How to get Max Mushrooms in Pokémon Go

Max Mushrooms are a paid item in Pokémon Go to boost your damage in Max Battles. These controversial mushrooms will help players clear out difficult Gigantamax battles — but only for a price.

In their games of origin, Pokémon Sword and Shield, three of these mushrooms are used to make Max Soup, a treat that will turn your regular Dynamax Pokémon into rare Gigantamax Pokémon. That’s not the case in Pokémon Go, though.

Below we explain what Max Mushrooms do in Pokémon Go and how to get them.

What do Max Mushrooms do in Pokémon Go?

Max Mushrooms double your damage in Max Battles for 30 minutes at a time each. It only buffs your Pokémon, not the Pokémon of other players.

Just like Incense, Lucky Eggs, and other similar useable items, you can stack Max Mushrooms to extend the duration. However, using Origin Forme Dialga’s Roar of Time does not increase the duration of Max Mushrooms.

All of that said, this means if a group of 20 trainers is needed to take down a Gigantamax Pokémon, you should be able to beat the battle with 10 trainers… if they all use a mushroom. Admittedly, this seems like a pretty bad way to deal with the fact that players, particularly in rural areas, are struggling to grab enough people to complete battles against Gigantamax Pokémon.

On the flipside, this also means Max Mushrooms are not required if you have the numbers and strong counters — the Gigantamax system launched without them, after all — so if you can save yourself money, we’d recommend it.

How to get Max Mushrooms in Pokémon Go

At the moment, the only ways to get Max Mushrooms is to buy them in the shop, in event boxes, or tickets. On their own, Max Mushrooms cost 400 coins and a bundle of three costs 1,000 coins.

As of this writing, Max Mushrooms have also appeared in limited-time event boxes and tickets, like the Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Ticket, which ran for $4.99 and included one mushroom, alongside other perks.

There is also a “Battle Box” bundle that gives you one Max Mushroom, two Max Particle Packs, 13 Rare Candy, and nine Max Revives for $9.99. While these bundles won’t stick around forever, they give a bit of an idea of other paid sources for the mushrooms in the future.

Can you get Max Mushrooms for free in Pokémon Go?

As mentioned above, no — at least not as of this writing. There is a bit of a “free sample” that you can try out, though.

When you start a Max Battle, you’ll will see a Max Mushroom button the screen. Tapping this will prompt if you want to give Max Mushrooms a free trial for five minutes (about enough time to do one Max Battle).

It’s entirely possible that Max Mushrooms will become rewards for things like Special and Timed Research, the way we sometimes get research that rewards Incubators, Lucky Eggs, and other paid goodies, but it’s too early to say at this point.

Polygon has contacted developer Niantic for comment on whether Max Mushrooms can be obtained for free at some point, but has yet to receive comment at the time of publishing — and will update this page if or when we do.