Pokemon GO is headed to the ocean with its latest Water Festival: Beach Week event. The event includes a lot of sand and sea-themed Pokemon along with some exciting new additions to Pokemon GO.
Pokemon GO is just coming hot off of its Rising Shadows event in which players were able to obtain a plethora of different Shadow Pokemon, including a fierce Mewtwo Shadow Raid. Niantic is quickly turning the dark into light, thematically speaking, for the game as it transitions immediately into its new and summery Water Festival: Beach Week event.
The official announcement about the event and all of its details came recently via Niantic’s official Pokemon GO website, as well as posts across social media. One of the main points of interest for collectors will likely be the debut of two new Gen 7 Pokemon, Sandygast and Palossand, which will be regularly appearing throughout the event. These are some of the first new Gen 7 Pokemon introduced since the recent Rising Heroes event. To complement the arrival of Sandygast and Palossand there’s also a new Sandygast hat being added that will likely look very cute, if not a bit confusing, when worn by players who have Sandygast or Palossand as their partners.
On top of the addition of new Pokemon, the event is also introducing paid timed research which, if completed before June 11, will reward players with a surfer pose for their avatars. Any players with a surplus of Rainy Lure Modules for evolving or attracting certain Pokemon may also want to save them specifically for this event, during which time those Modules will last four times longer than normal. There are also some regional-exclusive raids, such as a five-star Azelf Raid in the Americas.
Niantic has been catching a lot of flak for its recent Pokemon GO content, or maybe the lack thereof, from its player base. The problems range from longtime users not feeling like the developer has addressed enough of the key issues that have been around for years to a perceived stagnation in new content now. The change in the function of Pokemon Go‘s Remote Raid Passes to something many players consider not as good as it was during the COVID era is also not helping the game or the company’s currently negative reputation. It’s unlikely that adding a handful of new Pokemon and a paid surfer pose will be enough, but only time will tell.
Pokemon GO is available on mobile devices.
