Minior Pokemon Go: catch the green core before Saturday night

The first Minior Shower runs from October 19 at 5pm to October 24 at 11:59pm in your local time. During that stretch, Minior appears in the wild every evening from 5pm until 11:59pm local time.

The best hours are 5pm to 9pm. Minior spawns more often during that window each day of the shower, and the game shows shooting stars when the bonus is active, so you can tell at a glance. The core color tied to this Orionids event is green.

Catching Minior also gives extra Stardust, so even duplicates are worth grabbing if you’re saving up for power-ups.

Here’s the part that trips people up. In the wild, every Minior looks the same: a brown, rocky shell. That’s its Meteor Form. You won’t see the colored core on the map, so don’t skip a brown rock thinking it’s the wrong one.

• Play in the evening. Minior doesn’t spawn during the day, so plan a walk or a session after 5pm local time.
• Focus on 5pm to 9pm. That’s when spawn rates are boosted.
• Look for the brown shell. The core color is revealed after you catch it.
• Watch for the shooting stars. They signal the boosted hours.
• Play on multiple days. The event runs until Saturday night, October 24, giving you several evenings to catch a few.

Minior returns with each of the major annual meteor showers, and every shower debuts a new core color. All events start at 5pm on the first day and end at 11:59pm on the last day, local time.

• Orionids: October 19 to 24
• Leonids: November 14 to 19
• Geminids: December 11 to 16, with one new color in the Northern Hemisphere and a different one in the Southern Hemisphere
• Eta Aquariids: May 3 to 8
• Southern Delta Aquariids: July 28 to August 2
• Perseids: August 10 to 15

Minior has seven core colors in total: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Apart from green for the Orionids, the colors for later showers haven’t been confirmed yet.

Minior is a Rock and Flying type from the Generation 7 games, and it has two battle forms. It starts in Meteor Form, protected by its shell, with high Defense and low Attack. Once its HP drops below half, the shell breaks and it switches to Core Form, with high Attack and low Defense.

That swap is what makes Minior interesting in battle, but there’s a limit at launch. Minior can only change forms when you fight Team Go Rocket, including its leaders, or in the Go Battle League. In other battles, it stays in one form.

As for shiny hunters, shiny Minior isn’t available yet. In the main Pokémon games, you can’t tell a shiny Minior apart until its shell breaks or until you’ve caught it, so it will be interesting to see how Pokémon Go handles it when it does arrive.

Alongside the wild spawns, this week’s event includes a short Minior Shower Timed Research task. It hands you a Star Piece and then rewards you with Stardust as you use Star Pieces, so it pairs neatly with your Minior hunting, since catches already earn extra Stardust.

Timed Research disappears when the event ends, so claim and finish it before 11:59pm local time on October 24. A simple plan: pop a Star Piece at 5pm, when spawn rates are boosted, and spend the next half hour catching everything nearby.

If you can’t play in the evenings this week, trading is your backup. Ask a friend who caught a spare green Minior to send it your way. Otherwise, the green core won’t be back until the Orionids return next year.

You don’t need to grind. Because each color returns only once a year, the main thing is to grab at least one green Minior before Saturday night so your collection isn’t missing it for a full year. A short evening walk on one or two days should be enough.

There’s a nice bonus too. The Orionids are a real meteor shower, so if the sky is clear when you’re out hunting, look up. The best viewing is usually in the hours before dawn, away from city lights.