Right now we are in the ‘Catching Wonders’ event in Pokémon GO, but calling it an event seems a little… misleading. Billed as an event, it releases a new special research for the Master Ball, with some bonuses, field research tasks for stardust, XP and Pokéballs, but no wild spawns whatsoever. So is it really an event? And what’s with all the recent weeks with no wild spawns in events?
For this discussion, we won’t be looking at the three hour events, like Community Day, or the Flock Together Research Day, because while they had dedicated wild spawns, they were only for very short three hour windows on a single day.
Catching Wonders Event
Ah the Catching Wonders event. No wild spawns, no Pokémon as field research task encounters, does it feel like an event really? I don’t think it does. While it may have some XP and stardust bonuses, and the new special research for a third Master Ball releasing, is it really an event with nothing else to do? It isn’t timed research, so that will carry on after the event has finished, so it feels rather lacklustre unfortunately.
Sustainability Week
Sustainability Week 2024 ran from April 22nd to April 26th, with no wild spawns featured. Sustainability Week has been a long standing event in Pokémon GO, occurring for several years as a way to encourage real world activity to help improve your local environment. The 2021 event saw the debut of Binacle and shiny Trubbish, 2022 had the release of Oranguru and shiny Cherubi, and 2023 saw Bounsweet in GO for the first time, and shiny Drilbur debuting. 2024 however was entirely focused on eggs and field research, meaning it felt fairly non-event like, especially in comparison to previous years that had not only a brand new Pokémon added to the game, but also a shiny Pokémon released.
Due to the way events have occurred, there were no proper wild event spawns from April 17th 8pm, until Rivals Week on May 4th 10am. This excludes the single day events like Community Day for example, and the Rediscover Kanto event we discuss below.
Rediscover Kanto Event
Sustainability Week ran alongside the launch of the new biome backgrounds in Pokémon GO, and the Rediscover Kanto event. Technically this had event spawns, but taking place over a period of three weeks, with some Kanto Pokémon spawning in their appropriate biomes, did it really feel like an event?
The Rediscover Kanto event also had an impact on the spawns during Rivals Week, which felt like many of the event spawns for that were overrun with Kanto biome spawns instead. Since Rivals Week ended on May 9th, we don’t have any event themed wild spawns until May 23rd for the Ultra Space Wonders event, another long period without a change in wild spawns.
Kanto events have been prolific in Pokémon GO, but this didn’t particularly feel like an event, instead it was your usual biome related spawns, with more of a focus on Kanto. When the event ended, it felt like the spawns barely changed, as most of the spawns would now appear in your biome anyway.
Conclusion
The period before GO Fest always tends to feel a little lighter than other, and it is good to have periods of time without wild event spawns so that you can appreciate your local biomes. However, April and May have felt very absent of wild spawns for events, with several not having any at all.
Some wild event spawns could easily have been added for this Catching Wonders event. With a focus on throws during the special research for the Master Ball, some larger and easier to hit Pokémon could have been featured to help trainers progress, such as Wailmer, Chansey, Buneary, Psyduck, or Miltank for example. It could have easily been spiced up a little more so that it felt like an actual event, rather than a special research release with a couple of bonuses. There are plenty of Pokémon we haven’t seen as wild spawns for a long time as they don’t fit the event themes, and this could have been a great time to feature a really random assortment of Pokémon!
While the game itself has had some exciting new releases during this time, including the new backgrounds, and the new AR mode, which has kept the game feeling fresh, the lack of event spawns has made it feel quite stagnant at times, and we hope that June will see more proper events come back, with wild spawns in every event. It may be that Niantic wanted the focus to be on the game updates themselves, but event spawns could have been utilised to really hype up these updates.
