Pokémon Go Battle League Season 13 release date, changes, plus Season 13 rank rewards, dates and rules

How the Pokémon Go Battle League works, from Ranks to Seasons

There are many components to how the Pokémon Go Battle League works, with a number of changes being introduced in Season 6 alongside the Season of Celebration, but here it is at a glance:

• The Pokémon Go Battle League takes place over the course of a Season, and will rotate through all three existing Leagues which cap Pokémon by their CP - the Great League (1500 CP), Ultra League (2500 CP) and Master League (any CP) - every two weeks. There are bonus leagues introduced in new seasons, but those three will feature in every season.
• From Season 6 onwards, the number of Pokémon Go Battle League Ranks increased to 24. The ranks still have a number of different progression requirements; climbing from Rank 1 to Rank 20 requires you to partake and win a number of battles, while Rank 21 to Rank 24, each with it's own unique title, requires you to reach a certain rating. During the current Interlude season, however, the rankings have been capped at 20.

• Your 'battle rating' that increases when you win and drops when you lose. Though this exists outside of the Rank system, you are required to progress past certain thresholds to progress the last four Ranks. It also gives you an additional metric to complete against (with your friends, or even yourself) once you reach Rank 24 within a Season.
• For the five matches you play within a set, you can receive rewards, which are displayed on screen in a 'free' and 'premium' track, the latter you can enter by using a Premium Pass. Note once you have entered a run of battles, you cannot change track partway through.
• There are also additional rewards you earn when you level up a rank, and more at the end of the season.

Pokémon Go Battle League rules and battle restrictions

Go Battle League battles seem to behave the same as a standard Battle against a Friend or someone locally, but there are some competitive-orientated rules and restrictions to make things fair:

• Each time you enter the Go Battle League, you will play a 'set' of five matches.
• There is a limit to how many Go League Battles you can participate in per day, whether free or paid, at six sets (or 30 battles) per day.
• You can only use one of each Pokémon species in your Battle team in a contest.

• As per game-wide Battle rule changes, if Pokémon use Charged Attacks at the same time, the Pokémon with the highest Attack stat will go first. If they are the same, one Pokémon chosen at random will go first.
• Switching between Pokémon will reset any changes made to Attack or Defence, such as buffs or debuffs from moves made during battle.

Thanks to martycochrane on reddit for helping with some of the above information.

Pokémon Go Battle League Season 13 dates explained

Season 13 of the Go Battle League is running throughout the Season of Mythical Wishes in Pokémon. During this season, you'll be able to compete in a selection of special cups and all three leagues - Great, Ultra and Master.

The Leagues will rotate on a fortnightly basis, while the special cups change every week apart. The only exception is when all three Leagues are running simultaneously in the middle of Season 13 and, during this time, no special cup will be available.

It's important to remember that these dates are subject to change and we'll keep this page updated with any changes which occur.

The Go Battle League Season 13 begins on Thursday, 1st December at 1pm PST / 9pm UK time and ends on Wednesday, 1st March at 1pm PST / 9pm UK time.

Here are all the dates, including the Go Battle Days, for the Go Battle League Season 13:

• Great League and Great League Remix dates - 1st December to 8th December
• Great League and Fighting Cup: Great League Edition Remix dates - 8th December to 15th December
• Ultra League and Ultra Premier Classic dates - 15th December to 22nd December
• Ultra League and Holiday Cup: Great League Edition dates - 22nd December to 29th December
• Master League and Holiday Cup: Ultra League Edition dates - 29th December to 5th January
• Master League and Master Premier Classic dates - 5th January to 12th January
• Great League, Ultra League and Master League dates - 12th January to 19th January
• Mythical Wishes: Go Battle Days dates - Saturday, 14th January and Sunday, 15th January
• Great League and Weather Cup: Great League Edition dates - 19th January to 26th January
• Great League and Electric Cup: Great League Edition dates - 26th January to 2nd February
• Ultra League and Ultra Premier dates - 2nd February to 9th February
• Ultra League and Love Cup: Great League Edition dates - 9th February to 16th February
• Go Battle Day: Vulpix date - Sunday, 12th February
• Master League and Master Premier dates - 16th February to 23th February
• Master League: Mega Edition and Hoenn Cup: Great League Edition dates - 23th February to 1st March

You'll receive triple Stardust for win rewards, but not end-of-set rewards, between the following dates:

• 29th December to 12th January
• 16th February to 1st March

Go Battle League Season 13 events in Pokémon Go

There are three different Go Battle League events running throughout Season 13 in Pokémon Go.

The first is the Go Battle League Timed Research running throughout Season 13.

This quest tracks your victories throughout Season 13, with each step requiring 100 wins to complete. When you achieve this feat, you'll receive some Stardust and a selection of items. You can earn an Elite Fast TM at 400 wins and an Elite Charged TM at 500 wins.

To unlock this quest, you need to select it from the in-game store and, thankfully, its free.

The second event is the Mythical Wishes: Go Battle Days - starting at 12am (local time) on Saturday, 14th January and ending on Sunday, 15th January at 11:59pm (local time).

During this time, you'll recieve x4 Stardust from in rewards and the maximum set of battles you can partake in is increased to 20, which means you can fight in 100 battles.

There is also a timed research quest running throughout this event, which will reward you with XP, Rare Candy, an Elite Charged TM and the Steven Stone Rings. You will only recieve the Steven Stone avatar item, however, if you haven't already earned these item.

The third and final event is the Go Battle Day: Vulpix on Sunday, 12th February. Throughout this day - between 12am to 11:59pm (local time) - your maximum battle sets will be increased to 20, which means you can compete in 100 battles in total. You will also earn x4 Stardust from any win rewards.

Vulpix will be a guaranteed encounter between 11am to 2pm (local time) when you reach the Pokémon encounter reward and you'll have an increased chance of encountering a shiny Vulpix. If you evolve a Vulpix during this event, then the resulting Ninetales will know the fire-type Fast Attack Ember.

There's also a timed research quest running throughout this event, which will reward you with XP, Rare Candy, an Elite Charge TM and a Vulpix encounter.

Finally, if you're on the Premium track, then all of the win reward will be Pokémon encounters.

Pokémon Go Battle League Rank requirements

Go Battle League has you progress through 24 Ranks per Season. This number was increased from 10 on November 30th 2020, alongside the release of Season 6 of the Go Battle League and the Season of Celebrations.

Each Rank requires a different objective for you to progress, and each one also has it's own set of rewards.

From Season 6 onwards, you'll need to participate and win a number of battles to progress from Rank 1 to Rank 20.

Certain ranks will be easier to overcome than others, because they will only require you to complete one set of battles to progress. This means that, even if you only win one battle out of five, you'll still progress to the next rank.

The Ranks that only require you to complete one battle set are - Rank 5, Rank 10, Rank 15 and Rank 19.

If you wish to climb from Rank 21 to Rank 24, however, you need to obtain a certain rating by remaining undefeated for a certain number of matches.

Each Rank from 21 to 24 also has it's own specific title - Ace, Veteran, Expert and Legend - which not only helps you identify which rating you need to achieve, but gives you some good bragging rights too.

Below you can find which title has been assigned to each rank, alongside the rating you'll need to progress to that specific rank:

• Rank 21 - Ace - 2,000 rating
• Rank 22 - Veteran - 2,500 rating
• Rank 23 - Expert - 2,750 rating
• Rank 24 - Legend - 3,000 rating

The Season of Mythical Wishes has seen Kecleon finally being released in Pokémon Go! The Crackling Voltage event is currently running and it has brought as a new Team Go Rocket quest - Shadowy Skirmishes! The team lineups for Giovanni and the Team Go Rocket Leaders has also changed. Don't forget to partake in the new Go Battle League season. Elsewhere, be sure to use Daily Adventure Incense for the chance of encountering Galarian Articuno, Galarian Zapdos and Galarian Moltres. This incense may also give you encounters with other rare Pokémon in Pokémon Go.

Pokémon Go Battle League item rewards

As you climb through each Season's in the Go Battle League, you'll find yourself being rewarded in a number of way. This includes set win rewards, Pokémon encounters and rewards for progressing to new a Rank.

The specifics of rewards, especially the Pokémon encounters, tend to change from season to season, so it's always a good idea to read through this section at the beginning of each season, so that you know what's waiting for you.

Rank rewards

Rank rewards are, as the name suggests, the rewards you receive for progressing to a new rank in the Go Battle League. These rewards often include useful items, like Potions, and Stardust.

Under the ranking system from Season 6 onwards, a number of ranks now only require you to complete one set of battles, be it win or lose, for you to progress to the next rank. These ranks have also been given specific reward tracks, which means you're guaranteed a certain type of reward for completing them.

Below you can find these special ranks and the type of rewards you'll receive for completing them:

• Rank 5 - Mystery items
• Rank 10 - Stardust
• Rank 15 - Rare Candies
• Rank 19 - Pokémon encounters and an Elite Fast TM

Go League set win rewards

Each set contains five matches, and you earn more rewards for each subsequent win, allowing you to win a total of five rewards if you win every match.

Before you play, you can either earn basic (free) rewards or use a Premium Pass to earn a different set of rewards. These are usually more of the same reward types, or will see the order shuffled so it's easier to get certain rewards.

You can see what the rewards in both the basic and premium sets are before you begin, so you can make the call of whether you want to spend a Premium Pass or not (after all, winning isn't guaranteed!).

Possible rewards in both tracks include:

• Stardust
• Charged TMs
• Mystery Item (either a Sinnoh Stone, Charged TMs, Golden Razz Berry or Silver Pinap Berry
• Rare Candy
• Pokémon Encounter (some suaranteed at certain ranks)
• When you hit certain ranks - Avatar items, such Pikachu Libre and character-inspired clothing and avatar pose exclusive to that season

Pokémon Go Battle League Season 13 encounter rewards

Pokémon encounters are the same regardless of whether you go for the free or premium reward track, but differ according to your Rank. If your playing the free reward track, then you're guaranteed a Pokémon encounter after three wins, but, if you're on premium, then you only need one win to earn your encounter.

The higher the rank, the wider the pool of possible encounters gets, with more rare creatures available. Here are the Pokémon encounter rewards which have been currently announced for the Interlude Season:

If you reach rank 20, you're also guaranteed an encounter with the legendary Pokémon which is in five-star raids at the time you reach the Pokémon encounter reward.

Guaranteed Pokémon encounters will always occur, even if you don't earn enough wins on that encounter specific rank. This means if you haven't had your encounter with Metang and Mareanie by the time you reach Ace Rank and then earn an encounter, you'll have to face these Pokémon before Axew.

Once you've caught Metang and Mareanie, you'll be able to catch Axew during your next Pokémon encounter and this is the same all the guaranteed Pokémon encounters.

Other Pokémon Go Battle League rewards

In Season 13, you'll receive the Pikachu Libre avatar items when you reach Rank 3.

The exclusive clothing for Season 13 is inspired by Steven Stone - the Champion of the Hoenn region who appeared in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

There are five pieces in the Steven Stone-themed clothing set, including a new pose, and you'll earn each piece by reaching a specific Rank in the Go Battle League.

You can, however, earn the Steven Stone Rings by completing the Mythical Wishes: Go Battle Day timed research quest. If you've already earned the Steven Stone Rings before this quest, you can't earn them again.

Below you'll find which pieces of the Steven Stone-themed clothing set you'll earn at each Rank:

• Ace Rank - Steven Stone Rings
• Veteran Rank - Steven Stone Shoes
• Expert Rank - Steven Stone Top and Pants
• Legend Rank - Steven Ston Pose

Finally, by reaching Rank 19, you'll earn an Elite Charged TM and, when Season 13 ends, you'll also receive an Elite Fast TM.

Remember - your ranking will reset at the end of every season, so, if a certain reward has caught your eye, make sure you get it this season or else you risk missing it!