Pokémon World Championships Tie-In Event for Pokémon Go Has Begun

Image of legendary Pokémon Zacian and Zamazenta in a Pokémon battle arena filled with crowds.

So you wanna be the master of Pokémon, but you’re not in London for the first Pokémon World Championships held since COVID’s been a thing. That’s fine, Pokémon Go’s next event, replacing the Bug Out that ended Tuesday, is a huge tie-in, and it’s undoubtedly multi-faceted, celebrating its inclusion in the event for the first time.

First off, Stardust earned from the Go Battle League is tripled, and there can be ten Go Battle League sets a day. Pikachu has its 39th variant introduced, a full-blown snazzy outfit, and it looks great. It’s in raids too, one-star of course, and its shiny form is available immediately. Speaking of raids, Sword and Shield mascot legendaries Zacian and Zamazenta return to the game in five-star raids for the first time in about a year, following the end of the Ultra Unlock event. They still can’t be shiny yet. Galarian Farfetch’d, Marill, Barboach, Timburr, and Scraggy are also available in one-star raids, while Lickitung, Primeape, and Skarmory are in three-star raids. Scraggy and Primeape can’t be shiny. There are increased spawns for Nidoran♀, Mankey, Machop, Mudkip, Sableye, Meditite, Swablu, Spheal, Croagunk, Scraggy, Galarian Stunfisk, and Dewpider. All but Scraggy and Dewpider can be found shiny.

RELATED:

Now, let’s talk about Research. There are three exclusive Field Research tasks to complete. Battling in the game’s Battle League garners encounters with Galarian Zigzagoon or Galarian Stunfisk. Powering up your Pokémon three times garners encounters with Bulbasaur, Chikorita, or Mudkip. Powering up your Pokémon seven times garners encounters with Gastly, Rhyhorn, Magikarp, Beldum, and Fletchling. Evolving any of these to their final forms allows them access to their special moves that had only been available on their Community Day or the subsequent December Community Days that bring all the year’s Pokémon to be featured again. They are Gengar with Shadow Punch, Gyarados with Aqua Tail, Metagross with Meteor Mash, Rhyperior with Rock Wrecker, and Talonflame with Incinerate. Catching any of the listed fully-evolved Pokémon during the event will also have the moves.

There are two elements of Timed Research happening. Battling 5 Challengers will ultimately get you 10 Poké Balls, 10 Great Balls, 10 Ultra Balls, a Charged TM, and a Fast TM, with its ultimate reward being a Worlds Pikachu encounter, an Elite Fast TM, and an Elite Charged TM. But what are these “Challengers”? These are AI trainers that can be encountered at any PokéStop, presumably reducing the presence that Team Rocket members will have over this weekend. There are six Challengers: the Eccentric have Sirfetch’d, Walrein, and Talonflame, the Novice have Sableye, Azumarill, and Obstagoon, the Confident have Walrein, Trevenant, and Lickitung, the Slick have Azumarill, Trevenant, and Medicham, the Ambitious have Obstagoon, Nidoqueen, and Greedent, and the Eager have Nidoqueen, Sableye, and Swampert. The second Timed Research will be available through a special limited code that'll be given in the Twitch chat, which is very bizarre, as it can be easily missable, especially if there are multiple Twitch channels in use, and probably will affect how much of a YouTube audience there will be. It’s only redeemable for an hour. It provides players with a choice of encounters to build a team that’ll be battle-ready in the Great League. Choice one is Ariados, Pelipper, and Galarian Stunfisk. Choice two is Skarmory, Swampert, Drapion, and choice three is Talonflame, Venusaur, and Jellicent. Another code that will be shared during the stream is for the 2022 Worlds Tee to be available in-game. It will also be shared on the game’s social media channels. Additional Go clothing (in-game) includes a Participant Tee available at the venues for attendees, and a whole outfit for the winner of the Go championship.

Enjoy the show, and have fun with the event!

UPDATE: The shirt code was originally tweeted out at noon Eastern on Thursday, but was found to be invalid. On the Niantic Offer Redemption page, use WRGUZRVKRR2M3 instead.

READ NEXT:

Previous
Previous

Paradox Interactive Will Begin Raising The Prices Of Select 'Crusader Kings 3' DLC

Next
Next

SEGA Confirms That They Will Be A Presenter At This Years Gamescom