A little late to the party on our part, but Niantic has announced details for the upcoming Lunar New year! We've got a lot to look forward to, ranging from event spawns, to a new Timed Research event, to the grand release of Mega Gyarados.
| Event Start | Event End |
|---|---|
| February 9, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. local time | February 14, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. local time |
- When interacting with friends, players are more likely to become Lucky Friends
- Trade distance increased to 40km (about 25 miles)
- Traded Pokemon are more likely to be Lucky
- Gifts are more likely to contain Pokeballs
- "Red Pokemon" will begin spawning in the wild
- Tauros will be given its own Timed Research event in honor of the year of the Ox
- Event-exclusive field research will grant event Pokemon encounters
- A special selection of Pokemon will be hatching from eggs, each representing a part of the Chinese Zodiac
- A special set of Pokemon will be appearing in raids
Mega Gyarados
Type: Water/Dark
Attack: 292
Defense 247
Stamina: 216
Mega Energy Unlock: 200*
Mega Energy Post-Unlock: 40*
*: These numbers are based on currently datamined data and may be subject to change pre-release
Yet another power-house of a Mega Evolution, Gyarados is poised to enter the Water and Dark metas in a big way... or is it? Mega Gyarados has some nice stats, but let's see how its stats and moveset compares to its contemporaries. First, its performance as a Water Type:
Image source: The Comprehensive DPS/TDO Spreadsheet.
Calculations made with Mega Evolution boosts disabled
It's solid. Mega Gyarados is not far behind Mega Blastoise in terms of DPS, and actually has a higher TDO. It's a reasonable pick for this role, though it's going to be basically blown out of the water when mega Swampert drops in the future.
Now for its performance as a Dark Type:
Image source: The Comprehensive DPS/TDO Spreadsheet.
Calculations made with Mega Evolution boosts disabled
...let's just put it this way: Mega Gyarados shows up on page 2 of the sim, and is outclassed by Mega Gengar using a Dark Type moveset. It's... not great. The poor thing has carried around Bite and Crunch as a moveset for so many years, and it's let down in the end.
The Verdict
So is Mega Gyarados bad? No, it's not bad, it's simply outclassed. It has dual-type coverage, which can make its Mega Evolution more valuable for those who want to consolidate their coverage, and can operate perfectly well on both sides of the spectrum. Its biggest issue isn't so much its somewhat lackluster performance, but rather its Mega Evolution cost.
Being a 1km walk-distance Pokemon, most players expected to see thee same Mega Evolution cost as Mega Pidgeot: 100 unlock, 20 evolve. However, Mega Gyarados actually has a cost similar to Mega Ampharos, a 5km walk-distance Pokemon. This is a severe disappointment, as Mega Gyarados had the potential to be a very inexpensive option for both Dark and Water type Mega Evolution boosts, and instead it's more expensive than any of the Mega Evolved Pokemon that arguably outclass it.
Poor, poor Gyarados. It was borne into this game with a horrible moveset that kept it from relevance. It had a short time to shine with the introduction of Waterfall, and was quickly outclassed by Kyogre and relegated to a niche pick for its Flying sub-typing. And now that it can finally truly shine as a Mega Evolution, its hope of being a go-to budget option for players is dashed. Will Gyarados ever see the relevance that it so desires (outside of PvP)?
