Mega Evolutions are actually good now in Pokemon GO

When Mega Evolutions first came out in Pokemon GO, the system was genuinely not very good at all. The costs to Mega Evolve were really high, they didn’t last very long and getting mega candy was genuinely a chore. However, these days, Mega Pokemon are way more accessible. To the point that they are actually worth using.

They last longer

The first major change to Mega Evolutions was to make them last longer. Originally, Mega Pokemon only lasted for four hours, before turning back to normal. This was changed to 8 hours, which gives players plenty more time, especially in raid events. Although some will say that 8 hours is still too little, 8 hours is a third of a day, and, with the reduced costs for Megas, you can get a lot more out of your Mega Pokemon of choice.

There are buffs to Mega Evolutions

It used to be that Mega Evolving wasn’t really useful outside of raids, and there was no reason to use them for anywhere else. Now though, having a Mega boosts the amount of normal candy you can get for matching Pokemon. I used this to great effect by Mega Evolving my Hundoom on the December 2022 Community Day, which meant I got extra candy for Deino, Zigzagoon and Litwick, who are dark and fire types like Houndoom is.

We also have a buddy-like system for evolving Mega Pokemon. The more you Mega Evolve a Pokemon, the more bonuses you get for it. This includes a cool down period, after which your Pokemon can be Mega Evolved for free. And even then, the cost to Mega Evolve during the cool down period still only costs a handful of candy.

The only downside is that this applies only to a single Pokemon. If you want to Mega Evolve, for example, a second Charizard, that first evolution will still cost 200 mega candy. And the buddy-mega system is per Pokemon too, not per species. However, once you have Mega Evolved a Pokemon, you can make any of its species into a buddy and you can earn Mega Candy the same way you earn normal candy.

The best thing? You only really need one raid

By far the biggest problem with Mega Raids initially was just how little candy you actually got from the Mega Raids themselves. Assuming you had a full team of players and took down raid bosses as efficiently as possible, the most Mega Candy you could get from a raid was 90. This meant that you had to do three raids at minimum, in order to Mega Evolve a Pokemon for the first time.

Now though? Doing a Mega Raid easily nets you 200 candy, meaning you can Mega Evolve a Pokemon straight away. Not only that, but Mega Raids are all-round easier to do now. They count as 4-star raids these days, a massive drop from the technically 6-star original raids. This means you don’t need a full gym to get your candy, and many Mega Raids can be done with 1-3 people.

So, not only are Mega Pokemon much easier to obtain, you can also get a lot more use out of them, and you can easily re-earn the Mega Candy you spent evolving it in the first place.