COVID 19 may have changed Niantic’s plans for their annual Pokémon Go Fest but it most certainly hasn’t ruined them.

If anything, Niantic are about to put out their most ambitious event to date – opening up a usually region-specific GO fest event to a global audience.

Over the next two days, players will experience new research, an hourly, rotating schedule of, what’s being described as ‘habitats’, and some other big surprises.

If you have a ticket for the event – still on sale for £15 with all proceeds going to BLM charities – you’ll be able to dive in from 10am local time until 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

Both days will offer something different, with Saturday introducing the hourly habitats that will give players the chance to catch over 75 species of Pokémon from the wild, in raids, and in tasks. Sunday’s activities, meanwhile, remain a mystery.

Pokémon GO Fest 2020 Day 1 – Saturday, July 25th from 10.00am to 8.00pm local time

Once you put a special event incense on, every hour you’ll see different types of Pokémon spawn on the map. There are five habitats total and each one will feature twice during the event.

Interestingly, schedules for habitats will vary and dependent on where you’re playing – say, the UK – you will have a different habitat schedule from someone who is playing in the USA.

The five habitats will be based around

• Water
• Fire
• Grass
• Battle
• Friendship

While Water, Fire, and Grass habitats are self-explanatory – seeing an increase in those Pokémon types – the Friendship Event is said to be focused on gift giving and Battle hour is focused on PVP.

The full schedule can be seen here – thanks to G2gMedia and @MothaTude

They all tie into the Global Challenge Arena which sees you collaborate with other trainers each hour to complete a challenge. If you complete that challenge, you will get a bonus surprise for the remainder of the hour

There will, of course, be Special Research for the day which can be completed for unique rewards.

Special 7km Eggs collected during the event will also hatch the following Pokémon

• Pichu
• Cleffa
• Igglybuff
• Togepi
• Azurill
• Buneary
• Munchlax
• Woobat
• Happiny
• Eevee
• Budew
• Riolu
• Chingling
• Galarian Zigazagoon
• Galarian Meowth
• Galarian Darumaka
• Galarian Farfetch’d
• Galarian Stunfisk

Many of these can be Shiny and it wouldn’t be surprising if a few new ones were also added, so keep your eyes peeled!

Pokémon GO Fest 2020 Day 2 – Sunday, July 26th from 10.00am to 8.00pm local time

So this one is a complete mystery. Genuinely, we don’t know and Niantic won’t tell us until the day. Which makes it incredibly exciting and means no one has time to prepare or know what to expect.

Some Dataminers have had a try, though, and there’s some speculation. We’ll cover a couple below so, just in case, stop reading from here if you want to avoid potential SPOILERS for the day.

Still reading? Last chance…

There will almost certainly be new Shinies added to the game, who or what is a mystery, but there are some decent guesses out there.

Ok, so there’s Unowns in Raids spelling ULTRA but there’s also a chance of getting them in the wild. Who knows what letters they might be, but things might be even more interesting.

Unown Shinies are in the coding, which means those in raids could actually be Shiny or even anything in the wild. This would be a massive drop and probably the right time seeing as more people have completed their Unown Collection by now.

Another big rumour doing the rounds is Shiny Shadow Mewtwo. They’ve been spotted in the APK and with Rocket Balloons popping all over the place and Remote Raiding working a treat, it feels like the event could make use of it in an extremely exciting way.

There’s also talk of a Shiny Sleeping Snorlax who first appeared when Niantic announced Pokemon Sleep. Shiny Snorlax isn’t in the game at all, so this would be a fun reveal to add in there.

The artwork also shows off Gible and those have been increasingly elusive Pokemon for some time. With a Shiny now in the game, it might be a nice time to drop these in the wild and let people grind for one to add to their collections.

And what about the traditional regional Pokemon that comes with these events? With Seviper featured in the artwork, it seems a safe bet they’ll appear, but maybe we’ll also get something like a Heracross or a Torquol?

It’s anyone’s guess what Day Two will bring, but it’s all shaping up to be very special indeed.

Themed Weeks Post GO Fest

Don’t worry, though, it’s not all fun over just one weekend as those who have tickets to GO Fest can unlock themed events over the next three weeks.

Beginning July 31st will be Dragon Week for seven days which will see increased Dragon-type Pokemon spawns in the wild, in eggs, and research.

These include Bagon, Gible, Deino – now in Shiny form – and Rayquaza in raids.

Week two is Enigma Week beginning August 7th, which will see the Gen 5 Pokemon Elgyem added for the first time, along with Deoxys Normal Form coming back to raids as a Shiny, and Staryu released as a Shiny.

Finally, Week three – Unova Week – begins August 14th and adds even more Gen 5 Pokemon to the game like Sewaddle, Cottonee, Emolga, and Bouffalant as a NY Regional Exclusive.

Shiny Roggenrola and Shiny Genesect will also be added into the game.

(With resources from Pokemon GO Hub, Leek Duck and Niantic_