When does the Pokemon GO Water Festival start and end?

It runs from Tuesday 18 August 2026 at 10:00 a.m. to Monday 24 August 2026 at 8:00 p.m. local time. Because it uses local time rather than a fixed global clock, the event begins and ends at the same wall-clock hour wherever you play. GO Pass rewards remain claimable until 26 August at 8:00 p.m. local time.

How do I get Cramorant in Pokemon GO?

Cramorant debuts in Eggs, on the GO Pass reward track and as a GO Battle League encounter reward. It does not spawn in the wild during this event. Hatching Eggs is the most reliable route, which is why the halved Egg hatch distance unlocked at GO Pass rank 20 is worth reaching.

How much Candy does Barraskewda need?

Evolving Arrokuda into Barraskewda costs 50 Arrokuda Candy. Arrokuda itself comes from Field Research task rewards and from Rainy Lure Modules, so completing event research at multiple stops is the fastest way to accumulate enough Candy during the week.

When is the 5x Stardust bonus active?

The highest bonus window runs from 22 August at 10:00 a.m. to 24 August at 10:00 a.m. local time, giving 4x XP and 5x Stardust for catching Pokemon. The two earlier windows give 2x XP with 3x Stardust, then 3x XP with 4x Stardust. Save Star Pieces for the final window.

Which Tatsugiri form appears in my region?

One-star raids feature Curly Form in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Droopy Form across the Americas, and Stretchy Form in Asia-Pacific. Regions are fixed for the event, so the only way to catch a form from outside your area is a remote raid invite from a friend who lives there.

Pokemon GO Water Festival: Arrokuda, Cramorant, 5x Stardust

How the Water Festival bonuses escalate

This is the detail worth planning around, because the difference between catching on day one and catching on the last weekend is substantial. The multipliers stack up in three windows, each running from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. local time:

18–20 August: 2x XP and 3x Stardust for catching Pokemon

20–22 August: 3x XP and 4x Stardust

22–24 August: 4x XP and 5x Stardust

If you have Lucky Eggs or Star Pieces banked, the back half of the event is where they are worth burning. A Star Piece during the 5x window is the highest Stardust rate the game has offered in an ordinary catch event this year.

Which Pokemon are debuting, and where to find them

Arrokuda and Barraskewda arrive through Field Research task rewards and through Rainy Lure Modules, which will draw Arrokuda to a stop while active. Evolving Arrokuda into Barraskewda costs 50 Arrokuda Candy, so the research tasks are the practical route to enough candy rather than waiting on wild spawns.

Cramorant takes a different path. It debuts in Eggs, on the GO Pass reward track, and as a GO Battle League encounter reward — not in the wild. That makes it the harder of the two to guarantee, and it is the reason the halved Egg hatch distance on the GO Pass matters more than it normally would.

Wild spawns, raids and shinies

Featured wild encounters are Psyduck, Goldeen, Mareanie and Wimpod, with Feebas and Clamperl appearing more rarely and Wiglett showing up more often in its usual beach biome. Shiny odds are boosted specifically for Ducklett and Dewpider.

Raids split across two tiers. One-star has Psyduck wearing a swim ring and Tatsugiri, which is regional: Curly Form in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Droopy Form in the Americas, and Stretchy Form across Asia-Pacific. Three-star raids run Lapras with a scarf, Hisuian Samurott and Dondozo. If you want a Tatsugiri form you cannot get locally, a remote raid invite from a friend in the right region is the only route.

What the GO Pass costs

The free GO Pass is applied to every account automatically. Paid tiers are US$4.99 for GO Pass Deluxe and US$6.99 for GO Pass Deluxe plus six ranks. Regional pricing varies by store, so check the in-app figure rather than converting the dollar amount.

Two milestones on the track are worth reaching regardless of tier: rank 10 grants 2x Candy for catching Pokemon, and rank 20 halves Egg hatch distance for any Egg placed in an incubator during the event. Unclaimed rewards expire on Wednesday 26 August at 8:00 p.m. local time — two days after the event itself ends, which catches people out every season.

Getting the most out of it on Android

Long catch sessions with a Lure running are exactly the workload that drains a phone and heats it up, and Pokemon GO throttles hard on a hot device. If your handset stutters during raid animations or drops connection mid-catch, our guide to fixing lag and high ping in Android games covers the network and background-app fixes that actually help.

This follows a busy fortnight for the game. Niantic ran Nickit Community Day with 3x Stardust and Icy Wind Thievul at the weekend, and rolled out the free Explorer Gadget auto-catcher for level 20 trainers earlier in the month — the latter is genuinely useful during a Stardust event, since it keeps catching while your screen is off.

If you play on a controller more than a touchscreen, note that Pokemon GO is not part of that world at all; our list of Android games with full gamepad support is the place to look for something to play between catch windows.

Should you spend during this one

Straightforwardly: the 5x Stardust window on 22 August is the reason to show up. Stardust is the resource that gates powering up anything for raids or GO Battle League, and a 5x multiplier stacked with a Star Piece is a rate you will not see again for months. The Pokemon debuts are nice, but Arrokuda and Barraskewda are not competitively relevant, and Cramorant is an Egg lottery.

The US$4.99 Deluxe pass earns its price only if you intend to grind ranks through the full week. Casual players who log in for an hour a day will finish the free track and little else.