Gather around, trainers: Have you heard of Mr. Rime? The new version Pokemon’s Mr. Mime got a Galar regional variant that also evolves, and it’s making its way to Pokemon Go in a special event slated for December 18th. For about $8 US, players get incubators, Glacial Lures, Star Pieces, Premium Battle Passes, a poffin, and more, plus a Galar Mr. Mime with enough candy to evolve it. Players have noted the deal isn’t as good as past paid research, especially for people who remember that Farfetch’d – a fellow regional exclusive that got a new varient that also evolves – had its Galarian form released for free in the wild.
If you’re not fond of mimes or tapdancing, though, there’s still an end of the year celebration featuring costumed pokemon and several bonuses.
Contrary to previous years, this year we haven’t seen any mention of the free, single-use incubators we tend to get with this event (we’ve asked Niantic if this was simply overlooked and will update if we hear back).
There has been mention of special rewards from AR mapping, so it could be in there. While I’ve been practically raving about recent changes to the game, my previous feelings about AR Mapping still stand: I still do the content, in spite of the WiSpy scandal and gacha-esque hidden odds, but I want to note that if you are upset about the AR system, you can cover the camera so Niantic gets no data. You could also create a “standby” card to block your surroundings in protest, with text urging the company to be more open about its data-capture-and-handling or shiny odds, which are under scrutiny again for Shiny Rufflet’s egg and raid feature.
At any rate, the new event starts December 22nd and brings stickers, costumes, new clothes (including that berry snatching Gen 8 squirrel, Greedent), Gen 5’s weird vanilla icecream pokemon family, and two-day bonuses for things such as increased Lucky Egg durations and Double Stardust. Regice is also coming back with raids from December 26th through 27th, which is also when incense will attract more snow-themed pokemon. Oh, and the event is once again bringing those AR mapping tasks. If you need good ice pokemon, December 22nd is certainly a good time to fire up the game.
And don’t forget, there’s still the February Kanto Red/Green event. We asked Niantic’s PR if the event was related to the Go Beyond press event and official posting that also mentioned revisiting past regions. Once PR confirmed that we hadn’t imagined that news, we were told “the series of in-game events celebrating different regions of the Pokemon world, is referring to events like the Kalos Celebration event.” When asked if this meant the Kanto event was separate from this post, Niantic told us it will “let [us] know if [it has] anything to share.” We’ve received similar replies when asking about extended distance trade events and a pre-Community Day Team Rocket Event, so this may mean the February event is part one of that tour. Whether or not other regions will get treatment like this or perhaps will be more like the Kalos Celebration, it’s hard to say, but given how several generations are missing pokemon, we suspect this tour could scale up or down depending on the gaps Niantic will fill.
