Pokemon GO guide: What are Rocket Radars and Balloons?

While Pokemon GO may seem like a shallow mobile experience from the outside looking in, the game has come far since its initial release. The criminal organization Team GO Rocket is one of the most interesting additions to the game in recent years.

While many long-time Pokemon fans are familiar with Team Rocket, the mobile game's iteration of the group is noticeably darker than the other variations fans have seen in the past. This is due to the team's usage of Shadow Pokemon, aggressive creatures that have had the door to their hearts artificially sealed.

In standard Pokemon fashion, players can battle members of this evil organization in Pokemon GO. Players can even take things a step further and challenge one of the four group bosses. While many players already know about the controlled Pokestops, few may know about the hot air balloons or radars.

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Analyzing Team GO Rocket's spawn conditions in Pokemon GO

Official art for the release of the Team GO Rocket Balloons (Image via Niantic)

In terms of the occasional balloon that players may have noticed every now and then, the only purpose these serve is to provide a way to bring Team GO Rocket encounters to players if they live in an area where Pokestops are not common. This means the encounter tables for both instances are the same.

One major difference between balloons and Pokestops is the time at which encounters take place. Encounters at Pokestops can happen in rapid succession as long as the player is next to multiple Rocket-controlled Pokestops. However, encounters via hot air balloons can only happen once every three hours.

There is also no way to speed up the process, meaning players wanting to grind out Team GO Rocket encounters in Pokemon GO have no choice aside from having to wait out the time limit. This makes grinding the rewards from these encounters very time-consuming if players do not live in an area with Pokestops.

While the Shadow Pokemon and items one receives from the standard encounter with the Team GO Rocket grunt are nice, the true prize from winning these battles is the Mysterious Components used to construct the Rocket Radar. The Rocket Radar is an item used to challenge one of the three bosses in Pokemon GO: Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra.

Players need to collect six of these components in order to build one radar. This means players have to defeat six Team GO Rocket grunts, which translates to players needing to wait a minimum of 18 hours if they need to use hot air balloons. This also increases to 21 hours if the player wants to encounter these bosses.

To encounter the true boss of Team GO Rocket in Pokemon GO, Giovanni, they will need to defeat each of the leaders six times to construct a Super Rocket Radar. This means players will need to wait a minimum of five days and eight hours if they cannot use Pokestops to encounter grunts or other leaders.

Using Rocket Radars and Super Rocket Radars in Pokemon GO is always worth the effort because they reward the player with high-quality Shadow Pokemon upon victory. Players can currently find shadow variants of the Kanto starters from the three lesser bosses and Shadow Latias from Giovanni.