Why Do Some Pokémon Have a Blue Swirl Around Them in Pokémon Go?
While playing Pokémon Go, you probably noticed that when you roam the map, some wild Pokémon you encounter have a normal, white circle around them, while some have a swirling blue circle. Why is that?
Why do some Pokémon have swirling blue circles in Pokémon Go?
Initially, all wild Pokémon looked the same when they appeared in the wild, surrounded by an expanding white circle. That circle was the Pokémon’s Spawn Point and you knew, when you saw that circle, that a Pokémon is going to appear there. But, on December 8, 2017, the game introduced a new mechanism, along with the Hoenn Pokémon; a new mechanism was necessary because some Hoenn Pokémon depended on it and thus, the Weather system was introduced.
The Weather system was a real-time weather reading mechanism that mirrored actual weather in the game itself. Day and night were already a thing, but now the map was subjected to different weather conditions. A total of seven different scenarios were introduced then:
- Sunny (day) / Clear (night)
- Partly cloudy
- Cloudy / Overcast
- Windy
- Rain
- Fog
- Snow
Each of these scenarios mimicked actual weather conditions and although the system has never been 100% accurate, it generally does a good job. The system was introduced because some Pokémon had different forms based on the weather conditions, most notably Castform and some Pokémon from later generations. But, along with this, the so-called Weather Boost system was introduced.
Pokémon with Weather Boost appeared more frequently during specific weather conditions and boosted stats if approached under such circumstances. How could one recognize a weather-boosted Pokémon? Well, it had a swirling, blue ring around it! And with this, we have solved our mystery – the swirling blue circle signifies a Pokémon with Weather Boost and we have just explained what that means. The full list of benefits includes:
- Increased Spawn Rate
- Higher IV/CP Values
- Bonus 25% Stardust
- Bonus 20% Damage for moves based on weather
- Pokémon Spawns Affected by weather can exceed the Level 30 Cap. (Level 35 Highest spotted so far)
Before we continue, here is a table of all boosted types based on specific conditions:
| Weather: | Pokémon Type: |
| Cloudy | Fairy Fighting Poison |
| Fog | Dark Ghost |
| Partly Cloudy | Normal Rock |
| Rainy | Water Electric Bug |
| Snow | Ice Steel |
| Sunny | Grass Fire Ground |
| Windy | Flying Dragon Psychic |
Why do some Pokémon have expanding white rings in Pokémon Go?
Expanding white rings, which look like a series of waves when you throw a rock in water, are actually normal and they were standard for all wild Pokémon before the introduction of the Weather Boost mechanism.
These circles actually represent what it called a Spawn Point, i.e., the place where a Pokémon is set to appear in the wild. Spawn Points are determined by the game’s internal mechanism in accordance with the player’s location and the rendering of the map by the game’s algorithm. There is really no big secret behind these circles, save for the fact that they determine the range you have to be in in order to see the wild Pokémon on the map and get the ability to catch it.