Niantic has laid out all three big Pokémon GO events for the rest of April. To top it all off, the mobile game maker has adjusted the gameplay while all its trainers are observing home quarantine.
The San Francisco-based game company has since been trying to adjust its well-loved mobile game to assure that their players can still actively play while staying at home.
Niantics have already started with adjusting the Adventure sync and tweaking the required distance to hatch eggs. Last weekend, they hosted Marill Day to celebrate the launch of the GO Battle leaderboard.
Although there might have been a few hiccups during the weekend event, nevertheless, the Pokémon GO makers promised that they’re going to brew something special to make up for the said issues.
Indeed enough, in the last few days, Niantic has issued a series of press releases through their blog, separately announcing three events and a major change to Pokémon GO gameplay.
Quarantine-friendly improvements
On April 15, Niantic finally announces the highly anticipated changes to the AR game for it to be more conducive indoors while the coronavirus pandemic is still on a high.
First is the Remote Raid Pass. With this, trainers can now access Raid Battles without physically going to Raid locations.
They’ll be able to enter Raid Battles that are present on their Nearby screen. However, trainers can only hold a certain amount of Remote Raid Passes at a time.
The Remote Raid Passes will be launched at a discounted price of 100 PokéCoins. If it’s too much to pay, trainers can look out for the 1 PokéCoin bundles that’ll include Remote Raid Passes.
⭐ We’ll be making adjustments to Remote Raid Passes, including adding the ability to invite friends to raids regardless of their location, so please stay tuned for further announcements.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) April 16, 2020
Moreover, the developers have also added a new feature to the trainers’ Buddy Pokémons. The buddies can now run to nearby PokéStops for you and come back bearing gifts.
These gifts, however, are not for the trainers but for their friends. Whenever trainers are running low on gifts to send, they’ll be able to command their Buddy Pokémons to fetch some for them.
Niantics will also give out a bonus Field Research Task that will not include spinning a PokéStop. The task will be more home-centered.
To make sure trainers receive the bonus task, they’ve added up a fourth Field Research slot. Players will just have to make sure to always keep that fourth slot open for the bonus slot to get through.
The 30-minute duration of Star Piece, Lucky Egg, and Incense will be extended! There is no information has to how long the extension will be, but the limit of some of the items will go as long as 24 hours.
Lastly, the upcoming major update to expect is an easier way to power up Pokémons.
Niantic says, ” With this update, you’ll be able [to] give your Pokémon all the Candies and Stardust needed to power it up to your desired CP level at once. Now you can focus more of your time on honing your battle skills in the GO Battle League!”
The aforementioned are all major updates that’ll come to Pokémon GO very soon. There are also minor updates that are to be noted, such as polished Battle screens and tweaked shop icons.
Oh you thought we were done with announcements for today? Think again!
You can put off that spring cleaning a little bit longer, as now you can purchase even more space for items! 🎒 https://t.co/DGKQ7zsmQ4
— Niantic (@NianticLabs) April 16, 2020
Upcoming BIG events
Niantic is making themselves very busy with three Pokémon GO events laid out for the rest of April.
The major updates make sense now – to help prepare the trainers for these events.
First, Incense Day will be happening this Sunday, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM local time, while the Buddy Up event starts next week, April 21, until April 27, 10:00 PM.
It is time to buddy up, Trainers! Enjoy special #PokemonGOBuddy related bonuses, like decreased walking distance for Buddy Candy and for earning hearts. Learn more: https://t.co/9Q0CTPetLK pic.twitter.com/6ySWBwFcjI
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) April 16, 2020
The second event is allotted solely for the trainers to bond with their Buddy Pokémons. There will be a decreased walking distance requirement for earning Buddy Candies and hearts.
Meanwhile, Niantic is making up for the previously canceled March Community Day this April 25 with Community Day: Play at Home Edition.
It’s also called Abra Community Day as it will obviously feature the bipedal Pokémon Abra.
Trainers, we’ve made some temporary changes to Community Day to make it easier for you to participate from anywhere you play, including at home. We’d like to introduce you to #PokemonGOCommunityDay: Play at Home Edition. Learn more: https://t.co/zDort6xeG3 pic.twitter.com/Pffxuhue0m
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) April 16, 2020
There’ll be 24-hour Twitter coverage of the big event, and trainers are encouraged to share their Community Day experiences with #PokemonGOCommunityDay.
Schedule of Pokémon appearances for Incense Day
This Sunday, as mentioned, will be the day that Pokémons come to us instead of the other way around. Now, Niantic is aware that trainers brew Pokémon specialties.
But wait there’s more news today! Get ready for our first ever Incense Day: Type Shuffle 🔀 Smells like fun to us https://t.co/c5s4L7aXqd
— Niantic (@NianticLabs) April 15, 2020
This is why they’ve posted a rotation or a “shuffle” as dubbed it so that players can schedule when to activate their incense item.
The shuffle will happen every hour as each incense item is also only good for an hour.
Here’s the announced schedule of Pokémon appearances:
- 11:00 AM to 12:00 NN – Water-type Pokémons
- 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM – Fire-type Pokémons
- 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM – Grass-type Pokémons
- 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM – Psychic-type Pokémons
- 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM – Bug-type Pokémons
- 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM – Ground-type Pokémons
All the while, Sentret will have a constant appearance all throughout the afternoon as he is a Normal-type Pokémon.
Featured image courtesy of Pokémon GO/Twitter