So two iconic characters from the Pokémon franchise have shown up in Pokémon Go. Jesse and James are back again, blasting into infinity and beyond to capture your nostalgia and that darned Pikachu. The duo is now a mini-boss in the mobile game, after having spent years mucking about with Ash in the Pokémon anime and television show.
Being brought into Pokémon Go means that Jesse and James will now be up for a PvE boss battle with players lucky enough to encounter them. So how do you find their iconic Meowth Balloon and do battle with them?
Unfortunately, for the Meowth balloon to spawn on you, it’s a random chance. There’s no direct way to make it happen. It will randomly pop up in the game much like the other randomly spawning Rocket balloons. You have to find one, then run over and interact with it to trigger the boss battle. However, instead of the Team Rocket Grunt, Leader, or Giovanni taking you on, it will be Jessie and James.
Each of the Trainers will have their own set of Shadow Pokémon as prizes for beating them. You have to defeat the Trainer battle to unlock the Shadow Pokémon that they’re guarding. There may also be Shiny variants in the bundle as well, you will only know if you try. And even if you don’t take them on, you can also earn cosmetics styled after their iconic outfits from the show. These are available for free in the store.
