Pokémon Go Event Rollup, 12/20/2018

I had debated on the right time to write the rollup for this month, and now seems to be a good time as any. The reason is that the most happening thing(s) to Pokémon Go have happened (PvP, "super" Community Day) - aside from the things that I haven't covered, of course. But that's the point of these rollups: to shine a light on the latter while keeping in mind the former, for which the merits are also worth discussing in some way. And that's still a good thing.

The most happening thing that I haven't covered this month (in fact, since October) is the changing of the Level 5 raid bosses. After Giratina left last month, Cresselia took over its place. By my experience, though, while Giratina was somewhat popular and in demand over the period it appeared, Cresselia was only so early on, and near its end, it faced stiff competition. Perhaps most were only interested to fill their Pokédexes and do no more than that. Cresselia then left, and Heatran took its place - a couple of days ago, in fact. Enthusiasm seems to be up and down for this one too, but it's still early yet. How things unfold will have to be seen.

And then there is that stiff competition. Last weekend over three days, both Lugia and Ho-Oh returned (once again) for a Special Raid Weekend, also with their Shiny forms, as they were previously released this year. For some people, it seems a bit much, especially since they've come back at least once in the past. For others, they're only too happy for another stab at getting one with better stats and/or their Shiny forms, or what they've missed. I didn't mind either way, as I could try for a Shiny Lugia and didn't mind helping the others. Unfortunately, I didn't get a Shiny Lugia this time around, but a Shiny Ho-Oh did show up. Perhaps this wasn't stiff competition, so much as it was a way of making things more lively, which it was. There may still be hope of seeing them in Field Research Breakthroughs.

As for this year's "last hurrah", that would be this year's edition of the Holiday Event. For this event, Ice-type Pokémon appear with greater frequency, certainly to coincide with the northern winter. As well, Pikachu appears with a Santa hat, for which it may be Shiny thanks to the Community Day earlier this year. Surprises are also abound among Eggs and newly unleashed fourth-generation Pokémon; to help, the first PokéStop spun each day will award a single-use Egg Incubator. Also, there are sectioned bonuses: four days of double Candy (right now), then four days of double Stardust, four days of double XP, and four days of halved Egg distance. Everything is for the merriment - I've already experienced quite a bit and will see more in the next few days.

These may be the little things in Go so far, but they're little big things among the big big things that have happened, and they have their own great qualities. That said, with this being the last month of this year, that pretty much wraps up the big and small events alike in Go, as well as the rollups for this year. It's not hard to expect even more little big events in the coming year, and when those happen, it will be time for more rollups.

One year ago: Movie Manga!