As part of the many updates and changed announced on 18 November, seasons are coming to Pokémon GO.
What this means is that, as of 1 December 2020, things will change in game every three months to reflect the four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter.
The season will depend on which hemisphere you live in: players in the northern hemisphere will experience in-game winter followed by spring on 1 March while those in the southern hemisphere will experience summer, followed by autumn.
Since dynamic weather already determines what the map view looks like, it’s unclear at this stage whether there will be any other visual changes, but here are the confirmed differences you can expect when seasons change:
- The Pokémon which appear in the wild, hatch from Eggs and appear in raids will change.
- The Pokémon will relate to the current season, so winter Pokémon such as Snorunt will be available to catch in the northern hemisphere. Darumaka and other summer Pokémon will appear in the southern hemisphere.
- The different forms of Deerling will appear according to your hemisphere, indicating the release of the previously unavailable ones.
- Different (and new) Mega-Evolved Pokémon will be in raids each season.
Niantic, the developer of Pokémon GO also says that “ You might notice other differences in the Pokémon you can find in the wild, too,” without going into any useful detail.
It also says events in the game will have a theme based on the current season and that the feature will be developed “continually” with new content and features.
GO Battle League
The player-versus-player element of the game will shift from being two months long to three months to tie in with season changes and will also go from 10 to 24 ranks, with the top four ranks getting new names and badges.
Niantic also said you can expect “exclusive rewards through ranking up” with a revamped reward structure, which will again be influenced but the current season.
When does the first season start in Pokémon GO?
On 1 December, the ‘Season of Celebration’ will begin.
This will coincide with the release of Kalos Pokémon which will involve new Special Research.
Over the three months Niantic says that there will be a series of in-game events featuring Pokémon from Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos. Plus, when the season ends, a “brand-new global event experience” is promised.
You can read about more of the ‘GO Beyond’ changes on the Pokémon GO blog.
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Author: Jim Martin, Executive Editor
Jim has been testing and reviewing products for over 20 years. His main beats include VPN services and antivirus. He also covers smart home tech, mesh Wi-Fi and electric bikes.