On November 29th, Niantic announced the details for the Hoenn Tour happening in February of 2023. There are two parts to it—Global (of course) and the ticketed in-person (Las Vegas, US). But this event seems kind of lackluster and boring compared to the other Tours we had in the past. Let’s find out why.
First, let’s talk about the new content Hoenn Tour brings in Pokémon Go. We see the introduction of Primal Kyogre and Groudon in this game, along with their shinies. They look absolutely majestic–possibly one of the best shinies in the whole game. Not only do they look beautiful, but they are also very meta-relevant. Primal Groudon maxes out at 5910 CP and has a base stat of 331 in Attack, 251 in Defense and 205 in Stamina. Same goes for Primal Kyogre. This is what would make them core-breakers of their types.
Some new shinies we would see are going to be Shiny Cacnea, Cacturne, Gulpin, Swalot, Surskit, Masquerian, Relicanth, Tropius, Torkoal, Unown H and Jirachi. Most of these are going to be available in the wild while the regional ones are going to be in eggs.
Shiny Jirachi will be available to all ticket-holders who go to the Las Vegas event, but trainers around the world will be able to purchase a longer and potentially harder Masterwork Research(Price currently unknown) to acquire this shiny.
We just saw some new Pokémon and shinies being released during the Tour, but now we have to see what was potentially missed by Niantic—and how they could have improved this event to make it more exciting for players.
Kecleon
This is perhaps the most “wanted” and controversial Pokémon in all of Pokémon Go History. We have been wanting Kecleon since forever. It is the only Pokémon from the Hoenn Region to not be released into the game yet. After Chikorita Community Day in 2018, Kecleon started to appear in the wild with its name being replaced by a “?!?!?”. When you catch a Kecleon, it would turn into a Ditto.
Since then, there have been no traces of Kecleon—and it seems like a myth. Niantic probably has old beef with Kecleon as well, probably. Perhaps, this is because Kecleon has an ability known as Protean which can make it switch types and learn any move possible.
Maybe they are not releasing it, because simply put, a Pokémon like this would break the game. Legend has it that Kecleon hides in every single picture Niantic teases out.
Hoenn Tour was the perfect time to release Kecleon, and possibly its shiny variant as well. But we still don’t have any information if Kecleon will appear during this event or not. Social media community is disappointed about this—and so am I. Nobody knows when Kecleon will come again into this game—and when we will be able to complete our Hoenn Pokédexes.
Raids
Raids for this event seem boring as well. Except the Primals. We will have the Hoenn Starters—Mudkip, Torchic and Treecko in 1-star raids. These 1-star raids will be available to everybody who is not going to Las Vegas. All the Deoxys Forms (Defense, Attack, Speed, Normal) are going to be in 5-star raids. And finally Primal Kyogre and Groudon in a brand new format of Primal Raids. All of these Pokémon are shiny eligible.
One-Star Raids
Five-Star Raids
Well, the first thing I must say is that these raids are lackluster. Except the Primals, there is nothing to look forward to. Deoxys have been released so many times this year–during some events in February and March and also during the Psychic Spectacular event in September. However, the last time we saw Rayquaza was last year’s Go Fest. And still, Niantic plans to release Deoxys AGAIN for the Hoenn Tour–what nonsense!
Mega Rayquaza would have also been a perfect Pokémon to go alongside the Primals. It would have been a top Dragon and Flying type attacker—and make a beautiful shiny.
Rayquaza (not only in its Mega form) is meta-relevant, but also a fan favorite Pokémon. And it shiny looks terrific as well. Niantic would earn more money by releasing this Pokémon in raids during the Hoenn Tour because people would raid it more and spend more and more money or raid passes. But there is still no news on Rayquaza being part of this event.
If Mega Rayquaza doesn’t make its debut during the Tour, I do not know when we could expect it to be dropped. Like I said, the Hoenn Tour could be a perfect opportunity Niantic is missing out on.
There are also other legendaries from Hoenn that haven’t been announced yet. This includes Regice, Regirock and Registeel. I don’t know what Niantic plans to do with these, but I don’t believe they are coming to raids.
Apart from Legendaries, there are also two Pokémon we have been speculating would drop during this Tour. This includes Mega Metagross and Mega Salamence. Metagross and Salamence in their shadow form are the top raid attackers for their type in the game. Their megas would make them even more useful. And they make great shinies as well. We recently got a leak from Pokeminers regarding Mega Salamence so I really hope they come during this event. The community is hyped for their releases. But Niantic hasn’t announced the Mega Raids for the Tour—and we don’t even know if there will be any Mega Raids.
Wild Legendaries?
This brings me to my last topic—wild legendaries and other whatnot. During the Johto Tour, we saw the release of wild legendaries—Entei, Suicune and Raikou. And all of them had a shiny potential of around 1 in 125. They had low catch rates and really high flee rates.
But we still don’t have any news from Niantic if we will get wild legendaries in the upcoming Hoenn Tour. If we do, I hope it is not Deoxys because I am sure everybody is sick of them by now.
Except for the wild legendaries, we also need to know if we will be getting Apex Shadows during this event. In the Johto Tour—ticket holders had access to a special ‘Masterwork’ research that awarded them with an encounter with Apex Shadow Ho-Oh, and Apex Shadow Lugia. These were really strong versions of our favorite legendaries–corrupted by the infamous Team Go Rocket. I have been wondering if we will get Apex Shadows during the Hoenn Tour. Just the thought of being able to catch an Apex Shadow Rayquaza hypes me up for this event. Niantic has yet to announce if any such thing will make its debut during the Tour—but we do know that there is going to be a Masterwork Research to purchase, that will give players an encounter with Shiny Jirachi, and possibly some Apex Shadow legendaries as well.
The last thing that I have to say about this is boosted shiny rates. This is a thing that I believe should always be a part of the game. Currently, only ticket holders in Las Vegas get this bonus but I really think Niantic should revert this bonus for all trainers—if not, then at least all global ticket holders not just the ones traveling to Vegas.
Conclusion
In my opinion by releasing these aspects into the Hoenn tour, Niantic would have made the event 10 times better—it would have been an absolute banger.
To be honest, Niantic has been doing this for a lot of events recently. All of the Pokémon Go community raise their hopes for something—and then Niantic totally surprises them by doing something very unusual. For example, everybody thought Arceus would be released during the Season of Heritage because it totally fit with the theme of the new game: Pokémon Legends: Arceus. But that is not what happened.
The same thing happened during the Hisuian Braviary Raid Day. People had their hopes up for Origin Form Dialga. Everything made sense—Dialga was in raids, there was an upcoming Hisuian event in the game. But Niantic just ruined all of our hopes and went with Hisuian Braviary.
A lesson was learnt though—never get your hopes up. Now the same thing is happening with the Hoenn Tour.
Or maybe you should get your hopes up? There is a section on the Hoenn Tour Website that says “New features and items coming soon! Check back for additional info”. Are any of the things I mentioned above actually coming? We must wait and find out. In the meantime, comment below if you think that the upcoming Hoenn Tour is better than our old Tours, and if Niantic could have possibly done something else to make the event better.
