12 km Egg

Overview

The 12 km Egg, officially called a Strange Egg, is a red-spotted Pokémon Egg that hatches a Pokémon after you walk 12 km with it in an incubator. You earn one by defeating a Team GO Rocket Leader—Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra—provided you have an eligible Egg slot and inventory space available. Its hatch pool centers on Poison- and Dark-type Pokémon (or species that evolve into them) alongside select other Rocket-themed species, though the Pokémon that hatches is a normal Pokémon rather than a Shadow Pokémon.

Because of the long 12 km requirement, placing a Strange Egg in a Super Incubator reduces the normal walking distance by one-third to 8 km.

How to get it

• Defeat a Team GO Rocket Leader: Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra.

• Keep an open slot in regular or bonus Egg storage, plus available space in your Pokémon Storage and Item Bag, before finishing the battle.

How to use it

1. Place it in an ordinary incubator and walk the displayed distance.

2. Tap the Egg to inspect its possible hatch pool. Event pools change, so a permanent list of species would become outdated.

Worth knowing

Giovanni and ordinary Team GO Rocket Grunts do not drop Strange Eggs. Check that you have an open Egg slot and space in both your Pokémon Storage and Item Bag before completing a Leader battle.

You cannot normally discard an Egg. Hatching is how you clear its slot.

Baseline hatch rewards

Hatch rewards include the resources listed below as well as the Pokémon that hatches. They are baseline amounts before event changes; the Stardust and Candy amounts are ranges, not promises of the maximum reward.

Using a Star Piece multiplies your hatch Stardust by 1.5, raising the baseline 3,200–6,400 range to 4,800–9,600 Stardust. Using a Lucky Egg doubles the baseline 4,000 XP to 8,000 XP. For either multiplier to apply, the item must already be active at the moment the reward is granted, so activate it before you finish walking the remaining hatch distance.

The ordinary Candy belongs to the hatched Pokémon’s family. Candy XL, which becomes available to Trainers from level 31 upward, is a separate resource and is not included in the ordinary Candy range below.

What is determined before you hatch

An Egg’s Pokémon is determined when the Egg is generated, including its IVs and Shiny status. Waiting to hatch an old Egg during a later event does not turn it into an Egg from that new event’s hatch pool.

A Rocket rotation can change the available Strange Egg pool, but an Egg you already hold keeps its contents. Check its own possible-hatch list before saving it for a particular species. A Leader’s current Shadow encounter lineup is not the Strange Egg hatch list.

Hatching, storage, and the reward

Open Pokémon Storage, switch to the Eggs tab, select the Egg, and choose Start Incubation. You also need an open slot in Pokémon Storage to place an Egg into an incubator. Walking counts while the app is open or through properly configured Adventure Sync. Ordinary Eggs cannot be discarded, so hatching is the only way to clear a slot.

Nine regular Egg slots are supplemented by three Bonus Storage slots reserved exclusively for eligible Adventure Sync reward Eggs and 12 km Strange Eggs from Team GO Rocket Leaders when your regular nine slots are full.

The contents are determined when you receive the Egg, not when it hatches. Seasonal changes do not reroll an Egg already in storage. Ordinary Egg hatches have a minimum floor of 10 in each IV (Attack, Defense, and HP) and award Candy, Stardust, and XP, with Candy XL also awarded to Trainers at level 31 and above. An active Lucky Egg or Star Piece boosts the corresponding XP or Stardust reward, and tapping the screen at the start of a hatch animation shortens the sequence.

Leader access and hatch rewards

Defeat six Team GO Rocket Grunts to collect six Mysterious Components and assemble a Rocket Radar (or purchase one from the shop), then defeat Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra while you have an open slot in regular or bonus Egg storage. Official support also advises keeping open space in your Pokémon Storage and Item Bag before the battle; if your inventory is at capacity, the Leader awards two standard item bundles instead of one item bundle and a Strange Egg.

Normal hatch rewards include 16–32 Candy and 3,200–6,400 Stardust. Long-running and past pools have featured species such as Sandile, Vullaby, and Salandit, and tapping the Egg in storage displays the exact species and rarity tiers possible for that specific Egg.

The Strange Egg is part of the Leader victory rewards, separate from the Shadow Pokémon encounter afterward. Catching that Shadow Pokémon does not determine the Egg’s hatchling. Grunts and Giovanni do not replace Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra as this Egg’s regular source.

A successfully defeated Leader consumes the Rocket Radar. Another Strange Egg therefore needs another eligible Leader victory as well as Egg space. If all nine regular and three bonus slots are occupied, hatch something before the battle instead of expecting the Egg to wait for collection later.

Planning a batch of Strange Eggs

Each 12 km Egg requires 8 km in a Super Incubator under normal rules. Starting several together lets the same walking advance all of them, but each Egg still consumes its own incubator use.

For a batch of three, the ordinary Stardust range totals 9,600–19,200 before bonuses. An active Star Piece raises that to 14,400–28,800. Activate it before the distance completes; waiting for the hatch animations can be too late to boost the awarded Stardust.