With the Lunar New Year fast approaching, Pokemon GO has officially announced the 2024 Lunar New Year event to celebrate the occasion! And since it’s the Year of the Dragon, they’ve kept with the theme with a bunch of Dragon-type Pokemon and content on the roster.
Today, we’ll go over the latest Lunar New Year event in Pokemon Go and check out the new stuff you can acquire! There’s also been another quality-of-life update that’s undergoing testing, so we’ll go over that briefly as well.
The Lunar New Year: Dragons Unleashed event is slated to begin on February 5th, 2024, and will run through until February 11th, 2024.
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Let’s jump straight into it!
A New Pokemon!
The most exciting addition to Pokemon Go to celebrate the Lunar New Year is the new Pokemon! Making their Pokemon Go debut is none other than Drampa, the Dragon-type Pokemon known as the ‘Placid Pokemon’.
Drampa initially debuted in the Pokemon Sun and Moon series games, making it a Gen VII Pokemon.
While it’s a beloved and friendly Pokemon to children and people, getting on its bad side will enrage the Pokemon, making it capable of decimating entire forests in a single breath.
Drampa is an exciting addition to the game and there’s even a Shiny version available for ardent collectors!
Wild Encounters
With the new update, players will be able to encounter a few Pokemon more frequently than usual. And keeping to the theme of the Year of the Dragon, there are quite a few Dragon Pokemon on the list too:
- Magikarp
- Dratini
- Skrelp
- Fennekin
- Noibat
- Shuckle
Each of the above Pokemon will also have improved chances to encounter Shiny versions.
Additionally, some players may also encounter Jangmo-o, a ‘Scaly Pokemon’ that’s an incredibly rare find. If you’d like to add Jangmo-o to your Pokedex, you should start grinding once the event begins!
New Raids
There are also two new Raids for you to start grinding some awesome Dragon-type Pokemon for the duration of the event. Here are the Pokemon that’ll be available in the new One-star and Three-star raids:
One-star Raids –
- Dratini
- Deino
- Goomy
Three-star Raids –
- Druddigon
- Turtonator
- Drampa
All the new Raid Pokemon will also have a chance of spawning a Shiny version. And since Drampa is added to the Three-Star Raid list, this is a great chance to catch the newly debuted Pokemon!
Field Research Task Encounters
In addition to the new Wild encounters and Raids, there’ll also be a selection of new Field Research task encounters that will award you the chance to encounter these Pokemon once completed –
- Darumaka
- Deino
- Drampa
- Dratini
- Druddigon
- Gible
- Goomy
- Swablu
- Skrelp
- Trapinch
- Turtonator
- Tyrunt
Each of the Pokemon listed above will also have a chance of spawning a rare Shiny version.
Latest Paid Time Research
Once the event starts, players also have the option to avail the new Paid Time Research. The event-exclusive Timed Research costs US$2.00 (or equivalent in your local currency) and will award the following once completed –
- Additional encounters with event-exclusive Pokemon
- Stardust
- Additional XP
- Two Lucky Eggs
If you have friends playing Pokemon Go, you can also gift them the Paid Timed Research to any friends you have a ‘Great Friends’ or higher Friendship level. The tasks and rewards must be completed and redeemed before the end of the event on 11th February.
Global Challenge: Dragons Unleashed Overview
To round out the Lunar New Year festivities, Pokemon Go will also have a new Global Challenge that will run concurrently with the event. Trainers from across the globe have to work together to complete 1,000,000,000 Nice Throws.
Completing the Global Challenge will unlock bonuses for all players while the event is active. The rewards for completing the challenge include –
- Featured Attacks for Pokemon evolved during the event for Ground, Fairy, Dragon, and Normal type Pokemon.
- Wild Encounters with additional event-exclusive Pokemon.
- A new One-Star and Three-Star Raid.
The details of the Global Challenge rewards will be unveiled once the challenge is completed.
Updated Event Bonuses
Additionally, there are a few more Event Bonuses that all Trainers will have access to once the Lunar New Year: Dragons Unleashed event begins:
- Increased chance to receive Lucky Pokemon in trades
- Increased chance for players to become Lucky Friends
- Pokemon caught with Nice, Great, or Excellent Throws reward additional Candy
- Trainers level 31 and above have an increased chance to receive Candy XL for Pokemon caught with Nice, Great, or Excellent Throws
Additional Pokemon Go Updates
Besides the Lunar New Year event, Pokemon Go has also announced that they’re currently testing visual changes for the next few months. The tests will be available for select Trainers in some parts of the world.
Selected players may notice visual changes in the Pokemon Go Map, encounter screens, capture screens, backgrounds, and more.
Players have already started reporting improved visuals and backgrounds that reflect the biomes they’re currently playing in. Try logging in to Pokemon GO and see if you can notice any changes. If not, you might have to wait until the update goes live globally.
