Terrakion charges into Raids and Friend Fest live!

Cobalion has left the level 5 Raids and in its place Terrakion has now charged into those Raids. Where it can be found until December 17. It'll most likely be followed up by Virizion then as they are all part of the Swords of Justice. The Swords of Justice are made up out of Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion and Keldeo. Those are mostly Legendary Pokémon, except Keldeo which is Mythical. So I'm curious whether we'll eventually be getting Keldeo through a Special Research quest, or if it'll be in Raids for a short time like Darkrai. Only time will tell!

I have already done my first two Terrakion Raids. The Raids went really smooth as it is weak to several types, and we were usually with at least 10+ for the Raids which helped a lot in taking it down fast. I only had one Pokémon faint in each Raid.

Here you can see my first Terrakion encounter, and its Pokédex registry after I successfully caught it.

The Friend Fest event is now live too, which runs until December 2nd. This event is heavily focused on the spirit of family and friendship and is the first ever Friend Fest! To celebrate friendships, all trades with friends now cost only half of their regular Stardust cost. Which can be especially great to trade Legendary Pokémon or Shiny Pokémon that you don't have yet. You can also do 2 Special Trades per day during this event! When you're fighting alongside friends in a Raid you'll receive and increased attack boost!

Family-themed Pokémon such as Nidoran ♂ and Nidoran ♀ and their evolutions, and other Pokémon that evolve into being with multiples are now spawning more in the wild. This includes Diglett, Doduo, Magnemite, Exeggcute and Combee!

There are also a few Friend Fest Field Research quests available from Pokéstops now, which are all related to friends or catching either Nidoran. These quests can give Nidoran ♂, Nidoran ♀ and their evolutions as rewards and these quests can also let you encounter Dugtrio and Dodrio.

I have already made use of my 2 special trades per day to trade one of the Terrakion I caught and one of the Cobalion I still had for trade. Neither turned out good so I transferred them. I'm glad to be able to do 2 special trades though! Tomorrow I might trade the Groudon I had from my 7-day field research reward.

Have you made use of these 2 special trades already too?