Niantic has announced the first Pokemon Go live events occurring in 2020, with a promise that even more are coming. A special non-ticketed event in Taichung City, Taiwan kicks off the festivities. From February 6th to February 9th, during the Taiwan Lantern festival, Electric-type Pokemon will be especially common; trainers will also be able to pick up the otherwise region-locked Illumise and the rare Unown L (which first appeared at Pokemon Go Fest 2018). After that, there will be three Safari Zone events in the first half of the year. These will take place in St. Louis, Liverpool, and Philadelphia. Like previous Safari Zone events, these will feature appearances by Pokemon not normally seen in their respective regions. For more details on these events, check out the official blog.
Meanwhile, all players can take part in the upcoming Lunar New Year in-game event. From January 24th to February 3rd, red Pokemon will become more common in the wild (including shiny Gyarados if you’re extremely lucky, or the not-red regular Gyarados if you’re slightly less lucky), the newly debuting Darumaka will hatch from 7 km eggs, there will be a chance of receiving Rare Candies in gifts, and the odds of getting a Lucky Friend or Lucky Pokemon will be increased. Furthermore, an event within an event will take place from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM (local time) on February 2nd. This one focuses on another Pokemon appearing in Go for the first time, Minccino. During this period, there will be research tasks to encounter the new Pokemon, and it will also appear in 5 km eggs. And unlike most Pokemon that have been added to the game, it will be possible to find a shiny Mincinno right away. Given the limited time period and focus on special research, this event seems to be similar to the recent Regigigas event, except that it’s free for all players. The trade-off is that we won’t be getting a new legendary Pokemon here, but a limited-time event like this might at least get those of us dealing with cold winters to come out and play for a bit.
