Alright, no beating around the bush. The Psychic Spectacular is back again this year, and so I think the time has come for a quick PvP Field Guide for the event. Not all of you may need it, but some certainly WILL be looking for something akin to this, so here you go: JRE’s thoughts on what YOU should grind for the hardest, dear readers. Let’s get right into it!

HATTS OFF 

• Hatterene

  PsychicFairy

• Hattrem

  Psychic

• Hatenna

  Psychic

For the first time since 2021, this year’s Psychic Spectacular brings with it a new Pokémon family! HATENNA is coming to GO, along with its evolutions HATTREM and HATTERENE. The first two are mono-Psychic types, but Hatterene gains a secondary Fairy typing, joining several other Psychic/Fairy types already in the game (Gardevoir, Galarian Rapidash, Tapu Lele, Mr. Mime).

Unfortunately, Hatterene comes with the worst stat product of them all, having even less bulk than known glass cannon Gardevoir. This is nowhere more apparent than when you compare them side by side in Master League… both have the exact same Attack, but Gardevoir tops out with over 10 more Defense and 17 more HP. Now of course, Shadow Gardevoir has he equivalent of even less Defense than that (roughly 146.5, if I’m doing my math right), but you get my point: Hatterene is very, very fragile.

Even more unfortunately, it doesn’t really have a role that one of those other Psychic/Fairy types doesn’t already do better. Hatterene has Charm as one of its fast moves, but Gardevoir, as mentioned, already has the hard-hitting Charmer role locked down, where you want such a thing. It has more bulk and better, more synergistic charge moves. About the best you can hope for is that in certain Limited metas (like Psychic Cup), Hatterene can better keep up with the already established Gardevoir, but even then when you pull the curtain back fully, Gardevoir will always outperform Hatterene in the end, to at least some degree. It’s just better in their current forms.

So maybe as a Confusion user? Not really. Those already have a pretty limited role in most PvP formats, and Hatterene trails several better options, to include stuff like Oranguru, Hypno, Bronzong, old school Gallade, and even Cresselia in lower Leagues. If, to reiterate, you really even wanted a Confusion user in today’s PvP. (You very often do not.)

Final hope then lies with Hatterene’s third and final fast move: Psycho Cut. In concept, this is where you COULD see it making something of itself, with the great energy gains of Cut allowing it to speed to pressuring charge moves, mitigating its glassiness with pure speed. And Hatterene would seem to have the moves to make it work, too, having the same Psyshock and Dazzling Gleam as Hatenna and Hattrem, as well as adding on its own unique Power Whip for further coverage. But strike three: even this doesn’t work out, in any Open League (or even in Psychic Cup).

Now like many Pokémon, Hatterene could get much more interesting with just a little move tweaking. It has the likes of Disarming Voice, Brutal Swing, Magical Leaf, Shadow Claw, and Mystical Fire in its MSG available moves, and is able to Dynamax as well. Will any of that be coming its way later? Hey, if the massive shakeup at the start of this season taught us anything, it’s that nearly ANYTHING can be brought to overnight prominence in this game. But there are a number of factors — and fellow Pokémon with a hold on its intended role — working against it. For now, this is just one for the collection, I am sorry to say.
Source: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Pokedex

SPECTACULAR SPAWNS ෴

Credit where it’s due: this event looks to have a nice variety of good wild spawns. Here’s the expected list:

• Ralts

• Spoink

• Gothita

• Solosis

• Elgyem

• Spritzee

• Swirlix

• Inkay

• Morelull

• Hatenna

That’s right… not even Hatenna is locked to eggs and/or research! So that’s nice.

Anyway, not everything here is PvP relevant, but many are. Let’s review them real quick so you can prioritize what to grind for.

• Malamar

  DarkPsychic

• Inkay

  DarkPsychic

• INKAY is a rather obvious priority by now, no? Not only is Inkay itself suddenly really, really good in Little League formats, but its evolution MALAMAR is the talk of the town, and not just in Great League! Mal is ranked in the Top 10 in GL and Top 20 in UL and well worth building for both with the addition of (and buff to) Psywave this season. But Ultra League Mal requires a LOT of XL Candy… high rank IVs get all the way to Level 50. Go for those XLs, folks!

• Slurpuff

  Fairy

• Swirlix

  Fairy

• SLURPUFF is another one of those intriguing options for Ultra League, having stood out in multiple Limited metas at that level, and that was before the buff to Fairy Wind. But it too requires a full XL grind, as you want the hundo AND Level 50 if possible. SWIRLIX is probably your best secondary XL Candy target. (And yes, Slurpuff is nice in Great League too!)

• Aromatisse

  Fairy

• Spritzee

  Fairy

• Far less so for AROMATISSE, which is an average Charmer at best. But it’s worth noting that SPRITZEE is actually GREAT in Little League, so at least lock up a good one of those if you lack it.

• Beheeyem

  Psychic

• Elgyem

  Psychic

• ELGYEM is suddenly interesting with the big buff to Astonish, and its evolution BEHEEYEM even moreso. It may not have much play in Open formats, but it could put in a very good showing in Limited metas, as it’s doing in Psychic Cup as I type this!

• Shiinotic

  GrassFairy

• Morelull

  GrassFairy

• It still likely doesn’t have much Open play, but SHIINOTIC, the evolution of MORELULL, is at least a fun Limited pick with the buff to Astonish now too.

• Gardevoir

  PsychicFairy

• Gallade

  PsychicFighting

• Ralts

  PsychicFairy

• Remember how I said that GARDEVOIR is still a better Hatterene? Yeah, the preevolution to both it and the rising GALLADE is available in the wild in this event too. Grab some RALTS while you’re out looking for other stuff.

CAN I OFFER YOU AN EGG IN THIS TRYING TIME? 

• Chimecho

  Psychic

• Chingling

  Psychic

• Mawile

  SteelFairy

• Espurr

  Psychic

Now, I am not necessarily advocating for buying a bunch of incubators and going on the hatching grind, but I would be remiss to not at least point out that CHINGLING has been available since February, and CHIMECHO just got the Astonish buff too and is currently fantastic in Psychic Cup, if you’re looking for some help. MAWILE and ESPURR haven’t been in eggs for a while either, and hey, it would seem the “worst” you can do is the new Hatenna. There are worse times to go after eggs if you’re sitting on incubators that are sitting around collecting dust. (Not stardust… just dust.) These are event themed 7km eggs, so if you want to grind them, make sure you open gifts when you have egg spaces!

WRAP UP

There, that wasn’t too long and painful to get through, right? Again, your top priorities for PvP should be INKAY and SWIRLIX for lots of XL Candy, and then a handful of other PvP pieces like Gardevoir and Gallade (Ralts), Shiinotic (Morelull), perhaps Spritzee, and possibly Elgyem and Chingling (the latter from eggs) for Psychic Cup and perhaps other Limited metas.

That’s it! Good luck out there, folks! Here’s hoping the weather is pleasant, the lag is minimal, and the spawns are plentiful!

Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with regular GO analysis nuggets or Patreon.

Good hunting, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

The post A Quick PvP Field Guide to the 2024 Psychic Spectacular Event appeared first on Pokémon GO Hub.