Pokémon Go Event Rollup, 5/3/2018

Many mobile games have lots of events that sometimes run together. Pokémon Go is no exception, and recently the game has had an active run of events. Sure, there's the usual menagerie of raids and Ex-Raids, but then there are also additional events that change the gameplay dynamics somewhat from the usual norm. And all of that has happened one after another, even up to now; some of those become worthy for discussion.

On April 10 and over the course of the week or so following that, there was a "Kanto special" where Pokémon from the Kanto region dominated encounters. Not only that, there was a double candy bonus for Pokémon during this time. It was said that the dominant encounters were for helping Trainers with their Mew quest, and I found this incredibly true. Knowing that a Magikarp evolution was needed for it, I had to take advantage of the event to gather the 400 candies needed to do just that - since my candy stock was woefully low - and I managed to do so. When it came time to execute the evolution, I only needed to execute it rather than run circles around my locale just to find the candies. And for the time of this event, it felt almost like when I first played the game. This one was handy and entertaining at the same time.

After April 22, which happened to be Earth Day, there was an event to celebrate the role of Trainers in the commemoration. For one week, Pokémon of the Grass, Ground, and Water types dominated encounters, and there was a bonus of increased Stardust for the Pokémon concerned. On one hand, this was a special celebration with all those Pokémon; on the other hand, this could be seen as a "second chance" event for those who didn't collect Magikarp during the previous one. It was regardless an attractive event for fellow players in my raid group, with some even showing the Shiny Wailmer they captured - the neat new addition - and taking the opportunity for Lure parties, though I didn't have the chance for either. It was still a good one in my view.

The latest one of these is something that has been dubbed a "Battle Showdown"; it started two days ago involving a Fighting-type festival, with dominant Fighting-type appearances in the wild - plus the new Shiny Makuhita - along with double experience and other bonuses in regard to Gym battles and raid battles. There are also additional raid bosses to celebrate the occasion. This is already proving lucrative to many players, as even the Gyms I frequent have become abuzz with activity, with raids or otherwise. I even took advantage of the latter part of today to see if I could raid, which luckily I was able to. I expect more of this and other similar activity in the upcoming days as the event progresses.

These events are certainly beyond the usual norm of things in Go. They bring many things, special things, bonus things, and just about everything good that Trainers can expect. They're happy, they get to do more things, and they get to achieve more things. I'm prompted to do the same too, and that's a good thing. At the least when things re-settle into a normal routine, they will be in a better position compared to without their presence or participation.

One year ago: Gender Mismatch Detected