Halloween Event 2020 recap - new event soon

Ahoy there! The first days of the Halloween Event had not been that spectacular for me and I didn't feel much like posting then either. Eventually I decided to just do a recap post then after the event.

Yesterday the yearly Halloween event has ended. Like previous years there is a high focus on Ghost-type and some Dark-type Pokémon with the Halloween event. Which means they're all more frequently appearing in the wild, in Raids and from Eggs.

This year there weren't really any new Pokémon added to the game for the Halloween event, except for Galarian Yamask but it was from the Special Field Research so only one was available. To evolve it you have to set it as your Buddy Pokémon and do 10 Raids together, progress isn't lost if you switch your buddy so you can just set it as buddy whenever you do a Raid. It should definitely become available in the game again later on.

In 2018 Spiritomb was first introduced in the game with the Halloween Special Research and could be obtained once as a reward from it. Back in 2019 that was the case as well. In the main series Diamond & Pearl when Spiritomb was first introduced you could obtain an Odd Keystone to summon a Spiritomb, and then later on while excavating underground you'd have a small chance of obtaining one too. Making multiple Spiritomb spawns available. That's why this Special Research returns each year with Spiritomb as one of the encounter rewards.

However this year was slightly different! The Special Research changed a bit in the tasks. It still rewarded a Spiritomb, but earlier on. You could also find Field Research tasks to catch 18 Ghost-type or 18 Dark-type Pokémon which both gave a Spiritomb encounter. And the Win 2 Raids Field Research could award either Spiritomb or Yamask. So this year Spiritomb became more available. They also added Shiny Spiritomb to the game! I got 1 Spiritomb from the Special Research and 25 from the Field Research, with my best being a 96% IV. Unfortunately no Shiny, perhaps I can encounter one next year!

As per usual there were several Pokémon with Halloween costumes as well. Last year's Pikachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander returned. With Pikachu spawning in the wild and the others being available in Raids, GO Battle League encounters, 5 km Eggs and Field Research tasks. This year they also added Sableye wearing a Litwick hat, which spawned in the wild. And Gengar wearing a Mega Banette costume, available in Raids and one encounter from the Special Research and one from the Limited Research. So I got two of them as I didn't wanna do any Raids with it.

Here are pictures of their encounters.

During this event there was an Alolan Marowak Raid Day. That day we received up to 5 Free Raid Passes and there was a box with 3 free Remote Raid Passes. For the duration of the event every Gym had an Alolan Marowak Raid on it. These Alolan Marowak all knew the Charged Attack Shadow Bone, which can be learned to other Alolan Marowak through an Elite Charged TM. It might be more viable in PvP than Shadow Ball due to lower energy requirement, but also deals less damage. So it's kinda ones own preference between using Charged Attacks more often or dealing more damage with them.

I only used my 5 Free Raid Passes on them that day as I already have a 100% IV. Not using them would've been a waste cause of the Raid rewards, and that way I do have a few with the special move in case people want them through a trade.

I walked around with two friends while doing the Raids, and then completing some Field Research tasks too. At one point someone posted a 100% Litwick encounter in our raids group, it was like a 10+ minute walk for us from where we were, but we went there and it was still there!! :D A minute later I completed my 5 Great Throws in a row Field Research and was surprised to encounter my first 100% IV Spinda from it!! :D

Those were two really amazing encounters that day and this event! :D You can se them in this picture.

Throughout the event I encountered 4 Shiny Pokémon. I rarely have much luck with encounter Shiny Ghost-type Pokémon, so it's no surprise that only one of the 4 encounters is a Ghost-type.

I encountered the Aerodactyl as a reward from my Win 5 Raids Field Research. Cubone spawned a bit more frequently throughout the event compared to normal, but not that often. Tuesday's Spotlight Hour featured it though, and during that event I was able to encounter my first Shiny Cubone! :D

That's it for my Halloween event. Of course I did some Darkraid Raids too, but no improvement compared to my 96% IV from last year and unfortunately no Shiny encounter yet. These new Shiny and the 2 100% IV were really awesome! :D

How did your Halloween event go?

Tomorrow, November 6, at 8 am local time an Animation Week Event will start to celebrate Pokémon Journeys. It will last through November 12 at 10 pm local time. Pokémon such as Bulbasaur, Exeggcute, Cubone, Scyther, Dratini, Cyndaquil and other will be appearing more frequently in the wild during this event. If you missed out on a Shiny Cubone, this event will definitely give you another chance at encountering one!