There’s been no shortage of exciting events in the Pokémon franchise lately, and that trend continues as we head toward the end of the month.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players will have their hands full with a new 7-Star Tera Raid Battle Event. The Raid Boss hasn’t been revealed, but it will be a Poison-type, and it’ll be followed by a Valentine’s Day event with Tandemaus as the focal point.
Pokémon Go fans also have the 2023 Lunar New Year event to look forward to as well. It includes an increase in encountering Pokémon that tie into the Year of the Rabbit theme Research Tasks, event bonuses, and more.
In other news, Nintendo and Game Freak have confirmed the release of a major Pokémon Scarlet and Violet patch next month that could, finally, fix some or all of the performance issues they promised to address.
And on a final note, Pokémon from the Gen. IX titles received their National Pokédex numbers in the form of a nostalgic promo that celebrates the fact we now have more than 1,000 unique ‘mons.
Things are getting toxic—and in a good way
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet players have been treated to Tera Raid Battle event content for two months. The streak is continuing towards the end of January and all throughout February, and this time, we’re in for a surprise. We don’t know what Pokémon it is. All we know is it has a Poison Tera Type. It will be available to challenge from Jan. 27 to 30 and Feb. 10 to 13.
That’s not all, either. A special Valentine’s Day event will run after it from Feb. 13 to 15. It revolves around Tandemaus, the adorable mouse couple Pokémon. It’ll appear with the Fairy Tera Type more frequently.
Get your paws out for the Year of the Rabbit
The Lunar New Year is fast approaching, and to celebrate, Niantic has locked in the Pokémon Go 2023 Lunar New Year event between Thursday, Jan. 19 at 10am local time and Monday, Jan. 23 at 8pm local time.
Certain Pokémon, including Buneary, Bunnelby, Combee, Darumaka, Fennekin, Flareon, Magikarp
Magmar, Numel, Ponyta, and Slugma, will appear more frequently in the wild, with an increased chance of encountering a Shiny.
The Lucky Wishes Timed Research event, which coincides with it, will also give trainers a chance to encounter Azumarill, Bunnelby, Combusken, Darumaka, Galarian Darumaka, and Magikarp more often.
Meanwhile, Chingling, Darumaka, Galarian Darumaka, Riolu, and Scraggy will hatch from eggs throughout the course of the event, and others, including Hisuian Voltorb, Flareon, Regice, and more, will appear in raids. The biggest drawcard, however, is that trainers can take on Mega Lopunny in Mega Raids.
Is the long-foretold Scarlet and Violet patch finally coming?
Nintendo and Game Freak are aware Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are littered with performance issues and bugs. They’ve even promised to fix them. Well, that might finally happen after they confirmed a patch is coming at the end of February. It will include a number of bug fixes and introduce “added functionality.”
Of course, there is a chance it could be a step towards that long-awaited and much-needed fix rather than the solution itself, but fans are hopeful it could be the one—or at least, improve things significantly.
That’s what I call celebrating in style
The Pokémon Company released the National Pokédex numbers for the Pokémon introduced in Scarlet and Violet, and since it also marked the fact we now have 1,000 total unique Pokémon in all generations and regions, they celebrated the milestone in the best possible way—by dropping an epic promo video showcasing them all.
It was a blast from the past showing how far the franchise has come since the Generation I titles released back in 1998.
“We used to talk about how one day we would exceed 1,000 varieties of Pokémon, and we really have,” director Shigeru Ohmori said. “The reason for such a wide variety of Pokémon is due to the involvement of many different people who came up with their own ideas for settings, designs, and plans.”
The nostalgia brought a tear to this Pokémon columnist’s eye, but I’m excited to see how the next 1,000 Pokémon look.
