GrowlitheGirl
Concept
The Solstice Event has become an annual celebration in Pokémon GO, and this year it was back and…well, more boring than ever.
It was not the first time that we have had an event focused on Solrock and Lunatone. Unfortunately, this event didn’t bring anything new to the table, and it lacked the usual hype because of it.
Let’s take a look at all the details.
Spawns
The worldwide spawns of Solrock and Lunatone were great – they’re uncommon regional spawns, and it was a good opportunity to shiny hunt for your non-regional Pokémon. However, many seasoned players already have the shiny forms from previous events. What did this event offer for them?
Well, nothing really.
For players in the Northern Hemisphere, the other common spawns were Chimchar, Spheal, Yanma and Summer Deerling. Two of these Pokémon don’t have their shinies available, and another is a previous Community Day Pokémon. Yanma was also the spotlight Pokémon for the Montreal Safari Zone, so it has already had its time in the sun.
Southern Hemisphere players had the bonus of Snorunt spawning, which has a great shiny. Froslass is also good in the Great League and Mega Glalie will be available in the future.
Snorlax were also spawning more than usual, but not in great amounts. Unfortunately, Snorlax doesn’t have a boosted shiny rate, despite the fact that it qualifies as a rare Pokémon. Still, the chance to grind for Snorlax candy without having to use lots of raid passes was nice.
The wild spawn pool was too small considering it featured repeat event Pokémon. If any event needed a new wild shiny to spice it up, it was this one. The Solstice Event seemed like the perfect time to release shiny Deerling, but most trainers would have been happy if shiny Spheal had been made available, especially as it was common to both hemispheres.
Bonuses
The main bonuses for this event were focused on your buddy Pokémon. The walking distance to earn a heart with your buddy was halved. Buddy Pokémon were also bringing their trainers more items. The bonuses were OK but didn’t seem relevant to an event focused on the Solstice.
Research
The event featured no Timed Research or Collection Challenge, which was disappointing.
The variety of research was good, and there were plenty of opportunities to grind research for Solrock or Lunatone encounters. But it was quite a slow process.
The tasks, ‘Catch 5 Solrock’ and ‘Catch 5 Lunatone’ were quite time-consuming. If the task had been ‘Catch 5 Solrock or Lunatone’, it would have been much easier.
Trainers had to catch 15 Solrock or 15 Lunatone, or win a raid in under 60 seconds, in order to earn one Silver Pinap. Um, what? Just one Silver Pinap as a reward for using over 15 Pokéballs or a raid pass? That was a hard pass for most Trainers.
This was the first time that some Field Research tasks rewarded trainers with candy for Legendary Pokémon. This was a really great idea, and we hope that we see this again in the future for other Legendary Pokémon. More chances to get Mewtwo candy? Yes, please.
Raids
Regigigas made its debut in Legendary Raids; previously, it had only been available from EX Raids or the Colossal Discovery Special Research. It also had its shiny form available for the first time. Woohoo! The shiny looks like Regi-big-as is going out on the town in its new blue suit. Très chic.
Another notable raid boss was Alolan Marowak, known by some as the GOAT of Great League, but it was only available in the Northern Hemisphere. Lapras raids were available in the Southern Hemisphere, which is also useful in GBL.
Overall
The Solstice Event was sadly quite boring. We have experienced this event a couple of times before and it offered nothing new to the formula. There was no new shiny in the wild, the Field Research tasks were unrewarding, and the spawns were below par (especially for trainers in the Northern Hemisphere). The fact that Snorlax spawn rates were increased was a nice bonus, but not enough to make the event feel fresh or exciting.
Overall, the event scores a below average 4/10. However, the next event, the Bidoof Breakout Event, promises to be the best ever. King Bidoof spawning everywhere? We can’t wait!
But what did you think of the Solstice Event? Did you find many Snorlax in the wild? Did you get any new shinies? Let us know in the comments, in our Discord server, or on Twitter!
