Posted in: Games, Mobile Games, Niantic, Pokémon GO | Tagged: Niantic, Niantic Labs, pokemon, pokemon go, Sustainability Week

Pokémon GO Sustainability Week 2021 Event Review

Sustainability Week is wrapping up in Pokémon GO. The fandom at large has been somewhat critical of recent events, so let's see if this one lived up to what players expect from a Pokémon GO event.

What worked in this Pokémon GO event

• Shiny release: This is how it's done! Trubbish was released as a Shiny and it did seem rare at first, but began to spawn plentifully about a day into the event and it kept that up throughout. It's a terrific Shiny and enhances the excitement about Trubbish encounters, which had once been a bummer when it was in 12 KM Eggs. Now… hey Niantic. You know how we wanted Trubbish out? Go on and put it back.
• The spawns: Overall, great. There was nice variety and a focus on Grass-types and Poison-types, which kept the spawn pool tight but not boring. It was nice to see as many Ferroseed as we did.
• New species: Binacle! Niantic has changed the way Pokémon GO rolls out generations, moving from the initial full drop to Unova's waves to Kalos's one or two species per event. This doesn't work as much when the species is rare and a basic encounter is treated almost with the hype of an actual Shiny encounter.

What didn't work in this Pokémon GO event

• Raids: The raid rotations have been bad mostly due to the Legendaries, but Tier One and Tier Three have been stale for a long time as well. It's crazy to even think back, but it's been since Timburr in early 2020 that an Egg/Raid-exclusive Shiny was released as a standard part of raids. Rufflet doesn't count, as Rufflet is a rare, event-only feature. It's time that a raid-exclusive like Espurr gets its Shiny to give people who love raids something to do.

Overall

While the raid rotation remains in the worst state its been since the inexplicable five-week-long Kyurem stay in December 2020, the features of this event were quite strong. This should remain the standard, though, rather than the exception.

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