As a reward for completing the Pokemon GO Global Catch Challenge and obtaining 3 billion Pokemon collectively over the last couple of weeks, developer Niantic is granting players double XP and Stardust in-game until the first of December. Players all around the world now have 3 more days to enjoy their gold tier rewards, though the bonus addition of Farfetch'd becoming available to catch in the West will not be extended during this period.
The official Pokemon GO Twitter account confirmed the news earlier, announcing that the period of bonus XP and Stardust would be ending at 1:00PM PT/ 4:00PM ET on December 1. Due to how the tweet was worded, this statement is often being mistaken for an extension of the reward period, although in fact, December was always the expiry date for event bonuses.
During this time, players will be given added incentive to load up the popular mobile sensation once more, and Niantic is hoping to entice even more of the game's player base to get online by releasing new legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh into Raid Battles. Thankfully, Ho-Oh will be around until December 12, giving players a little more time to catch the Rainbow Pokemon.
From what we've seen so far, it looks like players are going to need that extra time, especially if they are unwilling to purchase additional Raid Passes from the game's store. Reflecting its popularity, Ho-Oh is very hard to catch currently, with a 2% base catch rate meaning that players likely won't be adding the creature to their collections after just one battle.
In other recent Pokemon GO news, experienced dataminers have detected additional shiny Pokemon present in the AR game's code. In addition to this, Pokemon moves that were first seen in the third generation of the popular franchise are now hidden away in the game files, giving further credibility to the theory that new Pokemon will be coming to the title this December.
It certainly wouldn't be a bad time to release Gen 3, right after Ho-Oh disappears in the middle of the month, and an array of new creatures might be just what the game needs to bring back old players as we head into the holiday season.
Pokemon GO is out now for Android and iOS devices.
Source: Twitter