Home News News roundup: Articuno day in Japan, Yokosuka Safari invites, justice for Azores, new EX Raid invites

News roundup: Articuno day in Japan, Yokosuka Safari invites, justice for Azores, new EX Raid invites

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News roundup: Articuno day in Japan, Yokosuka Safari invites, justice for Azores, new EX Raid invites

Trainers, in today’s news roundup we’re bringing you a mix of news that didn’t make the cut and got their own dedicated post on the Hub. Most of these news occurred over the course of the past few days, but some date as back as August 2nd.

Articuno Day in Japan

Articuno day and Sunglasses Squirtle go live in Japan
Articuno day and Sunglasses Squirtle go live in Japan

Japan’s original Articuno Day was delayed due to extreme weather (heavy rains), with Pokemon GO’s Japanese account tweeting out an apology and announcing that the date of the event will be announced later on.

Well, today our Japanese friends had the chance to finally live through the Articuno day excitement and grab a handful of shinnies.

Curiously, Japan’s Articuno Day experience was quite different that what the rest of the world had:

  • Articuno caught in Japan knows an exclusive Flying type move – Hurricane – making it the first non-Ice Articuno move since the Legendary bird first appeared
  • Articuno was available for six hours, instead of regular three hour window, with the Japanese Twitter account urging players to take a moderate break in between
  • Triple XP for catching Pokemon and hatching Eggs
  • Double XP for completing a raid battle
  • One hour long Lucky Egg effects duration

You can see a shiny, Japanese caught, Hurricane Articuno below:

Articuno caught during Japan's Articuno Day knows Hurricane, a Flying type move
Articuno caught during Japan’s Articuno Day knows Hurricane, a Flying type move

Sunglasses Squirtle is there also

In addition to the six hour long Articuno raids, Japan had the chance to catch the special sunglasses Squirtle from Field Research tasks, making this event perfectly balanced (as all things should be) for raiders and collectors alike.

You can join the discussion about Japan’s Articuno and Squirtle CD on our forums.


Yokosuka Safari invites are out

Yokosuka Safari Zone 2018 Announcement
Yokosuka Safari Zone 2018 Announcement

Yokosuka Safari Zone is taking place on Wednesday, August 29, and lasts until Sunday, September 2 in Yokosuka City (Kanagawa Prefecture). The tickets distributed are vaild only for one day, even for multiple ticket holders, all in favor of giving everyone interested a fair chance to participate. The tickets feature a 2D barcode which unlocks the special event spawns.

Speaking of which, the following Pokemon have been confirmed to make a special appearance in Yokosuka:

And as a special addition, shiny Wingull will be released and available in the wild.

We’re sharing this info as tickets for the event have started going out, and with multiple Twitter personalities reporting receiving their Yokosuka Safari Zone ticket:


New EX invites are out

EX Raids are nothing new in the world of Pokemon GO, but each wave of new EX invites stirs new excitement and never fails to be a newsworthy event. And alas, a new wave of EX raid invites was distributed this week, targeting a Mewtwo raid on August 10 and 11, depending on your time zone.

Is this one of the last Mewtwo EX raids? Will Deoxys make a stunning appearance after Regirock leaves the raid scene? Time will tell, but for now, keep on farming that sweet sweet Mewtwo candy.


Justice for Azores

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Azore Islands, the Forgotten? I thought now. It is not a story Niantic would tell you. The Azores are an archipelago consisting of 9 volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, but also an area of the game that falls right between two large virtual in-game event zones:

  • Europe, Middle East, Africa, India
  • North America, South America and Greenland

As a result, Azores have not had any special raids during Articuno and Zapdos Raid days, making the local player base super angry and super sad at the same time.

Luckily, Niantic has heard their complaints and decided to fix the situation with a generous gesture:

https://twitter.com/PokemonGoApp/status/1022844211933208579

Once forgotten, the Azores are now enjoying a whole week of Zapdos and Articuno raids. Rejoice!

As a curious (but expected) side effect of this event, local players are reporting 20 people lobbies (rarely, if ever, seen in the Azores) filled with spoofers. It’s not yet clear if Niantic will use the Azores as a honeypot to circle out cheaters, but we would be surprised if it doesn’t happen.

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a computer security mechanism set to detect, deflect, or, in some manner, counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems.

After all, the raid event in the Azores is a perfect honeypot:

  • isolated region with a fairly stable player base
  • limited event duration, easy to setup post-event tracking
  • limited data set to track and easy to process