Ahoy! Team GO Rocket Strikes during the Power Plant Event with a slightly new line-up! It was already announced that on the 24th Team GO Rocket would strike in the Power Plant event.

"Just as Spark has obtained enough Electric-type Pokémon, he’s hit with another flash of intuition that something bad is coming. His suspicions are confirmed after he finds a crumpled piece of paper detailing some of Team GO Rocket’s plans for a take-over! He notifies Professor Willow and the team leaders, and they quickly rush out to take on the villains!

As they continue to deal with Team GO Rocket, Spark can’t help but feel that there’s more to this take-over than meets the eye..."

This might mean that there will be something more starting in February as the event will go through February 1st. Could they be plotting something for the GO Tour: Johto near the end of February?

The Team GO Rocket Leaders, Cliff, Sierra and Arlo, have a new line-up and Team GO Rocket turned a few more Pokémon into Shadow Pokémon. Here is a screenshot of the overview from Niantics post about the new Shadow Pokémon.

_{Image is from https://pokemongolive.com/}

I haven't found Chikorita, Cyndaquil or Totodile yet from Rocket Grunts when they say their line-up is from one of those types. But I did see one starting with Squirtle and then using Croconaw, so I'm pretty sure they are in those line-ups. They're also in the line-up where the Rocket Grunt says "Winning is for winners" and those other lines they have. So I think Shadow Snorlax is now out, unless those types of Rocket Grunt can have either the line-up with Snorlax or the line-up with Johto starters and their evolutions.

The first Team GO Rocket Grunt I fought with the Electric-type line-up that was bringing Voltorb and Electrode, gave me an Electrode encounter after defeating it xD So now I still have to get the Voltorb too to have them both in the Shadow Pokédex. You can see the encounter in this photo.

The Leaders have a new line-up now. I was caught by surprise when I first fought against Arlo today because my first fight with him was quite early in the day from the balloon. So even though the Team GO Rocket event started today, I didn't expect a different line-up, at least not so early. I expected to see Gligar, but then Arlo sent out Bagon. Which was a pleasant surprise.

An even more pleasant surprise happened after I defeated Arlo and went into the encounter when I saw this Shiny Shadow Bagon! 🤩

I've fought against Arlo twice today, once quite early from my Rocket Balloon and then in the evening on a walk when I had enough components I encountered him again. Here are the stats of both Shadow Bagon I caught today.

Bagon isn't new to the Team Rocket line-ups, but I believe it's the first time one of the Team GO Rocket Leaders has it. Which means that it's the first time that this Shadow can be Shiny. I already had a Shadow Bagon left in my storage from sometime earlier, I'll need to make sure to now get its whole evolution line Shadow and Purified in the Pokédex.

Sierra is now bringing Shadow Poliwag as first Pokémon and Cliff has Shadow Teddiursa as his first Pokémon.

For me it seems like Arlo will remain the most interesting to defeat. With Team GO Rocket Grunts appearing more frequently at PokéStops and from Balloons, I might get Rocket Radars more frequently. So if I don't see Arlo around, I might also fight against Sierra because the Poliwag is second most interesting. I don't really care too much about the Teddiursa.

Event Field Research Tasks

The Event Field Research Tasks for the Power Plant are still here and remain the same as I mentioned in my previous blog post: @athunderstruck/power-plant-event-with-helioptile-debut

Some additional ones have been added though.

Defeat 2 Team GO Rocket Grunts: Ekans ✨, Skorupi ✨ OR Croagunk ✨
Walk 2 km remains the same, but there is now an additional one that can give 1 Mysterious Component as a reward.