From 10am on Wednesday, July 6 to 8pm on Tuesday, July 12, players can take part in Pokémon Go's sixth-anniversary event. Pokémon Go launched in the summer of 2016 and has grown in popularity and scale since then, including Pokémon from nine different regions in the Pokémon universe and hosting events around the world to bring players together. To celebrate its sixth birthday, Pokémon Go is celebrating its sixth Pokémon: Charizard. To give Charizard and Pokémon a birthday to remember, players can take advantage of several bonuses and some new features during the event window.
To get involved, players need to log in to the Pokémon Go app during the sixth-anniversary event window, July 6 to July 12. It begins at 10am local time, and ends at 8pm local time. From the Pokémon Go app, players can enjoy several bonuses, catch new Party Hat forms of some of the most beloved Pokémon in the franchise, and find some other rare and shiny Pokémon more frequently.
Pokémon Go has a history of offering bonuses and rare Pokémon drops on anniversaries, so players should take advantage before the end of the event window while they can.
Wild Pokémon and Raids in Pokémon Go's Limited-Time Sixth Anniversary Event
Since Pokémon Go is celebrating its sixth anniversary, the limited-time event will celebrate the sixth Pokémon Charizard as well as many other Pokémon from various generations. There will be new avatars and stickers to send to friends, as well as event bonuses like Players will be able to more frequently find and catch the following Pokémon from July 6 to July 12:
- Party Hat Charizard*
- Party Hat Charmeleon*
- Party Hat Charmander - in addition, players can evolve Party Hat Charmander and he will keep his limited-time Pokémon Party Hat in the process.
- Cake Costume Pikachu*
- Bulbasaur*
- Squirtle*
- Machop*
- Ledyba*
- Ralts*
- Buneary*
- Pansear*
- Venipede
- Chespin
- Fennekin
- Froakie
- Bunnelby*
- Litleo*
- Pikipek
- Gabite
- Clauncher
- Helioptile
Several of those Pokémon, marked with an asterisk, can also be found in their Shiny form more frequently in the wild during the sixth-anniversary limited-time event in Pokémon Go. In addition to the Shiny and Party Hat Pokémon, players can fight in the following raids:
- Cake Costume Pikachu* - one-star raid
- Dratini raid* - one-star raid
- Unown E raid* - one-star raid
- Pansear Raid* - one-star raid
- Venusaur* - three-star raid
- Party Hat Charizard* - three-star raid
- Blastoise* - three-star raid
- Tyranitar - three-star raid
- Metagross - three-star raid
- Zapdos* - five star raid
- Mega Charizard X* - Pokémon Go Mega raid; will only appear on July 6 and July 7
- Mega Charizard Y* - Mega raid; will only appear from July 7 to July 12
Pokémon Go players can also complete Field Research Tasks that lead to encounters to catch all the starter Pokémon from various games. Many of these encounters may also have Shiny Pokémon.
Battle Weekend Event Bonuses in Pokémon Go's Limited-Time Sixth Anniversary Event
In addition to finding more Pokémon in the wild and through Raids, players can participate in the Battle Weekend from Saturday, July 9 to Sunday, July 10. During this weekend, players will be able to:
- Enjoy 20 GO Battle League sets each day
- Use a Charged TM to help a Shadow Pokémon forget the Charged Attack Frustration
- Find Team GO Rocket balloons every two hours
- Earn 5x Stardust from GO Battle League rewards
- Enjoy 1 extra Raid Pass each day
- Earn 50% more XP from Raid Battles
- Earn 2 Mysterious Components from defeating Team GO Rocket Grunts
- Earn 50% more Stardust from defeating Team GO Rocket Grunts
- Encounter Legendary Pokémon in GO Battle League reward encounters at Rank 16 and higher.
Players will also be able to do more research on Giovanni, leader of the Rockets, and save Shadow Latias from Giovanni's clutches.
Pokémon GO is available on iOS and Android.