I haven’t gone hard on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Go in a hot minute. After I really enjoyed the Season of Mischief’s months-long narrative ar🍒c, nothing in the Season of He🌟ritage has grabbed me. I’ve dabbled in some events and (mostly) caught my daily spawn, but nothing has made me feel like grabbing my battery pack and hitting the road fo𝔍r a day sesh.
Of course, sometimes life gets in the way, but you’ve got to admit the recent Community Days have been particularly uninspired. I’ve quite enjoyed taking a break from the game to be honest, but an event celebrating the best Pokemon region and promising 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:something called an Apex Pokemon? Count me in.
I headed into Liverpool city centre to take part in Go Tour; I wanted to do this properly, and I’ve spent too ma🎃ny Go events at home for my liking in the past two years. Having a kid means you’re inevitably late to everything, so the event was in full swing by the time I pushed the pram onto the bus and loaded up Pokemon Go. I popped an Incense and a Lucky Egg to maximise my XP, and got catching. The New Bark Town spawns were fine, but as we neared our destination I saw something I’d never seen before in Pokemon Go. A wild Raikou.
The bus sped past before I could click on it, but it didn’t matter. That moment brought everything back, I remember running into Suicune in Pokemon Silver as a kid (I pronounced it soo-ih-sine) and doing everything in my power to find it again. I didn’t know about Mean Look or anything at this point in my burgeoning Pokemon career - it didn’t do damage so what was the point - so catching the Legendary dog was a case of: fly, enco൲unter, throw an Ultra Ball, Suicune flees, fly, fly, fly, fly, encounter, throw an Ultra Ball, Suicune flees, fly - you get the picture. Eventually I got it though, and I was determined to re𝐆peat the feat in Pokemon Go.
I liked Go Tour: Johto a lot. I was in a busy city centre, so spawns were plentiful and I was constantly ticking off research that I’d completed. The UI didn’t bother me, and I simply didn’t bother completing many battle challenges because I didn’t want🐷 to. That’s one thing that Pokemon Go players don’t seem to understand: as much as you want to complete every bit of research, sometimes you just can’t. I only reached stage seven of the event’s Special Research during my 🅷outing, realising only when I got to my PokeStop-less home that I needed to complete two more Field Research tasks to progress. This meant I couldn’t get Celebi’s exclusive move, but oh well. I’ll get it another time, or use an Elite TM to get Magical Leaf for cool points. Sometimes you can’t do everything, and that’s fine.
I did manage to complete every Collection Challenge barring trading (my five-month old hasn’t got the hang of sleeping yet, it’s probably too early to try to teach her how to trade Pokemon with me), did a few raids and caught plenty of shin😼ies. I got 10 in total, including the guaranteed Gyarados, eight of which were new for me. Phanpy was a particular highlight, as a big fan of the little cutie and for the fact that it seemed like a pretty rare capture. However, I didn’t see an🔯other Legendary dog.
That is until I was around the corner from my house, seconds away from my fro♐nt door. I don’t get many spawns around mine, but it appeared in the dregs of my Incense. Raikou. The best of the three Legendary dogs. In my headcanon, the same one I spotted earlier on the bus. Despite the fact that the wild dogs are coded to flee very easily, a Golden Razz Berry and an Ultra Ball ensured it was mine. I finally had it.
The Legendaries roaming in the wild - but still being incredibly rare - embraced the spirit that made Pokemon Go such a hit back in 2016. It was like my childhood Pokemon Go experience bottled and poured all over the real world. I’m sure I’d feel differently if the Raikou had fled, but Go thought of that, too. Taking a snapshot of the beasts in the wild - Raids count for this too - led to a guaranteed encounter with whichever one you papped. My Raikou from this encounter was, naturally, s⛎hiny, which just about summed up my excellent day, but even without the extra shiny chance it was a clever way to compensate players for their encounters while maintaiꦗning the Gold & Silver fleeing mechanic in the overworld.
There was a lot to do in Go Tour: Johto, but I liked being frantically busy. It made me want to play more, rather than waiting around for something new to happen. There was always a raid popping, spawns changing, or (very occasionally) battles happening, and I enjoyed the frenetic nature of such a busy day. I didn’t finish everything, but it didn’t matter. And Go Tour added in a very clever twist on Go’s Legendary formula, which probably kept me going for longer more than anything else. Don’t forget, Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie are permanently roaming the world in their respective regions, they’re just incredibly rare. I can only imagine the excitement of encountering one in the wild. Raids are good opportunities for players to get together and farm a specific ‘mon for shinies, hundos, or candies, but infrequently dropping a roaming trio befitting an event makes Pokemon Go exciting again. I ran through a park to catch an Electabuzz when the game first released, and trying to find Raikou is the first time Go has come close to m♛atching that experience since the original 151 were released. Go Tour: Johto may have had mixed reactions, but my hunt for the Legendary dogs helped me fall in love with the game again, if only for a day.