It should be noted that yes, this is not an entirely unexpected development and yes, Legendary Pokémon Zapdos is an Electric-type creature. That doesn't mean that it's okay to make puns using the words shocked, shocking or stunning. Please, resist the urge. With that out of the way, we can move on to the announcement. The Global Research Challenge tied to Pokémon GO Fest is only hours away, and developer Niantic Labs has already announced the grand prize that players will get if they manage to complete the requisite research challenges. In addition to the already-announced candy and egg bonuses, we'll get our chance to fight and catch Shiny Zapdos on July 21.
This isn't all that surprising: the grand prize for the research challenge in Dortmund was a chance at shiny Articuno, and that means that the next grand prize is almost undoubtedly shiny Moltres. As with Articuno, Zapdos will show up for three hours only, and at all raids during that time. Even free-to-play trainers can get up to five free raid passes by spinning photo discs on shiny Zapdos day, so everyone should at least be able to get a fighting chance at capturing one of these rare birds.
Zapdos caught on that day will also come with the fast move Thunder Shock. Zapdos is one of the most useful legendary creatures out there, and will come in handy when it comes time to take down Moltres when that one shows up.
With that in mind you can get your ducks in a row a little bit early. Countering Zapdos isn't so much of a problem, and you can use a lot of the old reliable raid standbys here. If you're looking for a place to drop your stardust, Tyranitar and Golem with double rock moves are going to be your best bet, as usual. We'll have a full guide the day of.
At this point, the grand prizes for these three events is pretty locked down: it's clear that Niantic wants to make extra sure that anyone who wants the Gen 1 legendaries is going to get their chance at catching them, whether through research or events. The ultra prize at the end of the tour is still something of a mystery, though Niantic did drop a hint at what it might be today when it tweeted out an image featuring a couple of adorable Gen 4 creatures. Will we get Gen 4 as soon as late August? We'll see.
