Pokémon Go Community Day returns next week with new Play At Home format
Rejigged events dated, Liverpool worries soothed.
After a month's hiatus, Pokémon Go will resume its regular Community Days with a lockdown-friendly Play At Home format.
Abra Community Day, postponed from March, will now take place on Saturday 25th April at an extended 11am to 5pm local time.
As well as double the time to catch Pokémon, incense instead of lures will now last the duration of the event, letting you play where you are (whether there are PokéStops nearby or not).
The event's bonus will be triple catch Stardust, and there will be a "surprise" in store if you take a Snapshot of your Pokémon during the event. (Kecleon?!)
March's planned introduction of a mini 79p/$1 research story to coincide with Abra Community Day is also going ahead. Rewards for buying this include a Poffin, Rocket Radar and 13,000 Stardust (as well as another meetup with hunky Professor Willow).
There will also be a heftily-priced event box available for a one-time purchase of 1280 PokéCoins to introduce the Elite TM, an ultra-rare item capable of giving a Pokémon a previously-obtainable event or legacy move (so, Shadow Ball for Mewtwo). It's worth noting that one will also be given free if you achieve rank seven or higher in this season of Go Battle League.
In other Pokémon Go news, next week will see a buddy Pokémon event which will feature regional Pokémon Illumise and Volbeat both appearing all over the world and available as Shiny for the first time.
European players will be able to catch Illumise without travelling/trading for the first time, between 8am local time Tuesday 21st April and 10pm Monday 27th April.
Woobat will be available wild for the first time, and Alolan Meowth, Chansey, Eevee, Feebas and more will get boosted spawns. Buddy Pokémon will level up and get excited faster, and appear on the map twice as long. It looks like this is when the game's new buddy PokéStop spin feature will also debut.
And finally, concerns that Sunday ticket holders for this weekend's Liverpool Safari Zone (now also to be played at home) would see their experience interrupted by yet another event on Sunday (Incense Day) seem to have been allayed by developer Niantic.
An email to Sunday ticket holders last night (via Silph Road) laid out a series of ways to mitigate the clash between the events, including a two-hour event extension for Safari Zone attendees, additional incense and a guarantee common incense spawns will not overwhelm rare Pokémon which Safari Zone attendees have paid a ticket for.