Pokémon Go Event Rollup, 11/25/2018

Pokémon Go certainly has a lot of events, if my previous rollups are of any indication. Having written about them for the past five months - and this month would be the sixth - I'd say that's pretty standard. That said, each event is still significant for progression as they offer various incentives, and to look back upon for their highs and lows, which is why I have continued to write about them. Some events may also be good indicators of what is to come, as with a few recent events.

First up is an event that in some ways I have prophesied to come true in a way. Two months ago, I wrote about the event concept of "Community Raid Days" based on the Legendary Bird Days that occurred as part of the Summer Tour, but extended to other (non-Legendary) Pokémon. Three weeks ago, this was realized, only it wasn't called that; it was just called a "Special Raid Challenge". The featured Pokémon was Gengar, which led to the other accepted name, "Gengar Day" based on the other naming pattern; it came with its Shiny form as well as the exclusive move Lick in tow. Uniquely, the exclusive move could also be obtained by evolving a Haunter into Gengar during the event period, likely as an effect of this event being held for regular Pokémon. I only raided a handful of Gengar, and none of them were Shiny; I did, however, evolve a Haunter with max stats and obtained a bottomed-out Gengar from the raids. It was still fun to do so with a handful of others from my raid group.

Recently, there was also a couple of events that are as different as they are alike. The first was titled "Stardust Blast", which increased the amount of Stardust that could be obtained for a period of time. Incidentally, the November Community Day, which also featured an increased Stardust bonus, ran concurrently with this event, allowing for massive Stardust bonuses. The second, which is actually still currently running, is titled the "Hatchathon"; by its title, this event involves Eggs. Though the number of Eggs that can be hatched is not increased (through reducing Egg distance), one thing is increased: the number of Pokémon in a certain Egg pool, the 2 km one. The Pokémon added happen to be the baby or first-stage forms of some Pokémon that could evolve into newly added Pokémon from the fourth generation. Like the "Stardust Blast" event, this one is also concurrent with (though not related to) another event...

...and that event is called the Let's Go event, because it celebrates the recently-released Let's Go games on the Switch. As part of this event, Meltan becomes available to all through a set of Special Research tasks, as well as when the game is linked to the Let's Go games. To that end, the most commonly appearing Pokémon are Pikachu, Eevee, and other Pokémon of the first generation (as they are featured in the Let's Go games), as well as Pokémon that would assist in completing the Special Research tasks for Meltan, which are the sine qua non for this goal. Event-related Field Research tasks are also available to aid completion of this. Further, the evolved forms of Eevee that are thus far available also appear in raids as Level 3 bosses, adding to the festivity. This should augment the interest of players to obtain the Switch and one of the Let's Go games; mine surely has.

It's hard to not expect the "Special Raid Challenge" to be repeated some time in the future, now that this is more or less standard like a Community Day event. Stardust and Egg events too will certainly occur in the future, though perhaps with different twists, like amounts for the former and other varied pools for the latter. And while it's hard to expect a replay of the Let's Go event, much fun seems to await with further interactions between Go and those games. All these events seem to indicate great things in store for the game, and I'm already looking forward to further developments.

One year ago: Late Launch Party... Minus the Party