A Look Ahead to Unova Tour

With Sinnoh Tour over, is it too early to start taking a look at the potential for Unova Tour in 2025? Unova is quite a divisive generation, with some trainers thinking it has some ridiculous designs thanks to the likes of Vanillite and Trubbish, and others (like me), thinking those ridiculous designs make this one of the best generations of Pokémon ever.

Unreleased Pokémon

There aren’t many unreleased Pokémon from the Unova region at this point, barring the zen form of Darmanitan, it is only Legendary and Mythical Pokémon. Now, while the Ordinary Form Keldeo, and Aria Form Meloetta have been released before, one was locked behind a paid ticket, and the other GO Fest 2021, which also needed a paid ticket. Many Mythicals have been seen at paid events, and then later rolled out via Special Research for all trainers, but so far neither of these two have been seen again. The Keldeo ticket was particularly controversial, so there will be a lot of people who didn’t buy that ticket, and new/returning players will have missed out on that chance too.

Until Sinnoh Tour, previous tours brought with them completion of the Pokédex for that region, but with no Arceus, Manaphy and Phione, it looks less likely that the completed Dex will be a hard and fast rule of Tour events going forward. It seems unlikely we would get both forms of both of the Mythicals, but we could see a wider release of the previously released forms, Aria Meloetta and Ordinary Keldeo.

Black and White Kyurem saw an accidental release in late 2023, so many would hope that it means their impending release may be coming at some point in 2024, especially with the recent datamine discover of fusing. I can see them being held back for Unova Tour, like the Origin Formes of Dialga and Palkia for Sinnoh Tour, so that there is a hype Legendary featured in raids.

In terms of the Zen mode form of Darmanitan, in the main series the form change is temporary, and occurs during battle. According to Serebii, it changes forms when ‘Hit Points get to 50% of maximum, the Pokémon changes form. The Pokémon reverts back to its standard form if it loses this ability or returns to over 50% of its Hit Points’. As these sort of form changes don’t exist in Pokémon GO, we anticipate that much like some of the other form changes (Castform and Cherrim for example), we suspect it’ll be released as an entirely separate Pokémon, potentially through a raid day. There is also the potential it could be treated like a Mega Evolution, with a temporary effect lasting 8 hours, but this seems less likely as no other Pokémon with different forms for battles have their own mechanism currently.

You’ll notice I don’t mention Galarian Darmanitan here, it’s because down the road Galar Tour is a real possibility, so it would make sense for it to feature then, rather than for Unova Tour. While the Hisuian forms featured at Sinnoh Tour, Hisui is the ancient name for Sinnoh, and it isn’t a full Pokédex, whereas Galar is a full region and a Pokédex of it’s own.

Unreleased Shiny Pokémon

Sinnoh Tour had an issue with having not many unreleased shiny forms, and needing Hisuian forms to save the day, but at present, Unova Tour looks to be in much better standing! I do anticipate that we may see some of these released pre Unova Tour with there being so many unreleased. Let’s take a look at the unreleased shinies, because there are some really fantastic ones yet to debut in Pokémon GO.

First up, the Sewaddle family. Sewaddle in particular is a fantastic shiny, Swadloon gets more muted tones and angry little red eyes that really suit it, whereas Leavanny is a little lacklustrein comparison.

Shiny Sewaddle	Shiny Swadloon	Shiny Leavanny

Now the Tynamo family are definetly not as exciting as the Sewaddle family, until you get to Eelektross. Tynamo is notorious for being difficult to spot in the main series, Eelektrik isn’t much better, but Eelektross is a fantastic green! We kind of wish they all had that green colour palette to make them a more obvious shiny.

Shiny Tynamo	Shiny Eelektrik	Shiny Eelektross

Next, the Ducklett family! Ducklett is a fan favourite shiny, with the amazing pink and purple combo, with Swanna being another we wish kept the pink to go with the purple.

Shiny Ducklett	Shiny Swanna

The Darmanitan form may not even be in GO yet, but it does a have great shiny! Emolga follows one of the typical shiny colours for the Pikachu clones, with a brown tone to their shiny. 

Shiny Zen Mode Darmanitan	Shiny Emolga

The Mienfoo family have some of the most striking shiny forms I’ve ever seen, with Mienfoo having such a unique colourway! They are completely different from each other, but I think that Mienshao’s shiny colours particularly sort their design.

Shiny Mienfoo	Shiny Mienshao

Sadly the Basculin shinies are infinitely lacking in terms of desirability, with them being a paler shade than their originals, and that’s about it. White Stripe Basculin was released for Sinnoh Tour, but the original Basculin shinies were not. We move on!

Shiny Red Stripe Basculin	Shiny Blue Stripe Basculin

The other regionals! Much more exciting than the Basculin shinies, these are striking. Sigilyph weirdly makes me think of apples with their colour change, and Bouffalant becomes much more red in colour, and darker. Maractus is a personal favourite, swapping to berry purple highlights and yellow flowers. The regionals will be the major grind at Unova Tour, likely featured in 10km eggs.

Shiny Sigilyph	Shiny Bouffalant	Shiny Maractus

Speaking of regionals (sort of), none of the forms of Deerling have had their shinies released yet, so that is a whopping eight new shinies from one Pokémon family alone! They aren’t the most exciting shinies, with Deerling swapping to a pink flower on their head, and Sawsbuck getting a more golden body. I could see these featuring in the four different biomes for Unova Tour, rotating each hour as a featured spawn.

	Shiny Deerling	Shiny Sawsbuck
Autumn
Spring
Summer
Winter

Some absolute highlights of the unreleased shinies, the Sandile family are wonderful shinies! They have a fairly unusual colour palette of yellows and browns, but it works so well with their designs.

Shiny Sandile	Shiny Krokorok	Shiny Krookodile

A lot of trainers may still not have Volcarona, or even potentially Larvesta in their pokedex yet, so the idea of their shiny release seems a way off, but it technically should happen with Unova Tour!

Shiny Larvesta	Shiny Volcarona

Onto the Mythical Pokémon! Shiny Victini seems the most logical choice for Unova Tour, potentially with a paid ticket like Shaymin for Sinnoh Tour, because it was released way back in 2020! It is a fun shiny, the white is quite striking and fun.

Shiny Victini

With only one form of Meloetta released, and it was locked behind a paid event, it doesn’t seem as a likely that we’ll see either of these released with a Unova Tour event. Both are solid, noticeable shinies.

Shiny Aria Meloetta	Shiny Pirouette Meloetta

Keldeo has the same issue as Meloetta, with only one form released behind a paid ticket, it doesn’t seem likely that we would see both forms released, along with their shiny variants. Both have a fun green theme!

Shiny Ordinary Keldeo	Shiny Resolute Keldeo

And finally, the two Legendaries, Black and White Kyurem. With Sinnoh Tour seeing not only the debut of Origin Forme Dialga and Palkia, but their shiny release too, this could mean a similar debut for Black and White Kyurem and their shinies at Unova Tour.

Black Kyurem	White Kyurem

Conclusion

Unova Tour has a slew of unreleased shinies, and while it is likely there will be less by the time the event comes around in 2025, there will still be a lot to look forward to. It will be interesting to see the choices Niantic make in terms of the Mythical Pokémon, and which we see featured, with all three having been released prior, just not all forms, and no shinies.

What do you hope to see at Unova Tour next year? Let us know in the comments!