When Cresselia and Darkrai Are Actually Live

Leek Duck’s event tracker confirms Cresselia and Darkrai will be in five-star raid battles from November 16, 2026 to November 24, 2026, with raid bosses changing over at 6:00 AM local time on both ends. That’s a 9-day window, longer than most single-boss rotations, which gives spoofers a decent runway to chase a shundo or stock up on candy for both legendaries.

On top of the standard window there’s a dedicated Raid Hour on November 18 from 6:00 to 7:00 PM local time, during which five-star raids spawn far more frequently at gyms near you (or wherever you’ve teleported to).

Why This Window Is Worth Planning Around

Cresselia and Darkrai rotated out of raids for most of the year, so this is the first real shot at fresh catches, candy, and shiny checks since their last appearance. Both are strong picks regardless of your goals: Darkrai is still the best pure Dark-type attacker in the game for PvE and PvP, and Cresselia’s bulk makes it a solid Great League wall.

If you’re doing GBL this month too, check our Pawniard Community Day spoofing guide for how a single Darkrai raid win on November 21 satisfies the Kingambit Kowtow Cleave requirement during the discounted afternoon window.

Cresselia Raid Counters

Cresselia is pure Psychic-type, which means Bug, Ghost, and Dark moves each hit it for a 1.6x weakness multiplier. Shadow Gengar and Mega Gengar with Shadow Claw/Shadow Ball are the gold standard here. Origin Forme Giratina, Shadow Tyranitar, Hydreigon, and Shadow Weavile all perform well too. Mega Banette, which happens to be running in Mega raids during this exact same window, is another efficient pick if you’ve already got one maxed out. Skip Fighting and Poison types entirely since Cresselia resists both.

Darkrai Raid Counters

Darkrai is pure Dark-type. As one breakdown puts it, “Darkrai is Dark-type, which means Fighting, Bug and Fairy moves hit it super effectively; in Pokemon GO a single weakness is a 1.6x multiplier.” Your best bets are Mega Gardevoir and Mega Lopunny with Fairy movesets, Galarian Zacian (Hero of Many Battles) using Play Rough, Shadow Machamp and Shadow Conkeldurr for Fighting coverage, and Terrakion if you’ve got one from an earlier rotation. Avoid Psychic and Ghost attackers since Darkrai resists both types cleanly.

Shiny Odds for Cresselia and Darkrai

Both Pokémon can appear as shiny during this event. Leek Duck’s listing confirms shiny Cresselia and shiny Darkrai are both live for the full window, not locked to a specific day. Niantic hasn’t published a boosted rate for this particular rotation, so treat it as the standard five-star shiny baseline that the community has tracked at roughly 1 in 20 for legendary and mythical raid bosses. That math changes fast once you’re spoofing between gyms instead of waiting on local raid spawns, since you can clear far more encounters per hour than someone walking to gyms on foot.

Best Power Spot Coordinates for Raid Farming

Dense gym clusters let you jump from raid to raid with minimal cooldown penalty between teleports. A few that consistently have multiple active raids during major rotations: Vatican City (41.9022, 12.4539), Civic Center Park in Denver (39.7391, -104.9847), Yoyogi Park in Tokyo (35.6716, 139.6949), and the area around Sentosa in Singapore (1.2494, 103.8303). These are popular because of high real-world gym density, not because of anything specific to Cresselia or Darkrai, so verify raid availability in-app once you land before committing a Raid Pass.

Setting Up Your Rooted Android for This Rotation

If you’re already running PGSharp or a similar spoofing app with root access, the setup is the same as any five-star rotation: set your joystick speed to a walking-equivalent pace for short hops between nearby gyms, and use full teleports only for bigger jumps between cities or countries. If you’re new to the hardware side, our rooted phones under £150 guide covers what actually holds up for raid-heavy sessions without overheating or lagging out mid-battle.

Avoiding Soft Bans While Chaining Raids

Soft bans are the biggest time-waster during a dual-boss rotation like this because you’ll naturally want to hit several gyms in a row. Teleporting too far too fast, or doing it repeatedly in a short window, is the most common trigger. Space out long-distance jumps, use a cooldown calculator before any teleport over a few hundred kilometres, and don’t chain more than a couple of big jumps back to back. Our cooldown time calculator guide breaks down safe distance-to-wait ratios if you want exact numbers instead of guessing.

Working the November 18 Raid Hour

The Raid Hour runs 6:00 to 7:00 PM local time on November 18, with a much higher density of five-star raids spawning during that hour specifically. This is the single best window to farm candy and shiny checks for both bosses, since you won’t be waiting around for a gym’s raid to refresh. Plan your coordinate list in advance so you’re not wasting raid-hour minutes scrolling the map. If a gym is already mid-raid when you arrive, join it rather than waiting for a fresh one to spawn.

Double-Dipping With Mega Banette

Mega Banette runs in Mega raids for the exact same November 16-24 stretch, and it’s a legitimate Cresselia counter thanks to its Ghost typing. If you’re spoofing to a gym cluster for Cresselia anyway, check whether a Mega Banette raid is active at the same location first; farming both in one stop saves a teleport and the associated cooldown risk. Full details on bonuses and counters for that rotation are in our Mega Banette raid spoofing guide.

Candy and XL Candy Priorities

Both Cresselia and Darkrai have appeared in raids before, so most long-time players already have a maxed copy of one or both. If that’s you, prioritize XL candy from repeat catches over just chasing more base candy, since both are viable PvP picks that benefit from being pushed to the 50 or 51 level cap. If you’re missing a shiny of either, run through as many gyms as your Raid Pass stock allows during the Raid Hour specifically, since that’s where your encounter rate per real-world minute is highest.

Niantic’s Official Word on This Rotation

For the full official schedule, bonuses, and any last-minute changes Niantic pushes out during the event, check the Pokémon GO news page directly rather than relying on third-party calendars alone. Raid Hour times and shiny availability have occasionally shifted mid-event in past rotations, so it’s worth a quick check before you commit a big spo