With June 20 heralding the 2020 solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and shortest in the Southern, various video games have been preparing to celebrate. For instance,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsreleased solstice-themed itemsfor players to buy, and today the 2020 solstice-themed event began in Niantic’s AR mobile gamePokemon GO.
The returning solstice event, first held forPokemon GOin 2017, wasannounced by Niantic on June 12and focuses on “Pokemon associated with the sun and moon” such as Sunkern appearing more frequently. Through the end of the event on June 24 at 10:00 p.m. local time, players will also be able to encounter shiny Clefairy for the first time in the wild, whereas they were only previously accessible by hatching a shiny Cleffa.
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Another focus of thePokemon GOevent is the frequent appearance of Generation 3’s Lunatone and Solrock in raids and 5 km eggs, and that they will uniquely appear in shifting hemispheres throughout the event period. During the first two days Lunatone will be in the Eastern Hemisphere and Solrock will be in the Western; through Sunday and Monday they will both appear everywhere; and then for the last two days they will swap their initial Hemispheres and stay exclusive to these sides of the world after the event ends.
As with all big celebrations in the mobile game, there will also be bonuses such as 2x catch stardust and field research tasks available for the Solstice Event. After it ends,Pokemon GOwill begin the Bug Out! event on June 26, which will give players access to more Bug-type Pokemon including a brand new shiny Dwebble.
Though Niantic is clearly focused on putting out large-scale events to keep players occupied as they are stuck at home due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there are more systemic changes coming to the game. During the recent Pokemon Presents video, it was revealed thatMega Evolutions will be coming to the mobile gamesoon.
The developer is also keeping up its efforts to make the originally outdoor-intensive game accessible to a homebound populace. Niantic has beguntesting daily spawns and free item boxes, for example, which is just one more reason for players to log in as they try their hands at catching shiny Clefairy and Solrock or Lunatone.
Pokemon GOis available now in select regions on Android and iOS devices.
