Pokémon GO’s clone Pokémon may be coming back on December 19. A datamine post from The Pokemod Group reads “Clone Special Raid Day, December 19.” Neither Pokémon GO nor its publisher, Scopely, has announced the event, so treat this as unconfirmed: datamined events can change or never happen.
The datamine gives a name and a date, and nothing else
The post doesn’t say which clones would appear, whether shiny versions would be included, what hours the event would run or whether it would need a ticket. Players in the thread are guessing at all of it, including whether Clone Pikachu is part of the plan.
Clones were last available in a 2020 event
Clones are tied to the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back. In the official Pokémon Day 2020 event, which ran from February 25 to March 2, 2020, Armored Mewtwo returned alongside “some of the Clone Pokémon seen in the movie.” Reports from the time list:
- Clone Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise: four-star raids
- Clone Pikachu: GO Snapshot photobombs
Armored Mewtwo already came back in September, also after six years
The timing has a recent precedent. Pokémon GO brought back Armored Mewtwo, “last spotted in 2020,” for five-star raids on September 5 and 6, 2026, during GO Fest 2026: Mega Finale. The shiny version wasn’t available then. The datamine post quotes Pokémon GO’s own July post on Armored Mewtwo, which opens with “Armored Mewtwo isn’t done.”
Players are already arguing over what it does to trade value
Clones already hold value in trades: asked whether they’re valuable, one player in the r/TheSilphRoad thread answered “Very valuable.” Another says the game is “really out to completely upend the trading market,” and a third has already traded away their Apex Pokémon because of “a bad feeling they will come back and lose rarity.”
Others welcome the change. “The gatekeeping is unnecessary,” one wrote, adding that trade values should fall. And for some players it all depends on one detail: “Unless they release the shinys I’m going to save my raid passes.”
