Holiday- and ice-themed Pokémon, big bonuses coming for Pokémon GO Holidays 2020

Category : News Views: 896 Reading Time: 4 Minutes

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Pokémon GO has announced its annual Holiday event. Ever since the game’s release, Niantic has offered Trainers a wide array of exciting Holiday-themed features and new Pokémon releases during this time of the year.

This year, some familiar Holiday-themed Pokémon are coming back, others are getting new and exclusive costumes and there’s a brand-new Pokémon debuting for the Pokémon GO Holidays 2020.

Aside from eye-catching costumed and ice-themed Pokémon, this event brings exclusive Field Research, winter-themed avatar items, and exciting bonuses.

Pokémon GO Holidays 2020 will run from December 22, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to December 31, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time.

Featured Pokémon for the Pokémon GO Holidays 2020 event

Some of your favorite Pokémon will bring the festivity to the game in event-exclusive costumes. Beloved Pikachu, a Delivery Pokémon Delibird, and lovable Cubchoo will all be wearing all-new holiday-themed costumes for the duration of the event.

Spheal, Snover, and other Ice-type Pokémon will be appearing more frequently in the wild. With the Holidays event, a brand new Pokémon, Vanillite, the Fresh Snow Pokémon, will be making its Pokémon GO debut.

Vanillite’s evolutionary family is based on a vanilla ice cream. Vanillite evolves into Vanillish and finally into Vanilluxe. Like all three-stage evolutions in Pokémon GO, evolving Vanillite into its final form will likely cost 125 Candies, so make sure to take advantage of the event and catch as many as you can.

5 km eggs will also be featuring Ice-type Pokémon, such as Seel, Swinub, Smoochum, Snorunt, Snover, and Vanillite. You will be seeing Alolan Sandshrew, Dewgong, Jynx, Sneasel, Swinub, Walrein, Cubchoo, and Cryogonal in raids.

The Holiday event also marks the “debut” of a Shiny Jynx. The shiny variant of this Pokémon has been available in the game only through evolving its shiny baby form – Smoochum. This will be the first time Trainers can get their hands on a Shiny Jynx without first obtaining a shiny Smoochum.

Event-exclusive Field Research, winter-themed avatar items, and more

For the Holiday event, Trainers can enjoy event-exclusive Field Research tasks that will reward them with the chance to encounter Pokémon like Vanillite and Cryogonal.

To help you get in the Holiday spirit, you can dress up your avatar with new holiday-themed items, such as Greedent Sweater, Whimsicott Earmuffs, Winter Boots, and Winter Coat avatar items.

Interestingly, Niantic has decided to include an avatar item featuring a Pokémon from the most recent, generation VIII (Galar), when it hasn’t debuted in the game yet. Greedent is a Normal-type Pokémon and evolves from Skwovet.

To cheer up your friends, you can adorn your gifts with new, event-exclusive, holiday-themed stickers featuring Alolan Vulpix, Croagunk, Whimsicott, and more. According to Niantic, you won’t be able to get these stickers after the event is over, so make sure to get them while you can.

During the event, exclusive boxes will also be available in the shop. As a part of the event, the AR Mapping tasks will reward you with Abomasnow Mega Energy and a Snorunt encounter.

Pokémon GO Holidays 2020 bonuses

Throughout the event, Trainers will benefit from different bonuses. Take note of the times of these bonuses, since most of them will help you gain additional XP that you might need if you’re hoping to reach level 40 before the end of the year. Or if you are working your way towards the newly-introduced level 50.

Winter Holidays are often associated with gifts, so Niantic has decided to highlight this part of the gameplay.  For the duration of the event, the number of Gifts you can open daily will increase to 45 and the number of Gifts you can carry in your Item Bag will increase to 40.

From December 22, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. to December 23, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time, 2× Raid XP will be in effect. Make sure to stack up on your Raid Passes to earn as much XP as you can!

From December 24, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. to December 25, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time, you will earn double Candy when catching Pokémon.

From December 26, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. to December 27, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time, Star Piece duration will be doubled and will last for an hour.

From December 28, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. to December 29, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time, Lucky Egg will also last for twice as long. If you’re looking to earn more XP, this will be your chance to take advantage of the double Lucky Egg duration.

From December 30, 2020, at 12:00 a.m. to December 31, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. local time, 2× Catch Stardust will be in effect.

Special winter weekend event

Pokémon GO will mark the final weekend in December (and 2020!), with a special winter event.

The mini-event will last from December 26, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. to December 27, 2020, at 10:00 p.m. local time.

As a part of the final weekend celebration, the final of the Regi trio, Regice will be returning to raids. This isn’t the first time the Iceberg Pokémon will be appearing in the game, however, if you’re lacking this Pokémon make sure to catch it during the event. It probably will be long before the Regi trio will return again in raids.

During the event, Delibird, Snorunt, Spheal, Snover, Cryogonal, and Cubchoo will be attracted to Incense more frequently. Completing AR Mapping tasks will give the Trainers a chance to earn Incense and other exciting rewards.

Winter Holidays are most people’s favorite time. After a challenging year, Pokémon GO has provided Trainers with many exciting features to look forward to. Make sure to take advantage of the bonuses while they last and celebrate the Holidays and New Year with Pokémon GO!

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