Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: catch mastery, drifloon, Niantic, pokemon, pokemon go

Pokémon GO Catch Mastery: Ghost Event Review

Niantic announced the Catch Mastery: Ghost event as an "all-new kind of Pokémon GO event." With the one-day event now wrapped-up, is this something that trainers are going to want to see back in the game, or as a one-and-done event?

Catch Mastery was an exact mixture of Pokémon GO Community Day and Limited Research day. A ten-page Timed Research was given to all players, offering primarily Drifloon-centric research that awarded Drifloon encounters as well as Stardust, Gengar Mega Energy, and a few other encounters with evolved Ghost-typed. Drifloon was a boosted spawn in the wild with what was observed by many players to feel like a Shiny rate close to that of Community Day. This mixture of a shorter-than-Limited-Research-Day questline plus boosted wild spawns made this a smoother, easier event to tailor to different playing styles than previous similar events.

The Research in general, as well as the Shiny rate on Drifloon, felt generous. Niantic gets a lot of criticism for the ways the game incentivizes paying money to play, but this event is a great example of the company making Pokémon GO equally rewarding for free-to-play trainers.

Catch Mastery events would be a welcome recurring feature in Pokémon GO. Realistically, these can't be a monthly feature because Niantic wants to make Shinies retain their rarity, and having what would essentially be two Community Days a month would complicate that. A great use of the Catch Mastery feature would be to cycle through previous Community Day choices. Recently, trainers voted Charmander as the October 2020 Community Day choice, which made older players feel a bit listless due to the Pokémon already having a Community Day. A great way to not cheapen proper Community Days while still giving newer trainers a chance at a Shiny Squirtle, Larvitar, Beldum, and those kinds of Pokémon would be recurring Catch Mastery days catered to their typing.

Overall, Catch Mastery was a brilliant success for Pokémon GO that any trainer of any playing style could enjoy. Drifloon was a great choice as one of the strongest Shinies in the game, and it's spawn rate and Shiny odds made this a fun, easy-to-enjoy event.

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