Pokemon Sleep Raikou Research Event: Dates, Missions, and How to Get Raikou

Pokemon Sleep is getting its first Legendary Pokemon through the Raikou Research Event
Banner for the Raikou Research Event in Pokemon Sleep
Image via Select Button

Events in Pokemon Sleep are becoming more frequent, and players can now have our first-ever Legendary Pokemon encounter in the game. The Raikou Research event will let trainers acquire various items that will help to attract the Legendary Pokemon to their research site, even giving us a chance to add Raikou to our helper teams.

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When is the Raikou Research Event in Pokemon Sleep?

Pokemon Sleep‘s Raikou Research event begins March 25 at 4 AM and runs through April 11 at 3:59 AM.

The event will feature Raikou’s Pokemon Sleep debut, allowing players to study this legendary Pokemon. Different items acquired during the event will help you run across and befriend Raikou. After the event, Raikou can still appear on Greengrass Isle, but it will be very rare. So this is your best chance to snag a Raikou.

How to Participate in the Raikou Research Event in Pokemon Sleep

If you want to enjoy the full benefits of Raikou Research in Pokemon Sleep, make sure you select Greengrass Isle as your research site for the duration of the event. Collecting Raikou Mane samples is an essential part of this event, and the samples will only appear on Greengrass Isle.

The event will involve collecting these samples of Raikou Mane and exchanging them for various items that will help you attract and befriend the Legendary Pokemon. You will also be able to complete limited-time Missions to gather the samples, and may even encounter some through the Research Community.

All Raikou Research Missions and Rewards

Players will have two weeks to complete the full list of Raikou Research special missions, which offer plenty of Raikou Mane rewards to help ensure we’ll be able to befriend the legendary Pokemon. Here is the full list of missions as their rewards.

MissionHow to CompleteReward
Get Snorlax to Basic 2Feed Snorlax berries and meals to raise its level15 Raikou Mane
Get Snorlax to Ultra 1Feed Snorlax berries and meals to raise its level25 Raikou Mane
Get Snorlax to Ultra 4Feed Snorlax berries and meals to raise its level40 Raikou Mane
Give Out 15 BiscuitsGive out your Bonus Biscuit and Poke Biscuits during sleep research40 Raikou Mane
Use 7 IncensesSet at least one incense before recording sleep40 Raikou Mane
Stick To Your Bedtime 3 TimesBeging logging sleep within 1 hour before or 30 minutes after your recorded bedtime 40 Railou Mane

The standard weekly missions and rewards will also still be available during this time, so be sure to check in on your weekly tab as well so you can reap the benefits of those missions as well.

All Raikou Research Items in Pokemon Sleep And What They Do

Image of Raikou in Pokemon Sleep on Greengrass Isle
Image via Select Button

The Raikou Research event will introduce some new items, which you can get by exchanging Raikou Mane in the exchange store during the event. These items will help players study Raikou and recruit it to your helper team.

Raikou Mane Samples are bits of mane left behind as Raikou wanders around Greengrass Isle. These will essentially function like currency, letting you exchange samples for the other items that attract Raikou to your research site.

Raikou Incense attracts Raikou to your research site, guaranteeing that Raikou will appear during your next sleep research if you set it before you go to sleep. It can be purchased via the exchange using Raikou Mane during the event and can still be used once the event ends. However, you can only have one of these incense in your bag at a time, so you won’t be able to hoard them for later use.

Raikou Biscuits are special biscuits that only Raikou likes. When used, these biscuits increase Raikou’s friendship level by 6, and will expire once the Raikou Research event ends. They will be converted to Great Biscuits if you still have any after the event.

The goal of the week will be to collect Raikou Mane to exchange for these items so you can encounter Raikou and add it to your team. Trainers can befriend more than one Raikou in Pokemon Sleep, but you can only have one on your helper team at a time.

All Raikou Research Event Exchange Items

Screenshot of Pokemon Sleep homescreen, with arrow pointing to the Raikou Event Exchange icon
Screenshot by The Escapist

The special Raikou Research event exchange can be accessed by clicking the Raikou Mane icon on the right side of your screen. In this exchange, players can hand over Raikou Mane and receive a variety of items. Some items have two different price points, letting you get your first few for fewer Raikou Manes, with additional items available for a higher price.

Here’s the full list of what’s available and how many manes you’ll need to get the goods.

ItemPurposeCostTotal Available (At this Price)
Raikou IncenseGuarantees an encounter with Raikou80 Raikou Mane2
Raikou Incense Guarantees an encounter with Raikou160 Raikou Mane3
Raikou BiscuitEarns 6 hearts with Raikou60 Raikou Mane2
Raikou BiscuitEarns 6 hearts with Raikou120 Raikou Mane4
Handy Candy STransforms into select Pokemon’s candy12 Raikou Mane15
Dream Cluster STransforms into Dream Shards12 Raikou Mane15
Main Skill Seed350 Raikou Mane1
Thunder StoneCauses certain electric-type Pokemon to evolve120 Raikou Mane1
Raikou CandyIncreases Raikou’s level2 Raikou Mane100
Raikou CandyIncreases Raikou’s level6 Raikou Mane999

All Raikou Research Event Bonuses

In addition to the introduction of Raikou for this event, we’ll also get a few additional bonuses as we conduct sleep research during the event. They are:

  • One extra ingredient each time electric-type helpers bring you ingredients
  • Increased chances of electric-type helper’s main skills being triggered
  • Snorlax on Greengrass Isle will prefer Grepa Berries, which are gathered by electric types
  • Pokemon with different sleep styles will appear regardless of your dominant sleep style for the day
  • Increased chances of encountering certain Pokemon during sleep research

In addition to Raikou, other electric types will have a boosted chance of showing up during sleep research during the Raikou Research Event. The featured Pokemon with a greater appearance rate are:

raikou
Raikou
pikachu
Pikachu
Raichu
Raichu
Jolteon
Jolteon
Pichu
Pichu
Mareep
Mareep
Shiny Flaaffy
Flaaffy
Dedenne
Dedenne

If these Pokemon sound familiar, it’s because most of them were also featured during Electric Type Week to help trainers get plenty of electric Pokemon to help with our Raikou Research.

Raikou Research Week Incense Bug and Developer Apology Event

Screenshot from Pokemon Sleep, showing claimable gifts of Raikou incense and a Raikou biscuit
Screenshot by The Escapist

For the first few days of the Raikou Research Week event, a bug caused players to only see the 1-star Energy Storing sleep style for Raikou when using Raikou incense. That means that, even if you used multiple incenses, you would not be able to log additional sleep styles for the legendary Pokemon and complete your Sleep Style Dex entry.

As an apology for the bug, Pokemon Sleep has announced a special event to give players an additional boost during the Raikou Research event. They have also released a special Raikou-themed apology gift with extra items to help with sleep research.

Players can redeem the Apology from the Development team gift in the app now, by heading to the main menu, then clicking on the gift box icon.

Screenshot of Pokemon Sleep main menu with an arrow pointing to the gift box icon
Screenshot by The Escapist

This will open your gift box, where you should see one free Raikou Incense and one Raikou Biscuit. These apology gifts in Pokemon Sleep can be claimed from now until April 4, 2024.

The apology event will take place on March 30 and March 31 in Pokemon Sleep. For both of these dates, Drowsy Power will be multiplied by 1.5, making it easier for researchers to encounter rare Pokemon like Raikou.


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Author
Amanda Kay Oaks
Amanda Kay Oaks is a freelance writer for The Escapist. She's a lifelong gamer with an affinity for Pokemon, RPGs, and cozy games, especially The Sims. Amanda has an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, with prior work on pop culture and entertainment at Book Riot, Fanfare, and Gamepur.