How to get Shadow Shards and use Purified Gems in Shadow Raids in Pokémon Go

Shadow shards and purified gems are two Team Go Rocket related items pokemon go.

You collect these to help you win Shadow Pokémon raids. Basically, Shadow Shards drop on Go Rocket encounters, and once you get enough of them, you can use them to create Purified Gems, which are used to counter Shadow Pokémon in raids when they reach an “enraged” state .

Here’s how to get Shadow Shards in Pokémon Go, turn them into Purified Gems, and use them in Shadow Raids.

How to get Shadow Shards in Pokémon Go

Shadow Shards are rewards for defeating Team Go Rocket members in Pokémon Go.

You earn the following number of Shadow Shards by defeating the following:

• Go Rocket Grunts: 1 Shadow Shard per encounter
• Leaders: 3 shadow shards per encounter
• Giovanni: 4 shadow shards per encounter
• Shadow Attacks: Maximum 5 per encounter

The above drops don’t replace other rewards from Team Go Rocket encounters – such as Mysterious Components – and you’ll get a breakdown of how many Shadow Shards you have once the battle is over.

Once you’ve collected enough Shadow Shards, you can use them to create Purified Gems.

Getting Purified Gems in Pokémon Go

Purified Gems are formed by collecting enough Shadow Shards. To create a Purified Gem you must have four Shadow Shards. It is then automatically used to create a Purified Gem using the Shard Refiner.

You can hold up to 10 cleared gems at a time. From there, it’s time to use them during Shadow Pokémon Raids…

Using Purified Gems in Shadow Attacks

Purified Gems have only one purpose: to counter a Shadow Pokémon’s “Raged” status during an attack, an effect that makes them stronger and thus more difficult to defeat.

Once the Pokémon has become enraged (you can see them glow purple and the word “enraged” appear above their health bar), tap the button on the bottom left of the screen to use a Purified Gem to turn the Pokémon back to its non-angered state.

Image: Niantic

According to Niantic, the effects of a Purified Gem accumulate when multiple Trainers use one, and each individual Trainer can use up to five Purified Gems per battle.

How effective are Purified Gems on ‘raging’ Shadow Raid Pokémon?

How useful are purified gems in shadow attacks? When the item debuted, there were few community findings, but we wanted to test not use a solo shadow attack against Croconaw (a Tier 3 attack, which in theory we should only be able to take down with strong counters) to measure their impact.

The resulting battle saw the “furious” status appear about halfway down the Pokémon’s health bar, which slowed progress enough that we couldn’t end the encounter before the timer ran out.

It’s possible with a second player (or more) that these Tier 3 encounters are possible without a Purified Gem, but at Tier 5, or going solo with a Shadow Raid, we’d say using one or more is recommended.