Just days before the onset of Pokémon GO’s Friendship Day, the team behind the title has announced a series of changes to the event including increasing the experience points players can earn and eliminating one challenge entirely. Pokémon GO developers Niantic first announced the grass-type gala earlier this month. The event will focus on friendship activities in the game, rewarding players with increased chances of lucky trades and offer a themed collection challenge.
Friendship Day is not the only celebration circled on fans' calendars right now, as Pokémon GO has multiple events set in April. Among them, and currently ongoing, is Pokémon GO’s Sustainability Week. The days-long festivities running until April 25 are being put on in honor of Earth Day and place the Pokémon world’s trash-inspired creatures front and center. Following soon after, Pokémon GO fans will be able to welcome New Pokémon Snap to the Switch via Niantic’s AR title at the end of the month. Taking a page out of the photography-based Pokémon game, Pokémon GO’s upcoming event will feature a slew of photo challenges and camera-related content.
As detailed on Niantic Support’s official Twitter account, Pokémon GO’s Friendship day is getting tweaked just before the event goes live. Initially, the game’s creators told fans that successfully completing the collection challenge would result in 100,000 XP. Today’s tweet confirms that this number has been increased by 75,000 points, meaning that if players finish the Friendship Day collection challenge in the hours the event is running, the game will dole out a total of 175,000 XP. The social media message also detailed the pivot away from having a global challenge for Friendship Day.
Pokémon GO’s upcoming event will take place on April 24 and lasts from 11 am to 2 pm, leaving players only a few hours to engage with all of Friendship Day’s content. Though the developers do not explain the reasons for completely getting rid of the event’s global challenge, it is possible that this strict time limit had some bearing on the decision. There is still a lot to accomplish in one morning, however, with bonuses for catching Pokémon during the festivities, and a list of things to do and see to celebrate Friendship Day.
Pokémon GO has long had a focus on special events – though recently the number of events seems to be increasing. Special, limited-time activities can be a good way to draw in players. With Friendship Day coming this weekend and another event set to commence just after, it does not seem like Niantic will be slowing down on events anytime soon.
Source: Niantic Support/Twitter