Pokemon GO Raid Hour Guide: Schedule, Tips & How to Make the Most of It

Contents hide

If you want to farm legendary Pokemon in Pokemon GO, there is no better weekly opportunity than Raid Hour. For one hour every Wednesday evening, nearly every gym within range hosts a 5-star raid simultaneously — flooding your map with chances at the current legendary boss. Whether you plan to hit gyms in person or join remote lobbies from your couch, Raid Hour is the single most efficient use of your raid passes each week.

This guide covers exactly what Raid Hour is, when it happens, how to prepare before it starts, how to maximise raids in the 60-minute window, and how to avoid the mistakes that cost players their best runs.

What Is Raid Hour?

Raid Hour is a weekly Pokemon GO event that runs every Wednesday from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM local time. During this window, the number of active raids at gyms spikes dramatically — the vast majority of gyms in your area will host a 5-star legendary raid for the full hour.

The featured legendary is always the same boss currently appearing in the 5-star raid rotation. Niantic announces the Raid Hour boss weekly through the in-game news tab, the official Pokemon GO website, and community sites like Leekduck and Pokemon GO Hub. Check the schedule before Wednesday so you know what you are preparing for and which counters to power up.^[1]

Raid Hour does not change the catch mechanics, IV floors, or shiny rates of the boss — it simply concentrates your opportunities into one hour instead of spreading them throughout the week. That concentration is where the value comes from.

Raid Hour Schedule and Exceptions

The standard Raid Hour schedule is:

Day: Every Wednesday
Time: 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM local time
Boss: The current 5-star legendary raid Pokemon

Exceptions do occur. During major events — particularly Pokemon GO Fest, Safari Zones, and seasonal Community Days that fall mid-week — Niantic sometimes adjusts the Raid Hour schedule or features a different boss than the current rotation. During multi-day events, the featured Raid Hour boss may be event-specific rather than the standard weekly legendary.^[2]

Always check Leekduck or the official Pokemon GO news in the days before Wednesday. The event listing will confirm the exact boss and whether any schedule changes apply that week.

How to Prepare Before Raid Hour Starts

Preparation is everything. Players who show up to Raid Hour without passes, items, or a plan routinely waste the best 20 minutes of the hour scrambling to sort basics. Do all of this before 6 PM:

Stock Your Raid Passes

Free Raid Pass: Spin any gym before 6 PM to collect your daily free pass. You can only hold one at a time, so use yesterday’s if you still have it before spinning.
Remote Raid Passes: Stock at least 3-5 Remote Raid Passes if you plan to join remote lobbies. These can be purchased from the shop individually or in bundles. Remote raids have a limit of 5 per day, so plan around that cap.
Premium Battle Passes: If you are doing an in-person gym circuit and want to hit more than one raid, keep a few Premium Battle Passes handy. These let you do unlimited in-person raids — your only limit is time and how fast you can move between gyms.

Prepare Your Item Bag

Golden Razz Berries: Use one before every single throw on a legendary boss. They provide a 2.5x catch multiplier — nothing else comes close. Stock at least 10-15 for a solid Raid Hour session. They drop from raid reward bundles, so the more raids you do the more you accumulate over time.
Max Revives and Max Potions: Your team will faint multiple times across an hour of raiding. Revive and restore your best counters between raids, not during the lobby countdown.
Pinap Berries: If you already have a good version of the current legendary, consider Silver Pinap Berries to double candy while still getting a modest catch bonus.

Build Your Counter Team

Look up the current raid boss’s type and weaknesses before Wednesday. Assemble and favourite your six best counters so you are not hunting through your storage when the clock starts. Check our best raid attackers list for the top options by type, and ensure each has its optimal moveset — use Fast TMs and Charged TMs to correct any wrong moves ahead of time.

Join Raid Communities in Advance

If you plan to remote raid, find your groups before 6 PM:

Search for your city + Pokemon GO on Facebook or Discord for a local group
Join the r/PokemonGoFriends subreddit for remote raid invites
Check the PokeRaid app for worldwide remote raid matchmaking
Add friends from these communities and gift them before Raid Hour to bank friendship XP

In-Person Strategy: Gym Circuit Planning

In-person raiding has two major advantages over remote: no daily cap on raids and better Premier Ball counts (you deal more damage in person, increasing your damage bonus allocation). The trade-off is physical travel time eating into your 60-minute window.

The key to maximising in-person Raid Hour is planning your gym circuit before 6 PM:

Map your local gyms: Open the map and note which gyms within walking or driving distance are likely to have raids. Gyms that are normally active with raids are reliable targets during Raid Hour.
Plan a loop, not a line: Route yourself in a circuit that returns you close to your start point. A loop means no dead-end backtracking.
Prioritise clustered gyms: If three gyms sit within 200 metres of each other, hit those first. Clusters let you chain raids back-to-back with minimal transit time.
Account for lobby and catch time: Each raid takes roughly 5-8 minutes end-to-end (2-minute lobby + 2-3 minute battle + 1-2 minutes catching). Budget travel time accordingly.

Realistic in-person raid count: On foot in a gym-dense area, expect 4-6 raids in the hour. By car in a city with multiple gyms in proximity, skilled players push 8-10. These numbers assume smooth lobbies — if you are soloing lobbies or waiting for others to join, your count drops.

Remote Strategy: Joining Raid Lobbies from Anywhere

Remote Raid Passes let you join any raid visible on your nearby screen or any raid you are invited to by a friend, without being physically present. During Raid Hour, Discord servers and Reddit threads flood with invite codes — this is where remote raiding becomes extremely powerful.

How Remote Raid Invites Work

Any trainer physically at a gym can invite up to 5 friends to that raid remotely
Invited friends join using a Remote Raid Pass from anywhere in the world
Remote trainers see the raid in their Nearby tab after being invited
Maximum remote trainers per lobby is typically capped (Niantic has varied this — check current limits in-game)

How to Find Remote Invite Groups

Join a Raid Hour Discord server for your region or a global server during the hour
Post your trainer code in the invite request channels
Accept friend requests from local trainers who are at gyms and sending invites
Accept invites as they arrive — during peak Raid Hour you may receive several simultaneously

Realistic remote raid count: With a good invite flow, 4-5 raids per hour is achievable before hitting the daily remote raid cap. The 5-per-day remote limit is the binding constraint, not your time. Plan around it: save remote passes for Raid Hour if this week’s legendary is one you need.

How Many Raids Can You Realistically Do?

Method	Estimated Raids per Hour	Key Constraint
In-person (walking, dense area)	4-6	Travel time between gyms
In-person (driving, city)	8-10	Transit and lobby wait time
Remote (invite-based)	4-5	5 remote raids per day cap
Hybrid (in-person + remote invites)	6-8	Pass supply and remote cap

The hybrid approach — doing in-person raids at nearby gyms while also accepting remote invites from friends at other gyms — is the highest-yield strategy if you are actively trying to maximise Raid Hour output.

Catching Strategy During Raid Hour

Winning the raid is only half the job. The catch phase is where passes and preparation translate into actual Pokemon added to your collection. Follow our full raid guide for detailed catching mechanics — here is the Raid Hour-specific version:

Golden Razz Every Throw

Use a Golden Razz Berry before every Premier Ball throw. Not some throws — every throw. At a 2.5x catch multiplier, a Golden Razz Berry is the single highest-value item in the catch phase. Saving them for a “good throw” costs you catch rate on all the throws before it.

Aim for Excellent Curveball Throws

An Excellent throw adds a 1.85x multiplier on top of the Golden Razz Berry bonus. Combined, they make even low base-catch-rate legendaries catchable. Use the circle lock technique: hold the ball to shrink the ring to its smallest size, release the moment the boss finishes its attack animation. Practice the timing on the first throw of each raid.

Check the Weather

Weather boosts affect both the raid battle and the catch phase. A weather-boosted boss appears at level 25 instead of level 20, meaning higher CP and stronger stats — but also a higher IV floor (minimum 6/6/6 instead of 10/10/10). If the current boss’s type is boosted by the weather on Wednesday evening, weather-boosted catches are worth prioritising as your passes allow.

Shiny Hunting During Raid Hour

Legendary raid bosses have a shiny encounter rate of approximately 1 in 20 (roughly 5%). Raid Hour does not change this rate, but it concentrates your attempts: doing 6 raids in one hour gives you 6 independent 5% chances, compared to doing 1-2 raids spread across the week.

The shiny reveal happens the moment the catch screen loads — the boss will have a golden sparkle effect if it is shiny. You will know before you throw a single ball. If you are actively shiny hunting, Raid Hour is your highest-density opportunity each week for the current rotation boss.

One practical note: every raid you do requires a pass. Shiny hunting across multiple Raid Hours over several weeks means consistent pass management — stock Remote Raid Passes when they appear in bundles, use your daily free pass without fail, and consider Premium Battle Passes for any week where the featured legendary is one you genuinely want a shiny of.

Premier Ball Counts and Why They Matter

Premier Balls are your only currency in the catch phase. Each trainer gets an individual allocation — unused balls disappear when the phase ends. Your Premier Ball total is determined by:^[1]

Base allocation: 3 balls for participating
Damage bonus: Up to 3 extra balls based on your share of total damage (in-person raiding with a strong team maximises this)
Gym control bonus: 1-3 balls if your team (Mystic, Valor, Instinct) controls the gym
Friendship bonus: 1-4 extra balls based on your friendship level with other participants — Best Friends gives +4 balls

The friendship bonus is the most impactful variable you can control. Raiding consistently with Best Friends adds 4 balls to every single raid indefinitely. Over a full Raid Hour of 6 raids, that is 24 extra Premier Balls — the equivalent of several extra catch attempts on a legendary with a tough base catch rate.

Common Raid Hour Mistakes

Running out of Remote Raid Passes mid-hour: The 5-per-day cap is easy to hit fast. Decide before 6 PM how many you are allocating to Raid Hour versus the rest of the day.
Not preparing invites in advance: If you are at a gym and want to invite friends, they need to already be on your friends list. Add trainers from Discord/Reddit before Wednesday, not during the hour.
Using regular Razz Berries on legendaries: Regular Razz Berries provide only a 1.5x multiplier versus Golden Razz at 2.5x. Never use regular berries in the legendary catch phase — save Goldens or use nothing.
Ignoring weather: A quick weather check before 6 PM tells you whether Wednesday evening will produce weather-boosted encounters. In some regions, weather is predictable enough to plan routes around gyms in weather-boosted zones.
Letting your daily free pass expire: Spin a gym before Raid Hour to bank your free daily pass. Missing this means buying passes you would otherwise get for free.
Not healing between raids: Reviving and healing your counters between raids takes 1-2 minutes but saves you from entering the next lobby with half a team fainted. Do it during transit, not after the next lobby starts.

Conclusion

Raid Hour is the most efficient weekly opportunity in Pokemon GO for legendary hunting. One hour, one boss, every gym in range hosting a 5-star raid — it is purpose-built for stacking attempts on the current legendary rotation and concentrating your shiny odds into a single focused session.

Prepare your passes, items, and team before 6 PM on Wednesday. Plan a gym circuit if you are going in person, or join a Discord group for remote invites if you are staying home. Use Golden Razz Berries on every throw, aim for Excellent curveballs, and raid with Best Friends to maximise your Premier Ball count.

The difference between a good Raid Hour and a great one is almost entirely preparation. Do the work before the hour starts, and the results take care of themselves.