If you skipped Pokemon GO's first wave of Gigantamax raids last year, today is your make-up exam. Niantic's Replay: GO Bigger event lights up Power Spots worldwide between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. local time on April 25, bringing back the four headlining Kanto Gigantamax Pokemon at once.
The Power Spot lineup is the original starter trio plus a wildcard: Gigantamax Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, and Gengar. All four were locked behind one-off events in 2025, so this is the first time many trainers will get a fair shot at a complete G-Max Kanto squad. Niantic is leaning into that catch-up framing — the event has been engineered to make Max Battles feel viable for solo and small-group trainers, not just the megapacks of forty that dominated last year's launches.
The bonuses are unusually generous
The economy tweaks are where this event quietly gets aggressive. Power Spots will distribute eight times their normal Max Particle drop during the window, and the Max Particle cap is being temporarily raised to 1,600. From midnight to 5:00 p.m. local time, exploring a Power Spot grants 2× Max Particles, and the distance required to walk for a Max Particle reward is cut to a quarter. For free-to-play trainers who have been priced out of the Dynamax economy, this is the most accessible window the game has had since the system launched.
Timed Research, free and paid
Free Timed Research runs concurrently from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. local time, and clearing it nets 1 Max Mushroom, 25,000 XP, and 6,400 Max Particles — enough by itself to fund several power-ups. A US$4.99 paid Timed Research ticket adds bonus encounters and an extra mushroom-rich reward track for trainers willing to spend on a Saturday they'd already be playing.
Why it matters for the format
Replay: GO Bigger is also Niantic's quiet test of whether the Dynamax/Gigantamax overhaul has stuck. After a rocky 2025 launch and player backlash over Power Spot density, this is the most polished version of the format yet — denser spawn windows, fairer rewards, and four headline targets in a single afternoon. If it lands, expect the "Replay: GO Bigger" branding to become a recurring quarterly fixture rather than a one-off mulligan event.
The window is short. If you've got a Pokemon GO account that's been gathering dust, today is the day to dust it off.