Pinch Perfect is the first big themed event of 2026 in Pokémon GO, built around clawed and crustacean Pokémon and two key debuts: Klawf and shiny Dhelmise. It runs from Tuesday, January 6, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. to Sunday, January 11, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. local time.
The structure is familiar: one headline new Pokémon, a new shiny, a double XP bonus, rotating Timed Research, and a small paid ticket layered on top. The details matter if you are trying to min-max XP, chase specific shinies, or pick up Klawf without overcommitting to raids and research.
Event bonuses and headline additions
The core bonuses during Pinch Perfect are straightforward and constant for the full event window:
- 2× XP for catching Pokémon – Every successful catch pays out double experience. This applies across wild encounters, research rewards, and raids.
- Increased shiny odds for three species – Corphish, Dwebble, and Clauncher have an elevated chance to be shiny in event encounters.
Two key additions sit on top of those bonuses:
- Klawf debuts in Pokémon GO as the new Rock-type “Ambush Pokémon”. It does not spawn in the wild during this event. Instead, it appears in Field Research and as a reward in both free and paid Timed Research.
- Shiny Dhelmise becomes available for the first time. It appears in three-star raids and in specific Field Research and Timed Research encounters.
Pinch Perfect also layers in three waves of free Timed Research focused on Dwebble, Corphish, and Clauncher, plus an optional US$1.99 Premium Timed Research ticket that adds more encounters and items.
Wild spawns during Pinch Perfect
Wild encounters are a mix of Rock, Water, and “claw-adjacent” species, with a focus on the three boosted shinies. The event also quietly puts two rare fossils back on the map.
| Category | Pokémon | Shiny available |
|---|---|---|
| Main crustacean trio | Corphish, Dwebble, Clauncher | Yes (all three) |
| Other common spawns | Sandshrew, Tentacool, Onix, Rhyhorn, Magikarp, Trapinch, Drilbur, Binacle | Yes (each listed species) |
| Extra rare wilds | Tirtouga, Archen | Yes |
There is also a timing twist. Dwebble, Corphish, and Clauncher are not evenly distributed across the full event. Instead, each one has its own mini-window where it shows up more often in the wild and in the free Timed Research:
| Window (local time) | Featured species |
|---|---|
| Jan 6, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 8, 10:00 a.m. | Dwebble |
| Jan 8, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 10, 10:00 a.m. | Corphish |
| Jan 10, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 11, 8:00 p.m. | Clauncher |
In practice, that means you should schedule shiny hunting around those windows. If you want a shiny Clauncher, waiting until its leg of the Timed Research will give you both more spawns and more research encounters with the same target.
Raid lineup and where Dhelmise fits
Raids during Pinch Perfect are tightly focused and mostly exist to deliver Dhelmise and a few extra shiny checks for the boosted trio.
One-star raids
| Tier | Raid bosses | Shiny available |
|---|---|---|
| 1★ | Corphish, Dwebble, Clauncher | Yes (all three) |
These are primarily there as extra shiny checks. None of the one-star bosses are especially important for raids or PvP, but they are quick to clear and benefit from the catch XP bonus.
Three-star raids
| Tier | Raid bosses | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3★ | Dhelmise | New shiny; also appears in research |
| 3★ | Dondozo | Bulky Water-type raid target |
Dhelmise is the clear priority here. If you care about shiny hunting efficiently, it also shows up in Field Research and in the Premium Timed Research ticket, so raids are only one of several routes to roll that shiny check.
No specific five-star or Mega raid is tied directly to Pinch Perfect; those slots follow the broader January raid schedule and rotate independently.
Event Field Research tasks and rewards
Event Field Research is where Klawf, Dhelmise, and the shiny-boosted trio really stack up. PokéStops can give you several different tasks, each with a fixed reward pool.
| Task text | Reward pool | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Poké Ball ×10, Great Ball ×5, Ultra Ball ×3 | Item-only task; no encounters. |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Corphish, Dwebble, Clauncher | Each encounter can be shiny, with event-boosted odds. |
| Catch 15 Pokémon | Stardust ×1500 | Flat dust reward; no encounter. |
| Win a raid | Dhelmise, Klawf | Single encounter per task; randomly one of the two. |
Two parts of this are worth emphasizing:
- “Win a raid” is the main free path to Klawf. Each completion gives you either a Klawf or a Dhelmise encounter. Klawf does not have wild spawns, so this is your farmable route outside the Timed Research rewards.
- The shiny odds in research are better than in the wild. Dhelmise from Field Research is set to roughly 1 in 64 odds for shiny, while Corphish, Dwebble, and Clauncher from event research sit at roughly 1 in 128.
In practical terms, stacking three “Win a raid” tasks before clearing a Dhelmise raid, then claiming all three encounters plus the raid catch, is the cleanest way to compress several high-odds Dhelmise rolls into a single raid pass.
Free Timed Research: Dwebble, Corphish, Clauncher legs
Pinch Perfect splits its free Timed Research into three back-to-back tracks tied to the featured wild spawns. Each track uses the same pattern, just with a different target species.
Jan 6–8: Dwebble Timed Research
During the first leg (Jan 6, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 8, 10:00 a.m.), the Timed Research focuses entirely on Dwebble.
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 15 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 20 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 25 Pokémon | Dwebble |
Clearing all tasks awards an extra Klawf encounter, plus 950 XP and 950 Stardust. This is the only guaranteed Klawf for every player during this window, without relying on raid research RNG.
Jan 8–10: Corphish Timed Research
The second leg (Jan 8, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 10, 10:00 a.m.) repeats the same structure, but all encounters are Corphish instead of Dwebble.
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 15 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 20 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 25 Pokémon | Corphish |
Finishing the page again yields a Klawf encounter, 950 XP, and 950 Stardust.
Jan 10–11: Clauncher Timed Research
The final leg (Jan 10, 10:00 a.m. – Jan 11, 8:00 p.m.) finishes the trio with Clauncher rewards.
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 15 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 20 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 25 Pokémon | Clauncher |
The completion bundle is identical: a Klawf encounter, 950 XP, and 950 Stardust.
Premium Timed Research ticket
Alongside the free tracks, Pinch Perfect offers a Premium Timed Research ticket for US$1.99 (or local equivalent). The ticket is sold through the in-game shop and bundled in a small “Ultra Ticket Box” that also includes five Ultra Balls.
The paid research is split into two pages with identical structure. Each page gives a run of Dwebble, Corphish, Clauncher, and Dhelmise encounters, then finishes on Klawf and a handful of bonuses.
Premium Timed Research (1/2)
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Dhelmise |
| Completion rewards | Quantity / details |
|---|---|
| Klawf encounter | One guaranteed encounter |
| Premium Battle Pass | ×1 |
| XP | ×9500 |
Premium Timed Research (2/2)
The second page mirrors the first exactly, just giving another set of encounters and the same completion bundle.
| Task | Reward |
|---|---|
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Dwebble |
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Corphish |
| Catch 5 Pokémon | Clauncher |
| Catch 10 Pokémon | Dhelmise |
| Completion rewards | Quantity / details |
|---|---|
| Klawf encounter | One guaranteed encounter |
| Premium Battle Pass | ×1 |
| XP | ×9500 |
Within this ticket, shiny rates mirror the event Field Research: roughly 1 in 64 for Dhelmise and roughly 1 in 128 for Dwebble, Corphish, and Clauncher. The ticket is effectively a paid way to compress more high-odds rolls into a predictable, low-grind set of tasks with a side of extra Klawf.
How the XP and shiny boosts stack with the rest of the game
The 2× catch XP bonus applies across all catches during the event. It coexists with other bonuses such as Spotlight Hour multipliers, but the game usually applies the highest single catch bonus rather than multiplying them together. That means a dedicated XP grind session still benefits from Pinch Perfect; it just does not stack exponentially with other limited-time boosts.
On the shiny side, only a handful of species actually receive event-boosted odds. Dwebble, Corphish, and Clauncher are boosted in the wild and in research, and Dhelmise has elevated odds in research (and in the Premium Timed Research). Everything else in the spawn pool runs at standard shiny rates.
The net effect of Pinch Perfect is clear: if you care about Klawf, shiny Dhelmise, or shiny crustaceans, this is a dense, research-heavy event that rewards planning around short windows and specific tasks. If you are here for XP, the universal double catch bonus is the quiet workhorse running in the background of everything else you do for the week.
