While the Pokémon franchise itself had a big impact before the app launched in 2016, Pokémon GO shone a new light on another way to catch ’em all. Pokémon GO revolves around the idea of walking around the real world and catching different wild Pokémon using augmented reality. Throughout recent years, Pokémon GO has lost some of its trendiness, but it hasn’t lost its spark that players still love.
Most Pokémon evolve, or upgrade their form at least once using candies that are achieved through catching and trading. Some Pokémon require the player to adventure with them and complete a quest as a buddy. Any Pokémon can be a buddy, and when fed, that Pokémon will walk around and find gifts and candies.
Pokéstops and Gyms are spots around the world that use real establishments or memorials as a place for players to go. Pokéstops can be found just about anywhere with an accessible building or structure. Players can go to Pokéstops and spin them for items as well as attaching a lure to attract Pokémon to that location. These are very useful for players to get more Pokéballs as well as revives and potions to heal Pokémon. Gyms are a place for players to put their Pokémon to protect against other teams from overtaking that gym. Gyms are also used for players to join together in a raid to take down a very strong Pokémon. Raids happen quite frequently and the raid bosses change from time to time. Recently for Pokémon GO Global, the featured raid bosses included Rayquaza, Primal Kyogre, and Primal Groudon.
Along with fighting other Pokémon in gyms, players can also fight Team GO Rocket Grunts as well as fighting against other online players in the GO Battle League. Team GO Rocket Grunts appear in hot air balloons as well as randomly at Pokéstops. Fighting them grants the opportunity to catch a shadow Pokémon and free it from Team Rocket. If players defeat six grunts, they will then have the opportunity to fight one of the Team Go Rocket Leaders, and get better rewards. Team Go Rocket Grunts also appear at some Pokéstops which is very annoying because they steal the rewards.
Every month, at least once and usually twice, Pokémon GO releases a set day from 2-5 PM that revolves mostly around one specific Pokémon, called a community day. The Pokémon of choice spawns a lot more, and there’s a higher chance of getting a shiny form. Shinies are Pokémon that have a slightly different color pattern. Shinies are fairly hard to come by and are very sought after. The second community day for September was on the 23 and it’s for the Pokémon Grubbin. To quite a few players, this community day was a bit of a let down and can hardly compare to the first community day of September, Charmander.
The current season, which started on September 1 and runs through December 1, is based around Pokémon found in the Paldea region, a part of the Pokémon world, as well as Pokémon from generation nine. The starters for this generation are Sprigatito, a grass type feline, Quaxly, a water type duck, and Fuecoco, a fire type crocodilian. The starters for this generation aren’t very original and they aren’t as loveable and known as Pokémon from the earlier generations, like the well known Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander starters from generation one.
Pokémon GO has been around for around seven years, and Niantic continues to add and improve their game. New players continue to join and old players continue to grow their collections. Regardless of what some people think, Pokémon GO is not dead and it looks like there’s still plenty of life left in it for players.
