Pokémon Go's latest event is off to a bumpy start

UPDATE 28/1/20: Niantic has now confirmed to Eurogamer that Darumaka will be available in the wild and in 10km eggs after the current Lunar New Year event finishes.

ORIGINAL STORY 27/1/20: Pokémon Go's Lunar New Year event launched last Friday, but so far has left some players feeling rather unlucky.

One of the event's key features - a boosted chance of trades resulting in Lucky Pokémon - was apparently not activated over its first 24 hours.

Lucky Pokémon are those which, after trading, become considerably cheaper to power up and are likely to improve their stats. Pokémon Go's recently-added Trade Evolution mechanic, as well as the arrival of top-tier Fighting-type Timburr, meant players had plenty to trade.

But research from community-run fan group The Silph Road suggested the likelihood of trades resulting in Lucky Pokémon was not boosted at all for the event's first day. This was eventually observed to have been doubled after 24 hours, presumably as developer Niantic realised its mistake.

The event is now working as expected, then - but this is no help to those who traded Pokémon already (trades in Pokémon Go are one-way, so there's no trading them back).

Another feature of the Lunar New Year event causing headaches is its introduction of Darumaka. This cute Fire-type critter is only available within 7km eggs, and there's no word yet if/how it will still be available when the event ends.

It's still early days, but the likelihood of hatching Darumaka seems low - too low - and the introduction of many other unwanted Pokémon species to the 7km egg pool isn't helping. Niantic stated the eggs would feature "some red Pokémon" such as Shuckle and Foongus as well as Darumaka.

In reality, 7kms are almost entirely red Pokémon types, many of which are completely unwanted by most players: non-Shiny species such as Vulpix and Foongus, as well as Shuckle, Wurmple and Magikarp - all readily available in the wild. The quiet introduction of these has re-ignited the debate around eggs and incubators and their blind box mechanics - and the rising number of ultra-rare Pokémon (Deino, Axew, Riolu Shiny-possible Gible) within them.

For now, we've asked Niantic about Darumaka's availability after the event ends.