Global Event Ticket item added and Legendary Golems image discovered

Trainers, data miners have discovered that the Global Event Ticket item was updated and that there’s a new Legendary Golem image hidden away in the game files. There seems to be a fair amount of movement “behind the scenes”, as data miners have reported several silent updates to game files.

⚠️ The info shared below below was discovered via data mining, which means that it is not affiliated nor approved by Niantic, and is always subject to change. Do not take it for granted, features change and get scrapped all the time.

The Global Event Ticket

The Global Event Ticket is a new item that was spotted in the Pokemon GO 0.157.0 APK tear down and has now appeared in the Game Master as well, revealing the event’s start and end times, as well as the time when the ticket will be purchasable from the in-game store.

If this information is accurate, the event takes place on November 2, 2019, and the Global Event Ticket will be available for purchase from October 15th through November 2nd 2019, and players will be rewarded with a special badge called “BADGE GLOBAL TICKETED EVENT”:

{
   "templateId": "ITEM_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET",
    "itemSettings": {
       "itemId": "ITEM_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET",
       "category": "ITEM_CATEGORY_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET",
       "itemType": "ITEM_TYPE_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET",
       "globalEventTicket": {
           "eventBadge": "BADGE_GLOBAL_TICKETED_EVENT",
           "eventEndTime": "2019-11-02T19:00:00",
           "eventStartTime": "2019-11-02T11:00:00",
           "grantBadgeBeforeEventStartMs": "86400000"
       }
   }
},
{
   "templateId": "general1.ticket.1",
   "iapItemDisplay": {
       "sku": "general1.ticket.1",
       "hidden": true,
       "category": "IAP_CATEGORY_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET",
       "skuEnableTime": "2019-10-15T13:00:00",
       "skuDisableTime": "2019-11-02T17:00:00"
   }
}

It’s fair to assume that the dates and times that are currently present in the Game Master can change at any moment. Additionally, it’s not confirmed yet that the newly discovered ticket / raid pass icon is going to be used as the Global Event Ticket icon.

However, these findings do fall in line with discoveries made during the 0.157.0 APK teardown process and it seems likely that the Global Event in question is the “A Colossal Discovery” event found earlier. Again, this is all speculative and can change at any moment, but keep in mind that the new Game Master data matches in-game text perfectly:

Ticket: A Colossal Discovery
A ticket to access the "A Colossal Discovery" 
special event on November 2 from 11:00 AM to 
7:00 PM local time, wherever you are.

October 15th is merely a week away, so we will hear more about this event soon for sure – if it’s real and this is not a red herring planted by Niantic’s counter intelligence office. But this is not all…

Legendary titans return?

A few hours earlier, data miners have discovered a mysterious new image in the game’s assets. Once decoded, the image showed the Legendary Titans: Regirock, Registeel and Regice. The Regi’s have been absent from Pokemon GO for months, with no sign of shiny form being released.

Given the peculiar timing of this discovery, it seems like they could be making a return, but this time with a twist. If this image is connected with the Global Event Ticket and “A Colossal Discovery”, it is possible that players could be tasked with awakening Regigigas on November 2nd. Again, we’re speculating here based on information publicly posted by data miners – don’t take this as fact!

For the time being, brush up on Regirock, Registeel and Regice counters and check out their pages on the GO Hub Database. It’s better to be prepared just in case they return:

Regirock	Registeel	Regice
Regirock Raid Counters Guide	Registeel Raid Counters Guide	Regice Raid Counters Guide

A note on Giga Impact

There’s one more tidbit of information that could be connected with these findings: Giga Impact. Giga Impact is a massively damaging Normal type attack that was originally added in Gen IV and it has appeared in Pokemon GO’s hidden files as well. Recently, Niantic made a few back and forth changes to Giga Impact, by increasing its damage to 9000.1 and back to 9000.

We’ve written about this briefly in Mewtwo Base Capture Rate reverted to 2%, EX invites go out article and we’ve first mentioned Giga Impact in New in Pokémon GO 0.145: Jirachi Encounter, Charm, Giga Impact, Dynamic Badges and More article where we shared a table of Pokemon that can learn Giga Impact in the main series games. Regigigas was also spotted among those Pokemon…

Regigigas

…but signature move of Regigigas is Crush Grip, not Giga Impact, so this could be a red herring as well. Keep your eyes peeled, your minds skeptical and don’t board the hype train just yet.

Parting words

Tickets, Titans, paid events… it seems that there’s a lot of craziness going on behind the scenes, more so than usual, especially now when we’re expected to peacefully grind Stardust until October 10th. With Team GO Rocket looming in the shadows, Titans hoping back into the scene and a Community Day just around the corner, my concerns for the game lie elsewhere.

Will paid event tickets create a dangerous precedence for the way how Pokemon GO is monetized? Will obtaining some Pokemon require cold hard cash? Is the “Global Event Ticket” a step in the right, or a step in the wrong direction? Time (and pricing) will tell for sure.

Despite it’s incredible success, Pokemon GO was always one of the least monetized games on the market, which made it an instant hit among all demographics. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the Global Event Ticket won’t change that.