Pokemon Go celebrates the holidays and new games

Between the coming holidays and the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield, Pokemon Go is in a celebratory mood. With this comes new events and developments for trainers worldwide. Already, in celebration of the newest pair of main series games, the Poison and Fairy type Galarian Weezing has begun to appear in four-star raids.

Along with this new form of a familiar Pokemon come new clothing options based on the protagonists of Sword and Shield, and based on information from dataminers, these are only the game’s first representatives from the Galar region.

Next up, Niantic has announced that Team Go Rocket will be stepping up its invasion big time on November 24th. From 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (local time) on Sunday, Team Go Rocket Grunts will take over every single PokeStop in the game.

This is presumably meant to help players complete the Special Research mission focused on fighting these villains, but new Field Research will become available for the event, too.

Finally, just like last year, December’s Community Day will be something special. Rather than focusing on one Pokemon, there will be increased spawns of every Pokemon that has had a Community Day in the past year.

That means Totodile, Swinub, Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip, Ralts, Slakoth, Trapinch, Bagon, Turtwig, and Chimchar will all have an increased spawn rate, with shiny versions available for all of them. And that’s just the start!

Beyond even that, trainers will receive 2× Catch Stardust, 2× Catch XP, and 1/2 Egg Hatch Distance. You’ll have much more time to take all of this in than usual, as Community Day will cover both Saturday, December 14th, and Sunday, December 15th, from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM (local time).

The extra bonuses (2x Catch Stardust, etc.) will only be available between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM, though.

That’s a lot to take in, so make sure you’re prepared. The unfortunate thing about these big events happening in November and December is that it’s already too cold to spend extended amounts of time outside playing in much of the world, including here in Chicago.

But freezing temperatures didn’t stop me from hunting down Groudon until my fingers were completely numb last year, so hopefully I’ll see you out there. In the meantime, keep an eye out for my review of Sword and Shield, which should be ready soon.