The Pokemon GO Welcome Party research tasks are here, a chance to earn plenty of bonus XP and other rewards to celebrate the mobile game‘s new Party Play update. You can only complete Welcome Party research tasks in a party, so make sure to brush up on how to form a party in Pokemon GO if you haven’t already.
Welcome Party special research tasks are live as of Oct. 17, 2023, and they have no time limit. You’re free to complete all four steps at your pace, so there’s no rush to throw a party together right away if you need more time.
As is usually the case with special research, the Welcome Party tasks are split into four steps with two tasks each and a bonus task that just rewards you for completing the other two.
Niantic announced a new Pokemon GO update aimed to improve your multiplayer experience in the mobile game. The Party Play update is live now and lets you team up with three other people to tackle challenges and catch Pokemon together.
Party Play introduces new party-themed challenges to help you scoop up more XP and other rewards as you complete them. These show up when you first form or join a party, and you can all choose which ones to complete, ranging from catching certain Pokemon to battling in raids, and spinning PokeStops.
Speaking of raids, you get a handy new power boost when you complete raids in Party Play. The team can pull off a Party Power move, which doubles the power of your charged attacks. It charges every time you use a fast attack, so it should be a convenient way to get through tough Raid battles quickly.
Creating a party only takes a few steps.
Open your trainer profile
Tap the new “Party” tab
Choose “create”
You can choose to get a QR code or a numerical code, like Nintendo’s friend codes, to share with up to three other nearby trainers. A party can be just two trainers, though, so you don’t have to have four people involved.
To join, open the party tab and select “join,” where you can input your code and get started. You can see other party members’ avatars on your in-game map and share party highlights for everyone to see.
The Pokemon Scarlet and Violet 7-star Decidueye Raid is live, giving you a chance to add the Hisuian variant of the Alolan starter to your team in the latest Pokemon game – if you manage to take it down. Like previous 7-star raids, the Decidueye battle is not an easy one, but we’ve come up with a few good ways to make it through comparatively unscathed.
This Scarlet and Violet Decidueye raid guide breaks down everything you need to know about Decidueye’s move set and the best counters to make it through.
The next Pokemon GO event is a crossover with Detective Pikachu, celebrating the launch of the Nintendo 3DS game’s sequel on Switch. The Detective Pikachu and Pokemon GO event runs from Oct. 5, 2023, through Oct. 9, 2023, and gives you a chance to encounter Pikachu in their sleuth’s hat and more.
Hat-wearing Pikachu who evolve actually keep their headgear and turn into hat-wearing Raichu.
There’s also Slowpoke with a cute lil’ hat that’s far too small for them, Bronzor, Alolan Exeggutor, Growlithe, and Chimecho, all of which have a chance to show up in their Shiny forms. Failinks, Bellossom, Xatu, and Ducklett will also turn up more often, but not as Shinies.
You have one chance per day of encountering Pikachu with a detective hat while you’re taking snapshots. Completing themed research tasks will also earn you one encounter with a hat-wearing Pikachu, so you should walk away from the event with at least one rodent sporting a deerstalker.
Detective Pikachu-themed field research tasks put you on the same path as Sudowoodo and Snivy, both of which may be Shiny, and Rowlett, which won’t be, and you get double XP for spinning PokeStops while the event lasts.
If you want to splash out some real-world cash, you can pick up a Detective Pikachu-inspired pose for your avatar from the in-game shop.
Meanwhile, Detective Pikachu 2 launches on Oct. 6, 2023, for Nintendo Switch and follows Tim and his coffee-drinking, hard-boiled Pikapal as they track down Tim’s father and unravel a tangled web of dark secrets in Rhyme City.
Game Freak posted a new Scarlet and Violet DLC trailer, following the big Pokemon Presents, and every starter Pokemon is coming back
Game Freak posted a new Scarlet and Violet DLC trailer, following the big Pokemon Presents, and it turns out every starter Pokemon is coming back. The new trailer also gives a bit more detail about two of the new Pokemon forms teased during the presentation, though you’ll have to wait a while to see any of this in action for yourself.
The starter Pokemon and new forms are, apparently, exclusive to The Indigo Disk, which is set to launch sometime in winter 2023.
“Past first partner Pokemon are appearing in spades!” a caption in the trailer reads. It then cuts to a series of clips showing every starter wandering around the underwater biomes of Blueberry Academy, before showing a trainer capturing one of two Bulbasaur and watching them Terastalize.
That’s a pretty significant change from how Game Freak approached classic critters in previous Pokemon games. In Sword and Shield, for example, you have to pick whether you want Squirtle or Bulbasaur, and X and Y only gave you one as well.
In other news, the giraffe-o-saurus variant of Gold and Silver’s Raikou is officially called Raging Bolt and sports a Dragon and Electric dual typing, while Cobalion from Black and White is rebranded as Iron Crown, a Steel and Psychic type. Indigo Disk introduces a few new moves as well, including Tachyon Cutter, which hits twice consecutively, and Thunderclap, an Electric move that’s guaranteed to hit first.
Meanwhile, The Teal Mask and its new region are set to launch on Sep. 13, 2023.
The August 2023 Pokemon Presents showcase has come and gone, with Scarlet and Violet DLC updates and quite a bit more
The August 2023 Pokemon Presents showcase has come and gone, with Scarlet and Violet DLC updates and quite a bit more. The 30-minute presentation announced a free Mew ahead of a climactic showdown against Mewtwo in an upcoming Tera Raid. There’s also a new Detective Pikachu 2 trailer, new Pokemon forms, and confirmation of The Pokemon Trading Card Game coming to Nintendo Switch Online. What there isn’t is a new Pokemon game announcement, so despite rumors of a new Legends in the works, it looks like Scarlet and Violet DLC is Game Freak’s priority for the foreseeable future.
After months of teasing, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company finally announced the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC release date
After months of teasing, Game Freak and The Pokemon Company finally announced the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC release date during the August 2023 Pokemon Presents, at least for the first half. The Teal Mask, part one of The Secret Treasure of Area Zero, will launch on Sep. 13, 2023, for Nintendo Switch and adds the new region of Kitakami, new Pokemon, and a few new rivals as well.
The Teal Mask kicks off with a school trip to the Kitakami region, an idyllic rural setting with rice paddies, a giant, slightly ominous mountains, and apple orchards around every corner. It’s fitting, then, that one of The Teal Mask’s new Pokemon is Dipplin, an Applin evolution, the apple dragon who first appeared in the Galar region. Like in Sword and Shield’s expansion, this new region is home to Pokemon you can’t find in the base game.
Three additional new Pokemon are The Loyal Three, Kitakami’s guardians who once saved the land from a horrible ogre, or so the story goes. These are:
Munkidori
Okidogi
Fezandipity
Game Freak didn’t say what type these three are, though.
You arrive during an annual festival celebrating The Loyal Three, which means there’s plenty to do and see, including new mini-games such as Oust the Ogre and photography challenges.
The DLC’s second half is The Indigo Disc. This expansion has no release date yet, but when it does launch, it’ll introduce a substantial amount of new characters, Pokemon, and challenges to Scarlet and Violet, including a new Elite Four to battle.
Your destination this time is Blueberry Academy, a school situated underwater with multiple biomes branching off from the main hub. You’ll find new Pokemon in each of these, including Golurk and Alolan Exeggutor, and you can battle new trainers from across the region.
At the end of all this, you head back to Paldea and finally discove the Secret Treasure of Area Zero.
You can get both halves of the DLC in the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion for $34.99, but make sure to check which version you’re buying. Like Sword and Shield‘s DLC, the expansions are version-specific.
Our worst Nintendo Gamecube games list highlights some of the truly awful licensed games, adaptations, and first-party flops on the console
The Nintendo Gamecube stands out for its library of innovative new ideas and impressive sequels, but behind these triumphs lurks a host of the worst Gamecube games. These imprinted themselves on the minds of the elders – us 30- and 40-something folks – who spent their hard-earned cash on a new game, clicked the disc into place, and watched their hopes of joy and excitement wither away in front of them. You can count yourself lucky if you missed out on these – or not so lucky, since we’re forcing them into your consciousness now in our worst Gamecube games list.
Ash’s decades-long journey in the Pokemon anime is finally coming to a close on Netflix in September 2023
Ash’s decades-long journey in the Pokemon anime is finally coming to a close on Netflix. We knew Ash’s days in the spotlight were numbered, and now, after the Ultimate Journeys series already wrapped up in Japan, The Pokemon Company announced during SDCC 2023 that the final 13 episodes featuring Ash’s farewell will air on Sep. 8, 2023.
“The end of an era” gets thrown around pretty often, but seeing as Ash has been the star of the anime series since it first started airing in the mid-1990s, it seems rather appropriate here. In a move befitting such a momentous ending, The Pokemon Company also announced that Misty and Brock – Ash’s close friends and traveling companions in the show’s first several series – will return in the last 13 episodes.
It’s not all goodbyes and partings, though. Pokemon Horizons will take over where Ash’s story leaves off, introducing new heroes, Paldean Pokemon from Scarlet and Violet, and even a high-flying Pikachu. Netflix will also air Pokemon Concierge in December 2023.
Concierge is a stop-motion production that follows a young girl working as a concierge at a luxury resort that serves elite trainers and their Pokemon, so it’s shaping up to be something rather different than we’re used to both from an animation perspective and in terms of what the series usually focuses on.
Meanwhile, on the video game front, Scarlet and Violet DLC expansions are still expected to release in the near future, though Nintendo hasn’t announced a launch date yet.
A new Pokemon GO update is adding Zygarde to the mobile game, but piecing this legendary Pokemon together takes a bit of effort
A new Pokemon GO update is adding Zygarde to the mobile game, but piecing this legendary Pokemon together takes a bit of effort. You need to collect Zygarde Cells to put Zygarde back together again like in previous Pokemon games, but the only way to find those cells is by traveling Pokemon GO’s new routes.
You’ll also encounter Zygarde in a new round of special research, A to Zygarde.
The route system lets players create paths for other players to follow, ideally to show off their favorite sights around town or highlight places of interest that might not be designated with a PokeStop or other in-game marker. All you need to do is start from a Gym or PokeStop, hit “record” to map your route, and set off.
Send the route for consideration once you’re done, and after it’s approved, anyone can follow it. Traveling routes is the only way to get Zygarde Cells at the moment, but they offer a range of other bonuses as well. These include extra Buddy Candy, bonus XP, and Buddy Hearts when you complete a route with your designated Buddy Pokemon, and incense works more effectively when you use it on a route that you’re traveling for the first time.
To follow a route, open the “Nearby” menu to get a look at any close routes, find one you want to travel, and set off.
Zygarde is only available in the A to Zygarde research task, though if other legendary Pokemon are anything to go by, including X and Y’s signature legendaries, you’ll likely be able to find Zygarde in special raids later down the road.
