Another day, another slew of upcoming Pokemon Go events. While many players thought the previous Sinnoh event was rather humdrum, the recently announced Hoenn Tour is doing Generation 3 proud. Niantic is giving players three free remote raid passes to help catch Kyogre and Groudon from home (which is sadly one less than they’ll need to complete timed research), plus players who completed the timed research quests will get a Rayquaza with an exclusive Hurricane charged attack.
Not only that, but during the event, players who evolve Beldum up to Metagross will have the ‘mon’s signature Meteormash, a Community Day-exclusive move that was sorely missed in the December CD catch-up event. Be sure to evolve Beldum between 10 a.m. on January 19th and 8 p.m. January 24th, 2021, local time.
And in regard to Community Day, we’ve got updates on both the January and February events. First is that trade range will be increased to 40km (~25 miles). This is important not only so you can finally unload some trade pokemon you’ve been hoarding or get a lucky trade in, but Machoke’s evolution cost goes from 100 candy to zero if it’s been traded. Remember, all IVs (the star rating) are rerolled when you trade. High-level machops/machokes are good for raiders and casuals, while PVP players probably want a decent range of levels, especially if they’re hoarders.
We also finally have stats on Payback for Machamp’s upcoming Community Day thanks to dataminers, and it’s not great – at least not for Machamp. PvE and Gym users will probably prefer Rockslide as their coverage charge attack, as it’s a single bar move for a measly 110 damage. Payback’s basically for PvP as a 2 bar move a la Outrage. Ultra League PvP fans could make good use of it against Giratina, though as always, themed cups and rebalances could improve/nerf the move.
If you’re worried bout how Roserade Community Day is the same day as the “Big game,” don’t! So far, people looking at the numbers don’t seem to think either move is highly relevant in PvE or PVP, so most collectors and hardcore PvP fans can go easy. Mind you, there’ll still be faster hatching as a bonus and more 2k eggs so you can get a shiny Budew, the unevolved Roselia, but your mileage may vary. One thing to keep in mind is that Roserade is one of the top non-shadow Grass types in PvE as is, so this event is what you’ll need to gather XL candy to raise it above level 40.
PvP fans at rank 20+ may have noticed that Frillish is only male at the time of this writing. Don’t worry about getting a female for now. If you’re not yet rank 20 or haven’t played in awhile, fret not, as your first reward encounter since release for rank 20+ players is guaranteed to be a Frillish. Sadly, the pool is rather full of less-desirable pokemon, so getting a second one might be a bit rough.
In other PvP news, the upcoming Kanto Cup (Kanto pokemon and variants cup for Great League running from Monday, February 22nd, 2021, at 4:00 p.m. EST to Monday, March 1st, 2021, at 4:00 p.m. EST) was fairly confusing for many players. Niantic told us that “only the Kanto Cup will be available during the final week” and that “during that week, ratings won’t be affected; however, players will still be able to progress through ranks which are gated by battles and wins (i.e., all ranks up until rank 20).” Players who are over rank 20 clearly need to hit their desired rating before February 22nd, but latecomers can still rank up during the Kanto Cup.
I try to keep news on datamining light, especially in terms of features, but there’s also some evidence that Niantic may be introducing a subscription service. The details only reveal a trial and grace-period thus far, but I do fear a hybrid model that asks for monthly payments while still holding gatcha-style events. Transparent egg info that’s been datamined is scant, and a step in the right direction if it goes live, but still feels like gross monetization.
Finally, for those story fans who’ve contacted me on Twitter, Niantic’s PR sadly has no updates in the missing Professor I previously mentioned. With the Hoenn quests being Timed Research, which do not use Professor Willow, it seems the original marketing text was simply a flavor inclusion. I’m guessing we may have to wait until the Kanto climax to hear from the researcher.
