What are Nests?

The great thing with Pokémon GO spawns is that it depends on the real world location. Water-type Pokémon spawns on rivers, seashore, and even some fountains. Parks tend to spawn more Grass-types and Bug-types. You see Ground-types and Fire-types more common on desert areas like Los Angeles. Besides that, there is one more thing that mirror real life, which is migrating Pokémon. Some animals migrate from location to location, and so do Pokémon in Pokémon GO. In this article, we explore Pokémon and Nests.

First off, a Nest is an area that has a high spawn rate of one single Pokémon. I have seen a park that has a lot of Sneasel spawns. Sneasel may have been the Nest Pokémon. Most Nest Pokémon are outside the natural spawn of the area. The park you know may have spawn mostly Grass and Bug but Sneasel was the odd one out. Still, there are some Nest Pokémon that are also natural spawns. I've also seen a Spearow Nest in an area where spawn Spearow is a common spawn naturally.

This is a Shuckle Nest. You can see the sightings that there are more Shuckle

One more thing about Nest Pokémon is that they change every two weeks. There are some areas with increased spawns of certain Pokémon like Gastly and Drowzee. If they don't change after two weeks, they are not nests. I know a mall that spawns a great deal of Magnemite, but it doesn't change every 2 weeks, so it's not a nest. It's just an area that spawns a lot of Electric-type like Voltorb.

This is not a Psyduck Nest. It's just a common spawn

I know you are asking, how can you be 100% sure what the nest Pokémon is? Migration changes every other Thursday, 12 AM UTC. The next migration is 10 hours from the time I posted this. If you stay during the exact Migration time, you'll see the nest change visually. If you don't see the spawn change, the spawns you see are not nest Pokémon.

There are some Pokémon that do not nest. Sadly, Dratini, Larvitar, Mareep, Unown, and Chansey do not nest. All 10 KM egg hatches do not nest, like Sudowoodo, Aerodactyl, Snorlax, Lapras, Skarmory, and Porygon. Also, Mantine, Gligar, Pineco, Miltank, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Hitmontop, Grimer, Koffing, Stantler, Phanpy, Lickitung, Tangela, Togepi and Ditto do not nest as well. As for Ditto, it may not nest but when Pokémon like Pidgey, Rattata, Magikarp, Sentret, Hoothoot, and Yanma are nest Pokémon, they have a chance to be Ditto as well.

Nests are great when you need to power-up Pokémon. If you need multiple candies for stuff like Machop, Abra, and Gastly, all you need is to find their nest. They are also great when you need to get the Gold Medal achievement for each type. I had trouble finishing my Ice-type and Fighting-type Gold Medal, but when I saw that a local nest that had Sneasel and Mankey, I easily reached 200 within a week. Lastly, it is common for nest to be on Parks and other crowded areas, which usually has high spawns. Multiple catches meant more Stardust.

The nest Migration is happening tomorrow, and you now have the knowledge on what Nests are. I made a guide on which Pokémon are worth powering up by clicking here.

What Pokémon Should You Power Up?

Much like raids, nest grinds are fun when you are not alone. Also, you need a lot of players with you on raids, especially on Legendary Raids. If you live in the Philippines and don't have people to raid with, check out the Pokémon GO Philippines Discord Group by clicking here. We have the up to date nest list there, which is moderated by yours truly. #humblebrag