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Since its debut in the Johto region Gameboy Color games Pokémon Gold and Silver, Unown (#201), has injected an air of mystery into the series. A trans-dimensional traveller that comes in 28 forms based on the Latin Alphabet, Unown retains its mystique in Pokémon GO by being an especially rare encounter in normal gameplay. In this guide, we’ll point you to the best options for finally catching one.

How to get Unown in Pokémon GO

Until September 2019, there were only two reliable ways to obtain Unown in Pokémon GO:

  • Finding one in the wild via a remarkable feat of sheer luck you’d probably rather reserve for a lottery win
  • Attending an event such as a GO Fest or major comic/game convention that features increased spawning rates

Encountering Unown in the wild is possible, but all available evidence appears to point to spawn odds being vanishingly small. There are a handful of Silph Road threads featuring anecdotal accounts of chance encounters and mad community dashes when Unown turns up on a tracker. Meanwhile, a Pokémon GO Hub study of 6 million Generation 1 and 2 spawns saw just one Unown show up. It could happen to you – but it probably won’t.

If you really want to fill the gap in your dex, the only realistic option of the two was to attend an event – and we take an in-depth look at that below.

Of course, there was always technically another option to consider – waiting to see whether Niantic put Unown in some other kind of global event. And with the Unown hatching chances in September 2019, this became a reality - and something to hope to see repeated in the future.

Pokemon Go Unown Locations and Events

Unown events are likely to remain an important way of catching this elusive Pokémon going forward.

Events featuring Unown range from official Pokémon events to tie-ins with Comic/Game conventions and even major sporting events. There is some variation in access too – events such as GO Fest require that you pay or register for a ticket in order to access the Unown spawn. Other times, spawns are city or country-wide (though spawns are more commonly locked to the vicinity of the event).

For a full list of past events, we recommend this list on Serebii.net. However, keep reading for a simplified breakdown of the types of events you can expect to see Unown spawn at, so you can start to plan for when you could catch one.

Unown Events to Plan For:

Pokefest Chicago Banner

(Countries are listed in Parentheses)

  • Global Unown hatching events (Global): An event held on Monday 2 September to Monday 9 September 2019 saw U, L, T, R and A Unown hatching from 10km eggs (alongside other perks such as halved egg distances). Hopefully September 2019's event will be repeated in the future, giving everyone a chance to get an Unown
  • GO Fest (DE, JP, US): Unown spawns are one of the features of GO Fest, an annual series of paid, ticketed events originally held in a park in Chicago, but expanded in 2019 to Dortmund and Yokohama. Unown only spawns for ticket holders
  • Safari Zone (AT, BR, CH, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, JP, NO, NL, PL, PT, SE, SK, TW, UK): Unown spawns can also be found during Safari Zone events held at participating malls and parks in mainland Europe (later expanded to Asia and South America). Safari Zone events are free but require registration
  • GO Week/Weekend (KO, JP): Increased Unown spawns are a perk for a series of cross-promotional events in conjunction with participating retailers in South Korea and Japan – buy a qualifying product to receive a scannable ticket
  • Pokémon World Championships (US): Unown is consistently available around the venue for the finals of the Pokémon World Championships (the highest level of play for both the Video Game and Trading Card Game)
  • Large Comic/Fan/Game Conventions (AU, BR, DE, FR, IT, NL, NZ, UK, US, ZA). Unown spawns increase around the venues for various industry and consumer events, especially those covering games, comics, anime and other pop-culture subjects. Some examples include:
    • Gamescom
    • GDC
    • E3
    • Japan Expo, Paris
    • MCM London Comic Con
    • PAX East and PAX West
    • San Diego Comic Con
    • South x South West
  • FIFA World Cup (Host country): Unown spawns were increased during the 2018 World Cup in the host nation (Brazil) and a number of its South American neighbours
    • A reprise could be seen for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and could theoretically expand to regional football tournaments such as the European Championships (Euro 2020 is being hosted in 12 different European countries)
  • We wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Unown spawns will increase for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics too, though this is pure speculation

Which Letters of the Unown Alphabet are Available in Pokémon Go?

All 28 letters of the Unown Alphabet are currently available in Pokémon GO including those corresponding with letters A through Z, and exclamation (!) and question mark(?) variants.

However, even at events, the boosted spawn rates apply only to a selection of variants (usually only between 2 to 9 different variants are available). These usually spell out things like:

  • The name of the host city or retailer (e.g. C, H, I, A, G, O)
  • The name of the event (J, A, P, N, E, X, O)
  • The initials of the above (M, D)

This of course means that if you want to track down all 28 variants, you’re going to have to attend a lot of events in a lot of different countries (and grind a hell of a lot of vowel shapes into Unown candy).


Using the above information to execute some kind of Machiavellian scheme where you influence friends to holiday in key Unown-spawning cities next year is beyond the scope of this guide. Please do let us know how you get on, in the comments below.

This article is part of our Pokémon GO walkthrough and guide series. We have articles that take you through the basics, covering How To Catch Pokémon: Throwing Tips, Poké Balls, & Capture Rates, How To Redeem Pokémon GO Promo Codes, How To Check A Pokémon's IVs Using An IV Calculator, How Trading Works, How To Track Pokémon Using Maps And Trackers, What Star Pieces And Stardust Do And How To Get Them, How Player Vs. Player Trainer Battles Work, and How To Complete Field Research And Research Breakthroughs And All Rewards.

We cover regular weekly and monthly Pokémon GO events, such as Spotlight Hour Times And Bonus Hour Times, and Community Days. We also have charts, including a Type Chart With Effectiveness And Weakness For All Types, an Egg Chart Explaining 2km, 5km, 7km, & 10km Eggs, and a Buddy Chart Explaining How To Earn Candy.

Elsewhere we cover Friend Code And Sharing Them For Easy XP and Which Pokémon GO 'Auto Catch' Companion Device Is The Best, plus more advanced tactics and info such as All Fast Moves And Charge Moves, How To Get TMs, And How It All Works, Shiny Pokémon And How To Catch Them, Glacial Lures, Magnetic Lures, Mossy Lures in Pokémon GO (And Their Exclusive Evolutions), How To Get Lots Of Candy Fast, How Lucky Pokémon Work & How To Catch Them, How To Catch All 27 Regional Pokémon, the Best Attackers And Best Defenders, All Raid Bosses And Best Counters Listed By Tier, What EX Raids Are And How To Get EX Raid Passes, What A Super Incubators Does And How To Get One, and How Get Mega Energy.

Pocket Monster-wise, we have specific guides for How To Get Pangoro, Sylveon, Glaceon, Aromatisse, Slurpuff, Sirfetch’d, Galarian Cofagrigus And More, How To Get Sylveon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Umbreon, Espeon, Vaporeon, Jolteon And Flareon, How To Evolve Wurmple Into Silcoon Or Cascoon, How To Get Tyrogue, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan And Hitmontop, How To Use The Weather To Get Each Castform Form, How To Catch And Evolve Into Galarian Slowbro, How To Catch Smeargle, How To Find And Evolve Burmy, How To Catch Spinda, Where To Find Unown, How To Catch Ditto, and The Rarest Pokémon Including Wild, Shiny, Mythical And Regional Catches.

We also cover timed research and special events, including Mew's 'A Mythical Discovery', Jirachi's 'A Thousand-Year Slumber', Celebi's 'A Ripple In Time', and Regigigas' 'A Colossal Discovery'. Other (past) event guides include Twitch Codes List - Pokémon World Championship 2022, How To Battle A Challenger (World Championships 2022), How To Battle Fashion Challengers, 'A Spooky Message' Spiritomb Quest, Kanto Event FAQ, and the Summer Tour 2018 Chicago GO Fest And Dortmund And Yokosuka Safari Zones.

Finally, there's our WIP Pokémon GO Pokédex, which currently goes up to 400 Pokémon: #1-50 | #51-100 | #101-150 | #151-200 | #201-250 | #251-300 | #301-350 | #351-400.