A Look Back At Pokemon GO’s Halloween Event

Pokemon GO always has pretty good Halloween events, and this year was pretty good as well. There were lots of nice bonuses, lots of Pokemon to catch and plenty of shinies to not be caught. We also had plenty of smaller events alongside the Halloween spawns, and there was plenty of things to do. Of course, though, there were some downsides as well.

Amazing event bonuses

I mean, who doesn’t like double candy? Even if it’s for things like Gastly and Misdreavus. Ghost types, particularly Gengar and Chandelure, are always helpful Pokemon to have. We also got double transfer candy as well, which means that we get even more candy for deleting all these Gastly and Misdreavus. Shiny chances weren’t boosted, but we did see Yamask spawning in the wild.

Ironically though, the main raid boss for Halloween was Darkrai, so you couldn’t really use any of these easy-to-get Gengars. Heck, even against Mega Gengar, it’s better to use Dark types unless the Gengar has Focus Blast. But luckily, after Darkrai, we’ve now got Lugia, who is weak to Ghost types. So it’s not all for nothing. Plus, Giratina and Darkrai tend to return semi-regularly as well, and you can always use Ghost types against Mewtwo when he comes back.

The special research was a slight improvement

We actually got two spooky research tasks this year. One was a ‘Today tab’ special research for Gengar, the other was for Spiritomb and Galarian Yamask. Thankfully, both these research tasks were actually pretty simple. It was mostly just catching huge amounts of Pokemon, namely ghost and dark types. The “make 9 nice throws in a row” task for Gengar was rather tricky, but thankfully Duskull was around to help out. Galarian Yamask is nothing special, no different from Spiritomb, but it’s a somewhat easy guaranteed Pokedex entry at least. Despite needing 10 raids with it as a buddy to evolve.

More importantly though, the “spin 8 new Pokestops” task as not included. Even when you ignore the pandemic, it’s a stupid task because most people don’t travel and, when they do, they ain’t spinning Pokestops. Plus, what with the “visit a new place” buddy heart, there are very few local unspun Pokestops left and, to my disappointment, gyms you haven’t visited don’t count.

Lots of events, not enough Pokeballs!

We did have a lot of events over Halloween. As well as Halloween itself and the special researches, we also had an Alolan Marowak raid event (which I already mentioned) and the Drifloon event. On top of these, we also had the weekly spotlight hour, which had some nice Pokemon in it. Sure, Duskull and Shuppet were already spawning quite often, but the secondary bonuses were nice. The double stardust for Cubone (also a spooky Pokemon) is very nice indeed.

Unfortunately, alongside these events, we also had a massive drought of Pokeballs. Despite having SO MANY events, there’s been no real way to get more Pokeballs. Spinning Pokestops is no longer readily available, and gifts are very hit and miss. Especially if no one sends you any gifts.

The best thing though? Litwick and Golett candy!

Well, for me at least. Even though I’m mostly staying indoors, I still saw plenty of Litwick and quite a few Golett! Thanks to the bonuses, I got enough candy to evolve two of each! Really, the star of the show here was the humble Pinap berry, giving us 12 candy per Pokemon caught. I just wish I got to see a Sewaddle or a Deino or something that I genuinely need candy for.

Litwick is a great Pokemon and a good candidate for a future Community Day, so it as totally worth stocking up now, while also evolving one to use if you don’t have any. Chandelure is a great Ghost and Fire type, making it a very useful Pokemon.

But, yet again, I’m nearly out of Pokeballs. And there’s not one but TWO community days in November, so I’m just gonna have to find a way to spin more Pokestops. Maybe my GPS will bug out a bit and let me spin the one at the end of my road…