What Time Do ‘Pokemon Go’ Legendary Raids Start Every Day? [UPDATED]

Niantic

Niantic

Lugia and Articuno raids are already happening in Pokemon Go. This means that many trainers are going to want to start looking as soon as possible for those Legendary raid notifications every morning. But so far, Niantic has seemed reluctant to make raids available 24 hours a day, even though raids do happen seven days a week. So what time in the morning can you typically start looking for Legendary raids?

UPDATE: Typically, raids didn’t start until 7 a.m. local time at the earliest. But some locations are noticing that Legendary Raid Battles are starting much earlier than normal. Redditor djexit noted that in New York City at 5:15 a.m. on Sunday, there were more than 42 Legendary raids happening. We don’t know if this was something unique for New York City or if the raids for Legendaries are going to start earlier because they don’t appear to have the countdown timer that normal raids have. (In other words, a 5:15 a.m. raid countdown would mean the raid would start at the typical 7:15 a.m. time. Maybe the coding didn’t account for not having a timer.)

Niantic has never released an official schedule for raids, although some have suggested that raids are timed roughly around sunrise and sunset. What we do know is that raid start times can vary a bit from location to location. According to other trainers’ experiences, raids typically start around 7 a.m. local time. (Although, as noted above, things may be different now.)

Raids have been known to start earlier than that. Some trainers have noted seeing them around 6 or 6:30 a.m., such as in D.C. and in Baltimore, Maryland. But the majority are noticing raid battles in their area start no earlier than 7 a.m.

Trainers who were catching Legendaries the first night noted that the egg didn’t seem to have a countdown to a hatch time anymore. Instead, the Legendary Raid Battle egg just hatched immediately and you had two hours to defeat the Legendary Pokemon, with five-minute-long battles at a time. This means you may no longer be seeing an egg countdown in the mornings notifying you of an upcoming raid. Instead, you’ll just be seeing that a raid is going to be available for the next two hours. (We’ll update this story if the countdown information changes or if it turns out to be a glitch.)

To be on the safe side, if you’re an early riser start looking for raids as soon as you get up, no later than 7 a.m. local time. Let us know in the comments below when Legendary raids start happening in your region. This is a developing story and we will update it as we have more information.