How to get Primal Energy for Kyogre and Groudon’s Primal Reversion in Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go introduced Primal Reversion as part of Go Tour Hoenn in Feb. 2023, allowing two powerful legendaries — Kyogre and Groudon — to become even stronger.

Similar to Mega Evolutions, this is a temporary transformation, and requires collecting Primal Energy from raids and other sources. It’ll also give you party a boost while active — making them useful for Community Day and other events.

Similar to Mega Evolutions, you’ll have to collect Primal Energy for that specific Pokémon.

There are three ways to get Primal Energy in Pokémon Go:

The best method for earning Primal Kyogre or Primal Groudon energy is in raids — by taking them on and earning Primal Energy for that specific Pokémon. The faster you beat them, the more Primal Energy you’ll be rewarded.

It will take multiple raids of the same Pokémon before you’ll have enough energy to initiate Primal Reversion. You need to have 400 Primal Energy for either Kyogre or Groudon to activate Primal Reversion for the first time in Pokémon Go.

Like Mega Raids, it’s likely Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon will not be available year-round and will rotate infrequently through events, starting with Go Tour Hoenn, so make sure to stock up on any Primal Energy you want before these Pokémon leave.

To give you a boost, be sure to complete Chasing Legends. This is research that can be started during the Go Tour Hoenn event hours, and doesn’t have a deadline. Completing this research will grant you an additional 200 Primal Energy for either Kyogre or Groudon, depending on your choice during “Primal Rumblings” Special Research.

At the time of writing, it’s unknown over time whether you will also earn Primal Energy from other methods beyond the above — such as completing research tasks — as you can with Mega Energy.

Once you have 400 Primal Energy, you can then transform Kyogre or Groudon into their Primal form temporarily.

Once reverted, they will remain in that form for eight hours, and the more transformations they undergo, the less Primal Energy is required each time.

As well as increased CP and power, there will also be additional perks to take advantage of when in Primal form. You can boost these the more you use each Primal form, with improvements across three stages: Base Level, High Level, and Max Level.

When in Primal form, Kyogre and Groudon will have the following perks. The exact improvements across all three levels — Base Level, High Level, and Max Level — have yet to be confirmed.

Only Kyogre and Groudon can undergo Primal Reversion in Pokémon Go.

In fact, that’s also all the Primal forms currently available in the main series. Primal Reversion was a concept first introduced in 2014’s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and to date, only those two Pokémon can undergo the transformation.

This is different than Mega Evolutions, in that the main games have countless more Mega forms that Pokémon Go has yet to see. Though it’s possible Pokémon Go could introduce more Primal forms, without them debuting in the main series first, this is unlikely.

Though Primal Reversion closely mirrors Mega Evolutions, there are some related observations and differences to be aware of:

During the Go Tour Hoenn weekend, can also encounter Latios or Latias and regionals Torkoal, Tropius, and Relicanth.