Pokemon Global Go Fest 2023

In a previous post I had stated that the Digging for Gold event was the most fun I have had in Pokemon Go. Unfortunately for it, the title has been passed onto the recent Global Go Fest 2023 event! Honestly at this point no event has even come close to this year's Go Fest. To preface, shiny Pokemon are effectively the main reason I play this game in the first place. Previous major events such as Hoenn Tour and Go Fest 2022 both had 'boosted' odds of shiny Pokemon appearing, with the latter being a paid feature. This year's event was also a paid event but the difference between this event and last year's is as stark as the difference between night and day.

Day 1:

The first day of the event had separate habitats of different spawning Pokemon each hour. With four different habitats appearing twice each over the course of the eight hours the event ran for. The first habitat titled 'Quartz Terrarium' I would consider to be my personal favourite. This habitat featured Pokemon that included Audino, Foongus and Shiinotic, Pokemon that come with an increased amount of stardust for each catch. With stardust holding such importance in the game, I focused on catching as many of these Pokemon as I could and thankfully they were everywhere! 

The other habitats were fine with the fourth one, 'Aquamarine Shores' being my least favourite at the time but that's probably because I was getting a bit tired by that point. I also did a couple raids throughout the day of both Kyogre and Groudon and managed to snag myself another purple whale! Wasn't super into grinding either though since I planned on going hard for Mega Rayquazza tomorrow. 

I got tired towards the final few hours and started to head home, stopping for food on the way. Decided to eat it at a local park and just as I finished, some family members appeared with our dog so naturally I joined them for the walk. That took up the majority of the last hour and I caught a few more shinies both during, before and after the walk with my autocatcher. The shiny Tympole was the last shiny/relevant Pokemon I caught on the day, with my autocatcher catching it on the drive home!

Speaking of shinies I ended up with a mind-blowing 34, with most of them being amazing shinies to boot! I started off with a Luvdisc from my auto-catcher on the drive there and then another soon after I arrived. I had a small drought for the next hour or so, before the flood gates opened. My favourite overall probably being Pawniard with it's stark blue colouring! I have an obsession with the colour Green though, so Marill is automatically up there as well! Wurmple, Diglett and Shuckle are also quite nice. Oranguru was a shiny released with this event so it's great to have them since they'll be quite rare for awhile. Finally, Unowns are a pain to find shiny so it's thrilling to add one to the collection. I don't think I'm going to try and get the other 25 though! 😂

Also imagine me typing this with anger but my darn shiny event Pikachu luck continues to cause me endless suffering. I personally like to add my shinies to Pokemon Home (Which will take years to transfer them all 😟) but I'm unable to transfer event Pokemon such as the Pikachu found in this event... I got three in last year's Go Fest (where the shiny rates were nowhere near as high) and this year they decide to torture me further by granting me six more of these darn rodents! 

 

Day 2:

The main focus on the second day were Mega Rayquazza raids. Which were appearing for the first time for everyone who hadn't attended one of the non-global events. I started off this day by completing a few raids in my local neighborhood. The first couple I used PokeGenie to fill my lobby. However, in one of the raids a random family appeared and helped take it down which was cool. Once I drove to my city's main spot I pretty much exclusively chased down most Rayquazza raids I could find. One big problem I faced with these raids were that they didn't last very long at all, and it wasn't even a guarantee they'd even be the raid boss featured. With a few other semi-irrelevant Pokemon also being in the raid pool. This combined with most gyms having at least a five minute walk between them meant that it was pretty difficult to do multiple Rayquazza raids in decent succession. One positive though is that today was mostly overcast as opposed to yesterday's direct sunlight, which made is somewhat bearable to move quickly between raids.

My shiny luck wasn't exactly thrilling with it taking 27 raids to finally receive a shiny Rayquazza (Which I suppose is close enough to the 1/20 rate). I honestly wasn't actually aiming for one though since I got one in the event just before Hoenn Tour. It did however, mark the end of my journey in Day 2 as I soon headed home after catching one. I defeated a few raids remotely once I was at home and hilariously managed to catch two more shiny Rayquazzas, with only one normal one in between the two. The main goal for these remote raids was to get enough XL candy to max a Rayquazza. It took 44 raids in total over the day, but eventually I was able to. I maxed out one of my 98% Rayquazzas I caught.

 

My new strongest Pokemon!

In terms of shinies, today was just as insane as yesterday. I was able to once again net another 34 (36 if you include the remote raid Rayquazzas). I find it impressive I was able to hit this number again given I spent most the day raiding. My favourite today is easily Bagon with it's absolutely amazing vibrant shade of green! Carvanha is another favourite for a similar reason but I also enjoy Audino's and the Helioptile line! If you're wandering why I don't mention other shinies like Beldum, it's most likely because I have already caught them so I have no reason to form a connection to the newer ones. Anyway, the wildest part of the day was when I caught a Joltik and Barboach one after another followed by a Hippopotas two catches after. It was absolutely crazy and it felt like they were just handing out shinies by that point.

 

 

Final Thoughts:

Overall, the event was an absolute blast. With the amount of shinies I caught I don't think I could rank it as anything other than number one. The only thing another event did better was Hoenn Tour and the higher amount of high IV/perfect Pokemon I got from it. That is however, pure chance and as far as anyone is aware, Niantic doesn't alter IV rates. I also gained a bunch of new in-game friends using the friend invitation feature after raids which was nice. Honestly the only real problem with this event is that I don't think the next couple events will feature such a high shiny rate. Which will leave them perpetually second fiddle.

An update on my Pokemon Go adventures!

It's been a few months now since my last Pokemon Go post so I thought I'd post an update on my gains since then. Most of these events have been quite enjoyable and I've grown my shiny collection quite a bit! I've also started transferring my collection to Pokemon Home so I'll include most images at the end since all the shinies are jumbled up now.

Searching for Gold Research Day

My personal favourite event of the last couple months and nothing comes close. Compared to the usual hour or so I spend on community days, I played for almost the entirety of the three hour event time frame. This event was a research day, meaning I had to wander around my suburb spinning new PokeStops to provide a constant source of spawns. I had quite a few shinies I needed going into the event, with the only ones I already possessed being a Sableye and Nosepass. I bought the paid research and almost immediately got a shiny Caterpie from the first page. I walked around my local park and completed about 20-30 tasks there. I then traveled around my suburb, on roads I've never traversed before, purely for the sweet nectar from more stops. Eventually I had enough and headed home, with every shiny I needed for full evolution lines aside from Barboach.

I made the mistake of thinking the second page of paid research was the same as the first, so I didn't move onto the second page until I was done (The first page was entirely made up of 'Complete 1 Field Research Task' while the second climbed to 10 total). Fortunately my dog required walking so I took her to another park further away for the last half an hour of the event. Thankfully luck was on my side, and after completing my paid research as well as claiming more field research/spawns, I was able to amass three Barboaches meaning I had now obtained full evolution lines of every event Pokemon line! I also got a shiny Staryu from my auto-catcher during the day to boot! Overall I greatly enjoyed the event and would honestly consider it to be probably one of the best I've participated in.

Community Days

There have been several community days since my last post covering the Slowpoke one. Since then we've had Togetic, Swinub, Fennekin and Axew. They've all been pretty standard community days for me and I've been able to achieve my main goal of a full shiny line for each of them. Togetic day is remembered for the absolute pain in the butt that hatching a shiny Togepi was. I walked for quite a while and got nothing but finally got one on some of my last eggs that hatched after the event had already ended. Swinub wasn't very exciting. I had already caught one shiny Swinub so I really only needed to catch two more plus earn candy. I was on break from work during the event and an out of work coworker and I conversed for the hour break instead. Got the two Swinubs from an auto-catcher anyway.

Fennekin was one of those events where I end up with way too many. The first three weren't super quick by any means but I caught a few more later after I started doing other activities - like they just started popping up way more often. Axew was by far the worst community day i've had in quite a while. Very reminiscent of the Larvitar day where I struggled to get anything. From memory I ended up having caught 200+ Axews and only three of those were shiny which is atrocious luck. I think it was the closest i've been to giving up. I had walked the entirety of my somewhat large local park and was getting nothing out of it. Thankfully after a long wait I finally got the third shiny and almost immediately headed back home.

New 4 Stars!

I've gained a few new perfect Pokemon over the last few months with a nice variation from utterly useless to some of the best in the game. The latter includes the Gengar as well as the Charmander who I will later be able to evolve in Mega Charizard Y. According to gamepress.gg these two are S tier raid attackers so I will most likely try to best buddy them when I remember to do so. Magnezone, Haxorus and Roserade are all decent attackers as well so I'm honestly quite happy with my perfect luck. While the Shaymin isn't useful I'm still quite satisfied having another perfect mythical somehow (Zarude was my first). Oh and before anyone asks, I upgraded my Haxorus for the recent Go Battle Day. I know there were better choices but I like the look of him and I wanted to use him in future raids anyway.

Overall, a solid roster

 

My Galarian Zigzagoon Curse

Okay this is something that is really getting on my nerves. Outside of events my recent shiny luck as been quite lackluster (if we exclude the past few days that is). Even with this curse however one single Pokemon continues to cause even further pain. These darn Galarian Zigzagoons must have an increased shiny rate or something. I swear the rates for these things for me is around 1/10 or so. Every time I see one on the map I sigh before clicking on them, only for my sigh to be warranted as a red and blue creature appears before me. Literally almost half of my recent shinies have been these incessant things. Honestly, I don't actually mind them as they're a decent shiny. However, I already had a full line from the community day though so all these extras are a bit pointless.

Please make it stop! 😭

Stunfisk Research Day:

The stunfisk research day that took place in April was also pretty fun. I walked around the previously mentioned Pokestop full park and enjoyed it quite a bit. One task towards the start was a 'Battle in a Gym' task that I removed since the cloest gyms were my team. During the event I recieved two shiny Unovian Stunfisks during the event but still required a Galarian variant. Unfortunately I had already exhausted all the research at the park, except for a certain one. I remember when I initially removed it I thought it would be funny if it turned out to be the shiny and lo and behold, it was the exact mon I needed. I also caught the recently released shiny Drillbur which just added to my enjoyment.

Shiny Photos:

As stated early here are most of my recently aquired shinies, mixed between both Go and Home.

The shiny Riolu is quite sought after!

This is where the jumbling is really noticeable!

 

If you made it this far, thank you. I'm pretty sure this is my longest post so far so I appreciated you taking the time to scroll through the entire thing! ❤️

 

Another spontaneous update!

Hi guys, it's been awhile!

I've pretty much been focusing on my university studies the past few months and I say that very liberally. I've put slightly more effort than usual which wasn't much in the first place... Though I am happy to say that I've finally finished my university studies so that's fun. I do have a couple projects in the works which I hope I can commit more time to now that university is over. 

In terms of this blog I hope to do another Pokemon Go update as well as a post about my time with Pikmin Bloom. I probably should make another couple posts on different topics; maybe my renewed SCP: Secret Laboratory addiction or the movies/shows I've watched this year. I've also got my YouTube channel still chugging along with more low-effort videos (primarily clips). The channel did have a boost in viewership after the latest Zelda game came out and everyone decided to the Sooga cutscene I uploaded. I also have plans for a blog based on my home city of Perth, Australia but that still requires quite a few additions before being release worthy.

That's pretty much everything I can currently remember... I hope you're all doing well and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

Pokemon Go - Slowpoke Community Day!

Today was the slowpoke community day in Pokemon Go and to be completely honest, it was absurd. Not only was it a shiny goldmine, it was also one of the best XP events i've played. Most of my community days result in me gaining at least enough shinies for the evolution line with a couple having more. However the last community day for Noibat only netted me 3 shinies despite playing it slightly more committed than usual.

Today was completely the opposite however. I was at work during the beginning hours of the event so I took a 30 minute break to play. In that 30 minutes I ended up with 5 shinies, more than the last four community days. Was composed of three galarian and two originals. Ended up with another seven through both an autocatcher as well as just pure luck. Felt as if they were spawning constantly, especially the galarian ones. Ended up with an amazing 12 in total, heaven knows what to do with all of them.

This is also not mentioning the absurd amount of XP that was possible to gain during the event. The catch reticle for an excellent on slowpoke is incredibly easy to hit and combined with triple XP bonus and a lucky egg resulted in 7000XP+ per catch. I will be honest though, once I reached level 40 from it I decided i'd rather spend my day doing other stuff, especially considering I already had a ton of shinies. Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that I only played properly for probably 45 minutes out of the three hour window, about my usual playtime for these events.

All in all, was an amazing community day and probably one of the best i've participated in.

Pokemon Go Global Hoenn Tour!

Day 1
So recently it was the Global portion of the Hoenn Tour event in Pokemon Go! I took time off for both days and decided to head to the most popular spot to play in the city. Started playing around 11 and continued until around 4pm. The day was marked by the incredible heat we had to endure the entire day. Solid 35° C tempeatures and direct sun light required several layers of sunscreen which was fun. Now for commentation on the event itself. For a free event I believe it was actually pretty darn good. My friend quickly realised the research encounters were shiny boosted so we set about the park to complete as many tasks as possible. However, the shinies I recieved were actually pretty evenly distributed through the different methods. My first shiny was a rainy castform which was pretty soon after I started playing. Next couple were from research tasks and then my gotcha claimed two more on the walk back to the cars to charge my phone (got down to 1%). After this I completed my second Kyogre raid and was presented with shiny number 6. I traded I forgot what to my mate in return for a shiny shuppet which I then evolved into Banette to complete the line. No other shinies during the event for the Saturday. Later checked for hundos later in the day and scored a Avalugg. Amazing luck followed however. After walking my dog later in the day I hatched through my 10km eggs for the day. Just as I had finished my walk the egg hatching screen appears and I am presented with a shiny relicanth followed by a shiny tropius. The relicanth was my first one caught as well. I excitedly message my mates on my find. I then check the stats, and the tropius is, a shundo, my very first one. The gods decided to bless me with two incredibly rare Pokemon one after another. I am amazed. 

The two shinies hatched one after another on the hatching screen!

Turns out the tropius was infact a shundo!

The best IV Groudon I caught over both days!

Day 2
The second day was significantly less eventful. My mates from the previous day had work commitments and I myself did not possess the energy to spend another day out in the heat. I did go out for the 4th hour however as clamperl's evolutions were the last Pokemon required to complete my Hoenn dex. I caught a shiny duskull pretty quickly and evolved it into a dusclops. Walked around the park completing all the research available but recieved nothing worthwhile. I did end up with 100 clamperl candy so I rolled the dice and thankfully ended up with both it's evolutions, completing my dex. Later in the day I decided to work on catching a shiny Groudon through remote raiding and PokeGenie. After exactly 20 I finally ended up with one (talk about accurate odds bahahah). It was getting pretty late so I decided to do one last Kyogre raid. Completed it and it's CP seemed very high so I sensed something was amiss. Did suffer quite a bit of stress since it refused to be caught but at the very end, the very last ball was what it took. It was a hundo. Went to bed soon after, satisified. Eggs hatched the next day and I recieved a hundo tropius, which was something I guess. I forgot to mention that on both days I stacked my field research and I caught them all the following Thursday when my stack reached 100. I recieved nothing super amazing aside from a 96% Brendan pikachu and a 98% duskull. 

A suprisingly high CP

Turns out it was the hundo!

 

Thoughts on the event.
Given it was a free event I thought it was more than sufficient. Given I didn't spend even an entire event day playing I am quite happy with the Pokemon caught. Shiny odds seemed to be more than sufficient for myself although I have heard of people recieving signifcantly less. In person raids were also fine for me since I had quite a few raid passes saved up since I rarely use them. The only other global event I participated in was the final Global tour last year and having a look now, i'm pretty sure I recieved less shinies from it despite it being a paid event. I don't personally understand how people are able to play the entirety of both days. I finished all the special research and timed research tasks on the Saturday and recieved more than enough rare Pokemon during it. I could not imagine doing the same thing all again on Sunday. Although to be fair it was also incredibly hot here which probably had a large influence on my decision. 

Shinies from the event!