Niantic has been continually improving its Community Day format in the AR mobile game Pikmin Bloom since it launched last October. While the game's first event on November 13, 2021 was simplistic and had some technical issues, Pikmin Bloom's January 2022 Community Day showed improvement with an emphasis on creating "seasons" using a rotation of flower nectars. Now it seems the developer is trying to take its mobile game from augmented reality to actual reality.
The next Pikmin Bloom Community Day is set to take place on Saturday, February 19. Its structure of asking players to walk 10,000 steps with bonuses such as faster Pikmin growth is still intact, but Niantic has added an extra twist. Any user from the contiguous United States who reaches the milestone this Saturday will also be given opportunities to receive real-life flowers through a partnership with the subscription service BloomsyBox, which is an idea that uniquely fits Pikmin Bloom and helps it stand apart from the company's other ventures.
How Pikmin Bloom's February 2022 Community Day Will Play Out
As previously mentioned, the main way Niantic has differentiated Community Days in Pikmin Bloom is centering a flower - similar to Pokemon GO's Community Days focusing on specific monsters. Starting February 19 Pikmin Bloom will start distributing plum blossom nectar through challenges, and on March 1 there will no longer be poinsettias and camellias appearing when Big Flowers bloom at landmarks across the in-game map. On top of Pikmin Seedlings growing faster that day, players will also earn Coins with every 250 flowers planted rather than every 500.
Using different flowers makes sense, as Pikmin in Nintendo's original titles are plant-like creatures who grow daisies on their head to indicate their strength levels. That focus on flora also lends credence to the idea of Niantic partnering with BloomsyBox, a Miami, Florida-based company created by Juan Palacio in 2015. Its service is described as "farm-to-table," with six supplier farms: Two in the United States, and one in Colombia, Ecuador, Holland, and Thailand. The basic "Bloomsy Original" box offers subscribers 22-to-24 flowers in a bouquet for $44.99 each month, with the "Deluxe" and "Premium" tiers adding a few more stems for $5 and $10 more, respectively.
Every Pikmin Bloom player who is opted into Niantic's email service and reaches their 10,000-step goal during the next Community Day can receive a gift card toward their next purchase at BloomsyBox - with Pikmin Bloom's in-app news post saying the discount's value will be "assigned at random." Furthermore, 2,000 of those eligible players will be selected to receive a free bouquet.
Pikmin Bloom is Leaning Into Reality
Coming off digital events like a Lunar New Year celebration with special Pikmin decor and a Valentine's Day celebration with limited-time rose nectar and faster friendship growth, the fact that taking part in Pikmin Bloom's upcoming Community Day comes with tangible rewards is interesting. It's a far cry from Niantic's other mobile games; Ingress, Pokemon GO, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite; in which players have always been encouraged to go outside but never had the chance to earn real goods while doing so.
Part of this is due to flowers being far easier to distribute than fictional monsters or magic wands. Yet it's easy to imagine something like a plush character from Pokemon GO being similarly given away, so Pikmin Bloom taking initiative to partner with a service like BloomsyBox is evidence that Niantic really wants to put its latest game out there - though each player's mileage with the subscription service may vary.
This potential bonus is limited to individuals in the United States, not including Hawaii and Alaska, but in its news post Niantic said, "We hope to be able to provide worldwide bonuses in the future." The BloomsyBox partnership is only set for the February 2022 Community Day as of this writing, but whether Niantic continues with the same company or other flower-based services in the future, its initiative remains. Pikmin may not be a global phenomenon like Pokemon, but Pikmin Bloom is apparently angling to set itself apart with more real-world elements going forward.
Pikmin Bloom is available now on Android and iOS devices.