Pokemon GO is introducing Scatterbug, Spewpa, and Vivillon (pronounced Vi-vi-yon) to the game using a unique method. Pokemon GO trainers will have to send and receive gifts with their friends in the game to get Scatterbug and enough candies to evolve a Vivillon. The Vivillon will have different colors on its wings depending on where in the world that gift came from.

Pokemon GO's Winter Holiday recently started and introduced season-specific spawns, including the new shiny Bergmite. It also changed up the aesthetic of the map, with holiday lights wrapped around trees and small snowbanks at the base of Pokestops and Gyms. But Niantic was holding back one more surprise from trainers at the start of the event and revealed that surprise after the event started. In the spirit of the holiday season, when family and friends sometimes send each other cards with other surprises inside them, Pokemon GO is introducing Pokemon encounters with its postcards.

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Vivillon, the Scale Pokemon, will be earned through pinning postcards received from friends that trainers have made from around the world in their Postcard Book in Pokemon GO. Postcards from a similar region will fill a sub-medal meter which will lead to an encounter with a Scatterbug that will evolve into Vivillon with a specific wing color. Scatterbug will need 25 candies to get to Spewpa and another 100 to reveal the final color form of Vivillon. There will be a total of 18 habitat variations to Vivillon in Pokemon GO spread across the world. Some wing color variations will have more surface area than others and therefore, be more common. For example, Polar, Icy Snow, and Tundra forms are spread out throughout Northernmost North America, Greenland, Iceland, the Scandinavian countries, and Northern Japan. Meanwhile, the Monsoon form is restricted to only Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam.

Vivillon is introduced during the Winter Holiday event but the hunt to get its many variations should not be restricted to just the event. But the Pokemon GO Winter Holiday event bonuses including being able to hold on to 40 gifts at a time can cut into some of the grind. Hunting down the variations offers a new use for engaging with the gifts and Postcard system in Pokemon GO. While there are event-themed 7km eggs still given to players, the Pokemon offered in them have lost their luster. The Postcard Book is also an oft-forgotten feature in the game which now has renewed purpose.

Niantic has been getting creative with some of its gameplay features in recent months. The introduction of Zorua, though initially botched, was eventually praised by Pokemon GO players. As well as the introduction of Elite Raid, which also had its issues. Niantic's latest gimmick while introducing a new Pokemon hasn't had any reports of issues as of writing but it does shake up parts of the Pokemon GO experience.

Pokemon GO is now available for Android and iOS devices.

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Source: Pokemon GO