With Halloween just over a week away, Pokémon GO fans were expecting Niantic to scare up an update that involved more Pokémon and bonuses - and they delivered. Between October 20th and November 2nd, double candy, spooky third-generation Pokémon and special item boxes (amongst other things) will be present in the game, with the rest of the third generation expected to land 'as early as December'!
Niantic's full blog post stating the exciting features ongoing as part of the Halloween event is summarised as follows:
Sableye, Banette, and a few other Ghost-type Pokémon originally discovered in the Hoenn region will be making their first-ever appearance in Pokémon GO.
A special Pikachu will be out celebrating Halloween in an all-new costume, and you can, too! Dress up your avatar for the occasion by wearing Mimikyu’s Disguise Hat. You’ll also earn extra Candy while you’re out trick-or-treating with your Buddy Pokémon: Candy rewards from catching, hatching, and transferring Pokémon will be doubled, and your buddy will find Candy twice as fast during the Halloween celebration!
Last but not least, you’ll have the opportunity to stock up for your upcoming adventures with special boxes from the in-game shop, featuring items such as Raid Passes and Super Incubators.
Fans on Reddit’s largest Pokémon GO network, The Silph Road, had previously datamined the latest update and uncovered some spooky secrets that pertained to the now-ongoing Halloween event, including two designations called “HALLOWEEN_2017” and “mapHalloweenNightmusic”, which suggested that the event would feature its own music. Owing to this was the unearthing of a new music file based on the Lavender Town music, a town from Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow, known for its ghost hauntings, and set off the hype train on the possibility of new Pokémon being introduced to the game.
Further lending to the idea of new Pokémon being introduced as part of the Halloween celebrations was the datamined discovery of the new loading screen, featuring Sableye, Shuppet, Banette, Duskull and Dusclops, which were previously unavailable in Pokémon GO. A leaked App Store image also recently surfaced, that featured the aforementioned Sableye and Duskull, as well as Pikachu wearing a witch’s hat - which is now being seen across the globe as part of the ongoing event.
Image: Niantic, Inc.
Perhaps the most important discovery, though, was that of a new badge called "BADGE_POKEDEX_ENTRIES_GEN3", seeming to definitively point towards new monsters from the third generation being added into the game. Sound files for 135 new Pokémon were found, suggesting that this badge would be awarded based on any five of the new Pokémon that you had caught - though of course the majority of the third generation are being withheld until December, we now know, so the five currently available to catch for this bronze badge are the same ghostly five available as part of the Halloween event: Sableye, Shuppet, Banette, Duskull and Dusclops.
Last year’s Halloween event had a focus on Ghost-type and Psychic-type Pokémon such as Drowzee and Gengar, as well as doubled candies, rendering this year's event even more impressive than its predecessor. It seems as though Halloween 2017 will one-up Niantic's previous efforts and shape up to be one of the greatest things to happen to Pokémon GO ever since it became a global phenomenon last year.
