Pokemon Go datamine hints at Team Instinct event with Elekid focus

Philip Trahan
pokemon go spark yellow header

A recent Pokemon Go datamine seems to hint that Team Instinct may be next in line to get a themed event, which seems to feature a special Costumed Elekid.

Pokemon Go’s ‘A Mystic Hero’ event featuring Team Mystic’s Blanche has ended, which offered players the chance to get a special Costume Lapras wearing Blanche’s hair tie.

Though the community was fairly split in their reaction to the event, many trainers viewed it simply as a small, fun event to earn a special Lapras.

At first glance, the event may have seemed like a strange one-off thing, but if recent datamines are accurate, it seems Niantic has more of these Costume Pokemon events lined up in the future — with the next one focusing on Team Instinct.

Pokemon Go datamine hints at upcoming Team Instinct event

The Pokemon Go datamining group, PokeMiners, tweeted out an image featuring assets of unreleased models for Elekid, Electabuzz, and Electivire wearing yellow armbands featuring Team Instinct’s logo.

The tweet also mentioned that these assets were called “Spring 2023 Instinct.” This combined with the themed armbands heavily suggests that Spark’s team is getting some kind of event before Spring 2023 ends.

While official details have yet to be released, it would make sense to assume that this alleged Team Instinct event would be similar to the recent ‘A Mystic Hero’ event. ‘A Mystic Hero’ centered around a Special Research story focused on Team Mystic’s Blanche and offered special bonuses like 2x XP and an encounter with a special costumed Lapras.

A poster for Pokemon Go Rising Heroes Season 10
Pokemon Go’s Rising Heroes banner features each Team Leader with a Pokemon matching their specialty type.

Eagle-eyed trainers may have noticed the Rising Heroes banner art featured each Team Leader with a Pokemon matching their specialty type.

Blanche and Lapras line up with the A Mystical Hero event, and this recent leak coincides with the Elekid standing beside Spark.

While it’s still possible these leaks may point to some other themed event, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a future event featuring Team Valor’s Candela and a costumed Ponyta. For now, fans will just have to wait for official word from Niantic surrounding this potential Team Instinct event.

About The Author

Philip is a Staff Writer at Dexerto based in Louisiana, with expertise in Pokemon, Apex Legends, and general gaming industry news. His first job in the games industry was as a reviewer with NintendoEverything.com while attending college. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication focusing on Multimedia Journalism, he worked with GameRant.com for nearly two years before joining Dexerto. When he's not writing he's usually tearing through some 80+ hour JRPG. You can contact him at philip.trahan@dexerto.com.