Pokémon Go ‘Festival of Colors’ 2025 event guide

Pokémon Go is celebrating the “Festival of Colors” from March 13-17, bringing the release of shiny Bruxish, as well as tons of other colorful perks with it.

Notably, you’ll be able to get shiny Smeargle from the usual Smeargle photobombs, plus you can encounter Smeargle up to 10 times per day. After this event, shiny Smeargle will go back into the vault, only to come back out for another event, so definitely try to nab one while you can. Lures and Incense will also last three hours (instead of 30 minutes), though this doesn’t include your Daily Adventure Incense nor Golden Lure Modules.

There are also some bonuses specifically for players in India, including a kurta-wearing Pikachu showing up in raids, one extra candy per caught raid Pokémon, and a special branching Timed Research set. If you’re looking for info on the India-exclusive perks, we’ll refer to you to Leek Duck’s event coverage.

Below, we list all the perks for Pokémon Go’s “Festival of Colors” event, including the boosted spawns, free and paid Timed Research tasks, raid targets, and more.

Pokémon Go ‘Festival of Colors’ 2025 event Timed Research and reward

As usual with Pokémon Go events nowadays, there’s both a free and paid Timed Research. We list the steps for them both below. Remember that all of this research ends when the event does on March 17 at 8 p.m. in your local time.

‘Festival of Colors 2025’ free Timed Research

If you complete this free research before the event ends, you’ll get a special reward.

Step 1 of 1

• Catch 15 Pokémon (Ledyba encounter)
• Make 15 curveball throws (Pawmi encounter)
• Use 15 berries to help catch Pokémon (Tadbulb encounter)
• Spin 15 PokéStops or gyms (Alolan Grimer encounter)
• Send 15 gifts to friends (Amaura encounter)
• Make 15 great throws (Crabrawler encounter)
• Catch 8 different species of Pokémon (Bruxish encounter)
• Trade a Pokémon (Bruxish encounter)
• Use an Incense (1 Incense)

Rewards: 4 Rare Candy, 1,500 Stardust, 2,000 XP

‘Festival of Colors 2025’ paid Timed Research

Is the “Festival of Colors” paid research worth it? Yes, the coin value is worth it, but you should really only buy this if you love Bruxish. You get 360 coins worth of items and tons of Bruxish encounters. $2 worth of coins is around 220 coins and the tasks are pretty straightforward when it comes to completing it, so you should be able to claim everything quickly before it expires.

Step 1 of 2

• Catch 7 Pokémon (Bruxish encounter)
• Make 5 curveball throws (Bruxish encounter)
• Spin 10 PokéStops or gyms (Bruxish encounter)
• Send 2 gifts to friends (Bruxish encounter)
• Use an Incense (Bruxish encounter)
• Catch 7 Pokémon (1 Incense)

Rewards: 1 Lure Module, 1 Incense, 1,000 Stardust

Step 2 of 2

• Catch 7 Pokémon (Bruxish encounter)
• Make 5 curveball throws (Bruxish encounter)
• Spin 10 PokéStops or gyms (Bruxish encounter)
• Send 2 gifts to friends (Bruxish encounter)
• Use an Incense (Bruxish encounter)
• Catch 7 Pokémon (1 Incense)

Rewards: 1 Lure Module, 1 Incense, 1,000 Stardust

Pokémon Go ‘Festival of Colors’ 2025 event Field Research and rewards

Spinning a PokéStop during the event period may yield one of these tasks:

• Catch 7 Pokémon (Flabébé)
• Explore 2 km (Bruxish encounter)
• Take a snapshot of your buddy (500 Stardust)
• Use an Incense (Bruxish encounter)

The Flabébé task will reward you with the respective Flabébé from your region.

Pokémon Go ‘Festival of Colors’ 2025 event boosted spawns

These Pokémon will spawn more frequently during the event period:

• Drowzee
• Magikarp
• Natu
• Aipom
• Meditite
• Dwebble
• Flabébé
• Bruxish

Pokémon Go ‘Festival of Colors’ 2025 event raid targets

The following changes to the raid schedule and Max Battle schedule will take place as part of the event: