Delibird moves have been added to Pokemon GO in 0.85.1! We believe that Delibird will be released during the 2017 Holiday event, starting around December 21st. The 2017 Holiday event event was confirmed to TechCrunch by Niantic’s Archit Bhargava.
Delibird’s signature move Present has been added in the APK as a Quick Move, complete with it’s animation and sound effects.
Delibird release date
In an interview with TechCrunch, Archit Bhargava (Niantic’s Global Marketing Lead) confirmed that a special Holiday event will take place in-game starting around December 21, 2017.
TechCrunch has a solid reputation of being a primary source of Silicon Valley news and Bhargava has a history of hinting big releases in a pretty much unmistakable fashion (the now infamous “This summer will be legendary” statement).
Although Bhargava hasn’t confirmed that Delibird will be a part of the event, we believe that Delibird will be released as a special event only capture, accompanying the inevitable Christmas and New Year’s Box sales.
We are basing our claim on a few solid arguments:
- Delibird’s signature move Present was added in 0.85.1, similar to how Ditto’s Transform was added prior to its release
- Full support for the Present fast move is in the APK, including the sound effects and required textures
- present_fast game object
- mesh_present.png
- 217-0_present audio clip
- The new Holiday 2017 loading screen features a flying present and a suspicious red ball hiding behind the Christmas tree, as spotted on Twitter
👀
(Credit: @mickytoosh)#PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/D6nHFvGsQg— Reversal (@ReversalYouTube) December 6, 2017
Delibird moves
Ad of the time of this writing, Delibird has access to several moves that are already implemented in the game:
- Ice Shard ice (quick)
Quick Attack normal (quick)- Ice Punch ice (charged)
- Icy Wind ice (charged)
- Aerial Ace (charged)
We believe that Quick Attack will be replaced by Present a day before Delibird is released, similar to how Ditto’s moves were changed the morning before it’s release.
