SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – A lot of Pokemon GO players have been waiting for quite some time for the announcement of the 2017 Thanksgiving event of Niantic.
But everyone was in for a surprise when it was announced that Pokemon GO would have its “Travel and Global Catch Event.” It might not exactly take place during the holiday, but it got a lot of players excited. They have flown various gaming personalities and YouTubers to Japan to help produce videos that will be tied to the event.
The announcement is not only the exciting one. It also comes with an, even more, adventure and challenge for everyone. It has a simple but quite impossible goal: catch a total of 3 billion Pokemon in just one week.
But the good thing is you don’t really have to reach that goal. There are different prizes for various milestones you can accomplish.
Catching a total of 500 million Pokemon will give you a 2× XP and 6 hours of lures. When you find 1.5 billion Pokemon, you get 2× XP, 2× Stardust, and 6 hours of lures. And if you happen to achieve the 3 billion catches, you will have 2× XP, 2× Stardust, 6-hour lures, local east Asia window for Kangaskhan originally exclusive in Australia, and global window for Farfetch’d originally exclusive in Asia.
But not everyone seems to be ecstatic about the breakdown of prizes for the event. It is especially because most think that the XP and Stardust should be a standard part of the game instead of being a bonus. For last year’s Thanksgiving, these perks can be achieved without having to do anything. For this year, it will take you millions of catches just to have it. A lot of players might be excited about the event but not for the grand prize.
Pokemon GO is considered one of the biggest games, and it has reached 750 million downloads. However, over time, the number of active players seems to decrease, and the 3-billion catch goal appears to be quite impossible to achieve. That would take a lot of dedication from its remaining player base. But the lackluster prizes don’t encourage even the most serious players to be part of the game and hit that 3-billion goal.
Still, there might be some definite reasons that Niantic believes that the goal is achievable.
The festivity is going to start today, November 20, until November 26. It will be a 7-day period game which is open to anyone with a smartphone and the Pokemon GO game itself. But there is still no news if a live tracker is available for this week to help players see how close they are to reaching their catch goals. How the prizes and perks will be unlocked is also not mentioned in detail.
While there are some people that would rather stay at home than participate in this worldwide Pokemon GO, there are now some determined players out there trying to catch as many Pokemon as they can. Some players are even looking forward to working with other gamers to unlock every prize there is and to have the adventure of trying to catch them all.