Trainers, attention! The next Season in Pokémon GO is called Hidden Gems, as revealed in a teaser video posted by Niantic on Twitter. Season of Hidden Gems starts on June 1, 2023, and will last for three months.
The video shared outlines the general theme of the Season, which looks to be treasure hunting, gems, and sandy beaches:
“Uncover what lies beneath the surface” is the promotional motto that is driving this Season’s narrative, which sounds like Niantic is going for a mystery driven summer of GO. Count us in, it sounds good to us!
In terms of which Pokémon we could be seeing during the Season of Hidden Gems, our money is on Sandygast, Krabby, Shellder, and other Pokémon which can be found in the beach biome.
And of course, there is Diancie, a Mythical Pokémon which has been rumoured about ever since Niantic announced this year’s GO Fest series of events. Pokémon GO Fest 2023 logo features a literal diamond, aka gem, which is very synergistic with Diancie’s lore and appearance.
Diancie
Additionally, the whole vibe of GO Fest branding suggest exploration, finding hidden treasures, using a map to orient yourself, and more mystery exploration focused features. Of course, we are not the only ones to make this connection.
A reddit user going under the nickname of AngelaMurkrow (brilliant nick btw) shared that they strongly believe that this Season will focus on treasure hunting:
I’m pretty sure that next season will be thematically tied to Treasure. This theory is based off the following three things.
1) Go Fest key artwork. Players speculate that Diancie will be the featured Mythical Pokémon introduced this year based off the gems featured in the event’s logo. But the ribbon also features a dashed line and frayed edges, giving the feel of a treasure map.
2) Datamines with field research for new sponsors. Pokeminers revealed research with the subtitle “Hidden Gems”
3) Pokemon Scarlet/Violet’s central theme was treasure hunting. August will be the first World Championship of the Scarlet/Violet generation. With the culmination of the season building up to GoFest (also in August), a season relating to Treasure would be incredibly synergistic across the Pokemon brand.
Additionally, last year around this time, we had the introduction of Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts with Nihilego. Then, the new season began with Professor Willow missing and collaborating with Rhi to get him back. More Ultra Beasts got introduced later that season, but in GoFest cities first. (Phermosa in Berlin, Buzzwole in Seattle, and Xurkitree in Sapporo)
Comparing that to this year. Introduced shadow legendary raids. Osaka/London will likely get Shadow Articuno/Shadow Zapdos before everyone else, and New York City will get Shadow Moltres first.
Why does this connect to Treasure? The Purified Gems that we recently got. What do y’all think?
What are your thoughts Trainers? Did Niantic surprise you with this announcement? What Pokémon are you looking forward to?
