Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s November looks overstuffed and underseasoned

By
Andrew Ross
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Ah yes, November. The month of my favorite feasting holiday! Pokemon Go is hoping to deliver a feast of its own this month, but… well, you know where this is going. The fine print, continued lack of storage, new Max Mondays, and a new supposedly yearly event on the horizon should give any critical player or follower a reason to feel a bit sick.

It may be a bit early, but for today’s Massively on the Go, let’s be thankful that we know Niantic’s track record and can make some predictions on how November and the near future is going to look.

I’ll try not to jump the gun here and start yet again with raids. Let’s rip off the bandaid and start with Shadow Suicune on weekends: Just don’t do them unless you have no other options. The fact that they are in-person only and less than useful isn’t great, but it does pairs nicely with Aeroblast Lugia returning. It’s nice to see Lugia get it’s signature move back without a special event or paid ticket, but it’s been nerfed pretty badly in PvP and PvE, so consider that time a bit of a break unless you’re trying to build an Apex Lugia for Master League PvP.

While having Palkia and Dialgia return November 18th-27th in their Origin Formes sounds neat in theory, the problem is that their signature moves are not guaranteed and can not be Elite TMed, as we found out with the Wild Area event announcement. Worse, you get that chance until only the 24th. After that, their value becomes even more questionable, as intentionally leaving off the ability to Elite TM a move is new to Dialgia and Palkia, and we don’t when or whether that will change.

Maybe that should is the tip off that November is looking more like Niantic setting up a feast on player wallets and leaving us hungry for more. We’ll get to that, but to note, during that time, there’ll also be raid hours for nearly a week straight, and not all of those ‘mon are worth your passes, even though in-person raids will guarantee at least 1XL candy when catching raid hour ‘mon.

If that doesn’t sound heavy, then you’re not going to like this: Zacian and Zamazenta are coming back with Regieleki and Regidrago from November 27th-December 3rd. Yes, all at once for less than a week. You’re probably seeing the money-generating pattern.

For Megas, we’re getting a lot, but few are worth writing about. I mean, y’all see the Mega-quest-introductory, free-energy-from-Gym-spins Mega Beedrill being in raids, right? That’s the POGO equivalent of getting the newbie tutorial quest back years after the product’s launched and you’re already raiding endgame content. That being said, Ampharos could have some use during the upcoming Wild Area event, Salamence works as a Rayquaza-lite, and while note a top pick, I do recommend people having Mega Altaria for certain events and raids.

For Max Raid Battles, yeesh. All the starters will be back, but keep in mind that they all have Gigantimax forms, and the Kanto ones will already have them released, which really kills motivation.

The one exception is the new Max Mondays event (every Monday after November 11th from 6 p.m.-7 p.m. ), which on the 18th will have a new Dynamax ‘mon, Drilbur. While it’s not the most popular pokemon, Ground is doubly effective against the Wild Area featured pokemon, Toxtricity. Drilbur is often considered a “safe evolution” in terms of probably not getting a Community Day or new ground-breaking event move.

And it’s being available for only one day is a massive FOMO move in an already-packed calendar with kind of a bunch of nothing going on from what we can tell. My recommendation would be that players stay over the particle cap on November 17th 14th to do as many raids on the 18th release days as possible, but that’s assuming these are soloable, you have time, and you have the locations. It’s looking messy, and the fact that Niantic now plans to hold Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday events every week, in addition to other events often occurring on weekends, is making things feel quite bloated at this point in the game’s life, but I will eventually go into that in a separate column.

11/6 Update: Luckily Niantic either misspoke/released bad info or changed their mind, as Drilbur will be available November 15th-17th too, so we’ve updated the particle saving plan above to note that you now want to save particles on the 14th to do as many Max Raids as possible the following day(s), if you’re investing in the feature.

For events, we have Battle GO Weekend November 2nd-3rd. As usual, this will probably involve the battle cap going from 20 to 100 matches per day and quests to get an elite TM of some sort, possibly also avatar outfits. There’s a chance there could be a last-minute Rocket Event too, but I’m not holding my breath on that. We’ll update this as we learn more.

November 7th-12th is the Harvest Festival event. This is a relatively new event having started last year. The main aspects last time were double Pumpkaboo candy and the release of the Smoliv line, but that was when the event was in October. This time everyone gets double candy, Smoliv’s shiny debuts, and Pumpkaboo has increased shiny odds. Mossy lures also attract different pokemon than usual, which is a first for an event, though outside of Smoliv for its new shiny and Pumpkaboo for the increased odds of shininess and being XXL as a lure bonus, Snorlax is kind of long in the tooth at this point, and Alola Exeggutor is mostly for kicks and giggles now. It’s cute and different but seems more like a test rather than a celebration.

November 10th will be Mankey Community Day, and it’s going to be interesting. While many collectors and casuals are disappointed as it’s a Kanto ‘mon with a long-released shiny that spawns frequently, some feel we’ve already had Mankey Day. That being said, its final form, Annihilape, has had some PvP uses, and we may see more of that, as its featured event move, Rage Fist, is looking like Power Up Punch in PvP, but with the strength and speed of Shadowball. That’s very good and a reason some PvPers will be looking to build around Primeape, who gets the featured move and Karate Chop, which will quickly grant the energy needed to fire off Rage Fist.

PvErs don’t need to worry about this event so much, though it is a nice gym defender without its featured move, for the most part. One could maybe have that and Shadow Ball, as Ragefist would do super effective damage against any Dark type attacker a player brings. Just something to consider, as the evolution requirements are being eased to only catching 20 Fighting Types with Primeape as your buddy. It’ll be a good time to evolve a bunch of these for future use or just trading!

In one of the shorter events in Pokemon GO history that’s not a holiday or weekend event, Simply Groundbreaking will be held from November 15th-17th. It’s a new event with what I fear will be a cruelly ironic name. I’m guessing it’ll feature Ground types, especially since as we discussed, they’ll do the best damage against the Wild Area Event featured pokemon Toxtricity, an Electric/Poison type. Anything other than that is just guessing at this point, so again, check back later for more details.

11/6 Update: We now have event details and it’s basically a Drilbur event. It’s not even a new shiny, just a major counter to Toxtricity. The extra XL candy is nice, Rhyhorn’s family is still quite useful for raids if you can’t afford an army of legendaries or Shadows, and I’m a big Noibat-fam fan, but objectively, this probably a skippable event outside of Wild Area attendees needing Dynamax Drilburs for the event.

Unsurprisingly, before the main event, we have Into the Wild from November 18th-22nd. It very much sounds like a prep event from the title. We don’t have a lot of details, but there is a raid hour each day of this event as we mentioned above. While I get that Tapu Koko (Electric) and Nihilego (Poison) fit the whole Toxtricty theme Niantic is really pushing hard, they’re still odd choices, and Tapu Koko is hard to celebrate because it’s rarely useful, perhaps less so than Poison types in general. November 21st and 22nd being Orgin Dialga and Palkia certain seem the best, but you’re also probably going to raid them during the event proper, so the whole thing feels like a cash grab.

11/7 Update: We now have official details on the event, and as predicted, it is a prep period. Outside of Foongus for stardust, there’s not much here for veterans in terms of wild spawns, though new players can still make use of Roserade, or the Bulbasaur and/or Gastly lines for (XL) candy to power up Dyna/Gigantamaxes. Grubbin works too if you need Bug types for raids or Charjabug for PvP.

The extra tickets for hatching and raids are a nice bonus if you’re willing to pay for them, but their mileage may vary. Again, don’t buy eggstuffs to gamble, buy them if you’re looking for stardust. Hatching Toxel is nice, but keep in mind the “best” (or at least, most broadly useful) Toxels are the already evolved ones you get from Gigantamax battles during the Wild Area event proper.

Raid-wise, $5 for possibly 5 extra raid passes isn’t great. I say possibly because some similar deals bled into the event proper, but Niantic hasn’t specified here. If they do, the extra passes for Saturday and Sunday may make things more worth it, as there are some big targets players may want to raid that weekend. However, if the deal only works through the 22nd, it’s just kind of OK. The extra candy and xp seems negligible, and while Niantic may be doing this partially due to the above-mentioned daily raid hours, you can always ignore those and focus on the Origin Forme Dialga and/or Palkia.

November 23rd-24th is the big Wild Area event we’ve covered elsewhere and will possibly have a separate whole post should it call for it. For those who have missed it, it’s another Go Fest-esque event focusing on big quests, costumed pokemon, special moves, and raids (both regular and Max Battles, with the latter feeling pushed a bit more). While the event may be two days long, I’m still on the fence about whether there’s enough going on for anyone but lapsed or new players to really get super hyped about it. It’s almost seeming like a testing ground for new features with the lure of a few potentially useful raid ‘mon we got at the start of the year (the Orgin Formes of Dialga and Palkia). We will update this spot with more info as we learn it, though.

Lastly, we have the Max Out Finale from November 27th- December 1st. I’m guessing there’ll be something with a Gigantimax ‘mon, but I’d also like to think that soon after, we’ll hear about any changes to raiding – not just Max Battles, but core raiding – as these do seem to be attempting to replace our normal raids. We say this a lot in these roundups, but we’ll update readers as we learn more.

11/19 Update: We now have official details on the event, and oddly enough, I was wrong: there is no Max Battles push. While I’m sure there is some forethought and planning in POGO events, I do wonder if Niantic changed or excluded Max Battles due to their current poor reception. At the least, the wild spawns help players gather (XL) candy needed for Galarian Dynamax ‘mon if you’re into that.

Conjecture aside, the event also introduces Galarian Corsola, which is basically just a PvP ‘mon you don’t want to evolve but looks neat. Problem is, you only get it from 7k eggs, so you have to gamble, but at least it’s also a half distance hatch event.

Similarly, while there are 4 shiny options to raid, with two being useful in PvP, you only get one raid pass a day. However, you can buy a $10 event ticket to get 5 additional passes per day, which is 25 passes, if you can use them. Luckily, the remote raid limit will be up to 10 during this time, which should help enable whales to help rural players who buy the pass. It’s not a bad deal, but the event was clearly made for this sale combination.

 

Spotlight Hour this month is a mixed bag. The 5th and 26th seem skippable in terms of pokemon, but the 5th comes with a double transfer event you won’t want to miss (nor will your storage, as you’ll want to clean up this month). The 12th with Smoliv seems like a good time to snag the shiny if you didn’t get it during the Harvest event. The 19th, though, is when you’ll want to use a star piece and cash in on some saved stardust ‘mon, as Combee gives a whopping 750 bonus stardust per catch before that 2x multiplier. While obviously you’ll have to contend with Teddiursa’s as well, which are far less useful in general and provide no dust bonus, it’s still pretty good.

Again, I know there’s a lot going on this month, and not all of it may seem worth your time – especially with Thanksgiving coming. I suggest trainers let go of less desireable events and just stick with what seems fun. Stay safe out there, trainers!

Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
Pokemon Go studio Niantic is considered a controversial gaming company owing to multiple scandals and deceptions, starting with the Wi-Spy privacy scandal; over the years, it’s repeatedly failed to secure player data, endangered players during the pandemic, and refused to address documented stalking in POGO. It also rolled back popular accessibility features to incentivize data collection, faked data, and lied about event results. Following 2021’s community-driven Pokemon No boycott, Niantic vowed transparency and communication; it has not delivered.
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