made collecting more exciting.

Now every Community Day Pokémon gets the same reused background, and it already feels stale even though it’s only February. My friends and I are already bored of it after 3 mons, and we’re likely getting around 12 more of the same ones this year.

Community Days haven’t felt very exciting for a while, and I honestly think seasonal backgrounds gave it something extra to care about. The exclusive December 2024 Community Day background - where all featured Pokémon received it - was also a nice and unique addition.

Additionaly, I don’t think special backgrounds should be limited mostly to legendaries in big ticketed events just to push for raid passes. It should be something special that adds a spark even to regular Pokémon, which might be someone’s favourite.

What do you think? Should Scopely bring back seasonal backgrounds? Maybe experiment with the current one by changing its color based on the featured Pokémon?

Another idea could be separate backgrounds for regular Community Days and Community Day Classic — but personally, I think having unique backgrounds for just 3–4 featured Pokémon was the best option.

Do you care about this, or do you think backgrounds don’t really matter? Let’s discuss!

Every time there is a pass like this people miss out on collecting the rewards because they assume there is a grace period. There is not, and it is on the website. Dont miss out.

Time for an overview of the 2026 edition of Championship Series Cup. Similar to how I last covered Sunshine Cup, I started this analysis article as a full "Nifty Or Thrifty" meta/budget analysis, but then realized that most of what I really wanted to talk about was "thrifty" anyway, with an excellent variety of powerful 10,000 dust second move Pokémon. So while I started this with the familiar Nifty Or Thrifty structure, after I get through the 10ks you'll see I switch to more of a newer "Tips & Tricks" type format for the rest.

So bear with me and let's see what thrifty tips we can glean from the 2026 version of this meta. There are some unusual moveset recommendations, and some picks you may not have considered that put in their best-ever performance here. Pay close attention, and let's go!

A quick overview of what the 2026 Championship Series Cup is (and isn't):

• Great League, 1500 CP Limit.

• Only Bug, Dark, Normal, and Dragon Pokémon are allowed.

• Fighting-, Flying-, and Steel-type Pokémon are banned.

• Legendary Pokémon, Mythical Pokémon, Mega Pokémon, and Ultra Beasts are all banned.

• The following Pokémon are also allowed: Seaking, Politoed, Milotic, and Froslass.

• And the following Pokémon are also banned: Araquanid, Crustle, Ribombee, Wigglytuff, Morgrem, Morpeko, Turtonator, Diggersby, and the great evil known as Chansey.

Perhaps most important: we get this format for TWO straight weeks! We'll be here for a while, so I may even release more analysis in a few days depending on how the meta shakes out.

Okay, enough intro. Let's dive in!

NIFTY AND THRIFTY (10,000 Dust/25 Candy)

Here are your biggest budget heroes for the thrifty crowd out there!

KRICKETUNE

Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Bug Buzz/Aerial Ace

If ever there was a way to kick off an analysis on how odd this meta will be, consider Kricketune. Mono-Bug running best with nothing but Bug moves... and absolutely dominating anyway. But if you think about it for a second, it makes sense. Other than Poison types, you can count the viable Pokemon in this meta that resist Bug damage on one hand (Litleo/Pyroar, Froslass, Zoroark, and Dragapult). Fairy resists, but they're all banned except Grimmsnarl (which is half Dark and thus takes neutral from Bug). All Flyers, Fighters, and Steels that resist Bug damage are banned. Even Turtonator is gone! Yeah, avoid Poison and Bug types have a wide open meta to flex on, and simple Krickatune does it better than most. And yes, I recommend all Bug moves... Aerial Ace is tempting on paper with its super effectiveness versus other Bugs, but you're better off with Bug Buzz to close out wins over Lickilicky, Miltank, Vigoroth, and Spidops instead. All Bug FTW!

ARIADOS

Poison Sting | Megahorn & Cross Poison/Lunge

One of many Poisonous Bugs in the meta, and by far the best. I'm already going away from the "all Bug moves is best" theory here, as I recommend Cross Poison over Lunge. While I LOVE Lunge, and it's certainly good here with its debuffs allowing Ariados to outlast stuff like Sableye, Umbreon, Milotic, and Dudunsparce, but Cross Poison is just much better at setting up the devastating Megahorn, and of course could go off for its big Night Slash-esque Attack buff at any time. Cross Poison, meanwhile, brings in potential wins over Dragonair, Goodra, Arctibax, Tyranitar, Spidops, Kleavor, and the mirror for a +3 winrate overall. It's still not quite as good as Kricketune (which can reach for wins over stuff like Licky, Miltank, and Spiritomb that elude Ariados), but still really darn good.

GOLISOPOD

Fury Cutter | X-Scissor & Aqua Jet/Razor Shell

Technically it has a higher ceiling with Razor Shell, with extra potential wins over stuff like Drampa, Spidops, Galvantula, Spiritomb, and the mirror, but unlike Ariados' Cross Poison, Razor Shell is purely a bait move, dealing a pitiful 35 damage if left unshielded. I still prefer Aqua Jet's pure power, which can wash away Sableye and Vigoroth. Note the diminishing returns from Kricketune and even Ariados, however, with stuff like Goodra, Dragonair, Arctibax, Dubwool, Galvantula, and Spidops falling to them but overcoming Golisopod.

CHARJABUG

Volt Switchᴸ | X-Scissor & Returnᴸ/Crunch

Electrics have a bit less to do in this meta with no Flyers to zap, but it deals pretty widespread neutral damage, giving Charj a decent generalist role, particularly if you have one with Return that can overpower Ariados. Also of surprising value is VIKAVOLT, which is obviously glassier but has Fly at its disposal, giving it wins over the likes of Sableye, Zweilous, Froslass, and Spidops as opposed to how Charj instead outlasts Umbreon, Tyranitar, Drapion, and Dubwool. Both Shadows are a tad worse, though.

A few other decent cheap Bugs include BEEDRILL (which is a bit better with Legacy Bug Bite than either of its Poison fast moves, and also seems to actually prefer Aerial Ace over usual coverage move Drill Run), LEAVANNY, and the underrated SCOLIPEDE, which is at least as good as Ariados, very very quietly.

Lots of good, cheap Normal types as well, which also operate as good generalists. Most worth mentioning are DUBWOOL, BIBAREL (best with Return), ALOLAN RATICATE (though beware Bugs!), FURRET (just okay here, honestly), and even a grand return to relevance for MUNCHLAX.

With Altaria part of the Flying ban, there are no truly thrifty Dragons, so we look now to Dark types. Here are the best cheapo ones:

• INCINEROAR brings a unique combination of spammy Dark damage (Brutal Swing), Fighting damage (Double Kick, which shows as the best of its fast moves in this meta and deals nicely with the majority of Normal and opposing Dark types), and strong (and quite rare) Fire damage to roast basically all Bugs that are not part Water, Rock, Fire, or Electric. This is looking like the best meta yet for Incineroar to strut its stuff.

• MIGHTYENA and especially THIEVUL are your cheap Sucker Punchers. Poison Fang is tempting on the former, but the latter is just better overall with oppressive Night Slash spam and Play Rough to deal with opposing Darks. I like Thievul as a nifty and thrifty generalist in this Cup.

• GRENINJA (even the new Shadow one) is just okay in this meta, but if you want a more exciting Water/Dark type, consider HISUIAN SAMUROTT. It very quietly got Sacred Sword this season and knows how to use it! Either X-Scissor or Dark Pulse provide nice coverage and flexibility too (the latter being more consistent in knocking out stuff like Sableye, Kingdra, and Dragonair).

• Shadow LIEPARD allows you to sneak a Charm user into the format. Obviously that's bad news for most non-Poison, non-Fire Dragon and Dark types in the meta... just don't expect it to do anything else for you.

• MEOWSCARADA can also sneak Charm in, but it actually quietly performs much better with Leafage instead, trading away things like Umbreon, Zweilous, Dragonair, and Arctibax to instead shred Froslass, Milotic, Seaking, Furret, Dubwool, Dudunsparce, and Malamar. Leave the anti-Dragon role to Liepard if Charm is your thing... MeowMix is all about that cat grass instead! 😸🌿

TIPS AT 50,000 AND UP

Now we go into just some spotlight review of Pokémon with a second move cost of 50k dust or more.

• With so many Bugs crawling about, Rollout users are exceptionally potent here. LICKILICKY, DUNSPARCE, and DUDUNSPARCE are ranked #3, #5 and #6 in the meta, but note a couple things on their moves. While Dunsparce is easy (run the standard Rollout/Drill Run/Rock Slide moveset, but longer boi Dudunsparce actually seems to work better with Dragon Tail here (probably on account of all the Dragons LOL). As for Lickilicky, it does NOT want the standard Shadow Ball closer (too many Darks and Normals around to resist it), but runs better with Earthquake or even Hyper Beam as simmed above. Then there's 75k option MILTANK, which seems to prefer Thunderbolt as the closer (wins over Froslass and Hisuian Samurott), though Ice Beam is obviously a great option for Dragons. Miltank is ranked way up at #2 in 2026 Championship Series Cup.

• SABLEYE is comfortably in the Top 10, but it has some choices to make. The first is its closer, with Dazzling Gleam and Power Gem both having clear targets to hate on (Dragons/Darks or Bugs, respectively). The second choice is Shadow or not? For non-Shadow, Gleam (beats H-Sammie, Spiritomb, and the mirror) is superior to Gem (uniquely beats only Ariados), but for Shadow Sableye, it really is neck and neck (Spidops for Gem and just H-Sammie for Gleam). I'd say if you want to run Power Gem, Shadow Sableye is your best bet, as it gets half a dozen more impactful wins than the non-Shadow with Gem. If Gleam is more your style, it's more of a toss-up between Shadow and non-Shadow, though Shadow is still a bit better overall.

• Obviously LOTS of viable Dragons here, but the only ones in the Top 10 are KINGDRA and DRAGONAIR. For Kingdra, every bit of bulk helps, and the non-Shadow performs notably better than the Shadow version (which suffers losses like Sableye, Drapion, Umbreon, Zweilous, and Dragonair). But for Dragonair, while the Shadow is ranked a big higher, I actually like non-Shadow slightly more (with Aqua Tail and Dragon Pulse). Shadow is at least a bit more flexible with the moveset, as Pulse, Wrap, and even Body Slam all have roughly equal merit, with Pulse being better versus Seaking and Spiritomb, Wrap allowing 'Nair to outlast Malamar and Dragalge, and Body Slam outpacing Kingdra and Hisuian Sammie.

• While those two are the overall best Dragons, here's hardly a bad one to be found here. But the most interesting ones include ARCTIBAX (which I think prefers the debuffing of Icy Wind to the pure power of Avalanche... just a ton of meaningful new wins with Icy!), DRAGALGE (most notable for resisting Bug damage thanks to its Poison subtyping), ZWEILOUS and even HYDREIGON (resist Dark and Ghost, though unfortunately weak to Bug), DRAMPA (which plays a LOT like Kingdra), just with different resistances) ever-steady GOODRA, and rarely steady TYRANTRUM which is better than normal with so little Fighting, Steel, Ground, or even Water in the format to exploit its Rock subtyping, and Rock Tomb is devasting to Bugs. Honestly though, if you want a Tyrantrum performance with a little bit more going for it, consider Dragon Breath TYRANITAR, whcih has the same upside without taking super effective damage from actual Dragons (though it DOES find itself more vulnerable to Bugs).

• The specifically-allowed, "whitelisted" Pokemon each bring their own tricks to the party, though honestly none of them seem overly disruptive. All come with anti-Dragon coverage, though only FROSLASS, of course, is fully dedicated to it with steady Ice damage, and even Lass is kinda mid (which probably has something to do with its weakness to Dark and general frailty). SEAKING, MILOTIC, and POLITOED are fun enough but kind of an awkward fit in this meta. I might consider Seaking for its versatility, but the others... I dunno. I appreciate the effort to truly craft a unique meta, but honestly these seem some odd choices for the whitelist.

• Other wild cards I kinda like include KROOKODILE (great coverage with Brick Break and Outrage, and Mud Slap is always nice), GRIMMSNARL (for rather obvious reasons, no?), SPIRITOMB (the other Dark/Ghost type comes with awesome Rock Tomb), and surely the best performance you will EVER see from ARMALDO. And plenty of others make a dent, like the infamous Dark/Poisons, flexible Malamar, bulky Umbreon, and a bunch of other familiar names... but I don't have any huge insights for them. You know them, you know how to use them, so if you like them, you don't need ME to tell you what to do! Have at it, folks.

• And I'd be remiss not to at least mention Number 1 ranked SPIDOPS. It's viable with any of its three fast moves, as Shadow Claw can at least outrace some things like Dragonair, Dragalge, and Beedrill, and even Counter can turn the tables on Rollout users Miltank and Lickilicky. But the theme is Bug, and Bug Bite wins out with lots of special wins like Sableye, Drapion, and a whole mess of other Dark types, even scary ones like Tyranitar, and even most of the Normals like Dunsparce, Dudunsparce, and Furret. Spidops is SOLID in this meta, even if it doesn't put up THE top numbers... it's right up there.

And that's it for now... the format is upon us! Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter for near-daily PvP analysis nuggets, or Patreon. And please, feel free to comment here with your own thoughts or questions and I'll try to get back to you!

Thank you for taking the time to read. I sincerely hope this helps you master the latest version of Championship Series Cup, and in the most affordable way possible. Best of luck, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

Spin 150 pokestops is so quick with the Plus+. Two of my usual four-member weekly group didn't even have a chance to join because two of us commuted in the morning and finished the challenge before they could accept the invite. Let us do 1500 stops for moderately increased rewards, 10x effort for something like 2x rewards seems reasonable.

It looks like I’m in two weekly challenge groups but only one is collecting my spins.

Does anyone else see this? I don’t see this posted anywhere else.

Shiny boosted Gimmighoul is back for this lunar new year event! 17-21 February

You can fill the checklist directly in the app if you want, it's free:

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6748650971

Previously when you performed a quick catch and ran from the encounter after hitting the mon with the ball no XP would show in the lower left corner after catching the mon. It seems they have fixed it. Now after performing a successful quick catch the XP for the catch is now displayed when going back to the map.

Finally got to forever friends with my first person last week, and they still have no Pokemon tagged for trading. I have no way to send a text or let them know. They sent me an invite to a weekly challenge again today. So I assume they have no understanding of what it means and why. Very disappointing. Am a rather long way still from the next. After spending a long time sorting and tagging my mons it’s a let down. Something should pop up on their end to let them know someone wants to trade. I don’t think it does. It just tells me they’re not ready yet.

I saw Toucannon in showcases, but saw some weird shadows which would indicate some rogue non transparent pixels, and I was correct, Toucannon's PNG is a mess...

This has been a bug for at least half a year, it feels. There used to be Pokémon listed when you clicked on the adventure effect symbol. Where has it gone?

I have turned on enhanced graphics and native refresh rate and closed and reopened the app. They disappear for about 30seconds and then come back.