Trainers disappointed with Pokemon Go Halloween “Special Raid Boss”

Trainers were expecting something exciting – or at least something new – for the proclaimed “Special Raid Boss” in the Pokemon Go Halloween event. However, many were left disappointed.

Unless Niantic made a last minute unknown change, that special Pokemon was Darkrai. The Pitch-Black Pokemon is currently featured in five-star Raid Battles and will remain so until Thursday, November 5.

Now let’s get one thing straight, Darkrai is a great Pokemon. It is arguably the best dark-type attacker in all of Pokemon Go and can even be effective in GO Battle League’s Master League.

The Pokemon Company

Darkrai has regularly featured in Pokemon Go Raid Battles over the last year…

It has one big problem though, and that is it has been featured in Raid Battles several times before, including in last year’s Halloween event. Therefore, it is understandable trainers are struggling to get excited about its re-emergence.

This is especially true considering the hype Niantic put behind the ‘special’ Pokemon. Perhaps in hindsight they regret doing so.

In a post from September 23 on the official Pokemon Go blog, they stated: “Stay tuned for details about a special Raid Boss that’ll be available to challenge during our Halloween event!”

We speculated as to which special Pokemon it may be before the eventual reveal and our list did include Darkrai. Given the Crown Tundra release overlap too, we also discussed the possibility of Niantic pulling out all the stops by featuring the Galarian Kanto birds in Raid Battles.

Darkrai… again

“Darkrai in raids is quite boring because we had it twice this year already and not even 2 months apart,” @MGGamingYT shared on Twitter while discussing the Halloween 2020 event.

• Read More: Which Pokemon you should use your Elite TMs on in Pokemon Go

Elsewhere, prior to the announcement @gururajtakeshi pre-empted the dark-type Mythical Pokemon featuring: “If the mystery raid boss is Darkrai it’s disappointment.”

No Dark Void

Others had assumed upon the announcement of Darkrai returning, that it would so with a brand new move Dark Void. That’s because a datamine discovered that it had been added to the game.

It is easy to see why trainers assumed Darkrai would get this special move but unfortunately it never did. We don’t know whether it was ever Niantic’s intention to add it but it never materialized either way.

The Pokeminers even commented on its addition to the game: “We guess it’s just coincidental timing when it was added, unfortunately.”

This means an Elite TM will have to be used when it does eventually makes its way into the game. Alternatively, Darkrai may even feature in five-star Raids again…