Niantic is kicking July off with the Pokémon Go Anniversary Event, celebrating the mobile game’s sixth year with multiple Pokémon encounters and a battle weekend. No new Pokémon appear in the game, but players can find costumed encounters of Charmander wearing a party hat and Pikachu in a cake costume. The event’s final days will also feature more Team Rocket activity with the return of Giovanni and Shadow Latios, and players can have their Shadow Pokémon forget the charged move Frustration.
Before the anniversary event happens, the Pokémon Go Fest 2022 event in Berlin will be happening from July 1 to 3, and there will be Global Challenges available for everyone to receive Ultra Unlock bonuses for this event, including the battle weekend. We do not know what these rewards will be yet, but the Global Challenges will be available starting at 9 AM GMT +2.
Related: The Pokémon Go Anniversary event kicks off the July update, with Dialga returning to raids
Charmander wearing a party hat and Pikachu in a cake costume will be appearing in the wild on July 6 at 10 AM in your local time zone. This will be the only way to catch Charmander in this costume, but Pikachu in this costume will be available in one-star raids. Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Machop, Ledyba, Ralts, Buneary, Venipede, Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie, Bunnelby, Litleo, and Pikipek will be appearing in the wild. In addition, there’s a slight chance for Gabite, Clauncher, and Heliptile to appear.
The Anniversary Event’s battle weekend will be from July 9 to 10, from 12 AM to 11:59 PM in your local time zone. Team Rocket balloons will be appearing every three houses, all players can partake in 20 battle sets, there will be four times as many Stardust rewards, and there will be a Special Research ticket available to everyone to encounter Giovanni and Latios.
From what we can tell from the image, it looks like an Ultra Unlock bonus from Pokémon Go Fest Berlin will feature the shiny form of Pansear appearing worldwide. Of course, we can only speculate on this given the image, and we’ll be able to confirm this following the conclusion of the Go Fest event.
For now, Pokémon Go fans can look forward to another chance to cross paths with Giovanni and capture another legendary shadow Pokémon.
