Pokemon Go: Pokemon Day brings new species to the game

Paul Cot

Pokemon Day 2020 is this week and you know what that means – a special Pokemon Go event.

The event itself actually starts before Pokemon Day on February 25, 1pm PST (4pm EST, 9pm GMT) and finishes exactly one week later on March 2, 1pm PST (4pm EST, 9pm GMT).

Much like last year’s event, this year will focus exclusively on Pokemon from the Kanto region. There’s something about the nostalgia of Pokemon Day that makes Niantic want to return to Pokemon’s origins. After all, it is a celebration of the very first Pokemon games releasing in Japan.

Armored Mewtwo Psystrike
Armored Mewtwo returns but this time it will have the powerful Charge Move Psystrike…

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Armored Mewtwo returns

Perhaps the most notable part of this special Pokemon Go event is the return of Armored Mewtwo. The star of the Pokemon movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution could be first found in Pokemon Go in July 2019.

It will come as no surprise that Armored Mewtwo is defensively very strong, having the eighth-best defense stats in the entire game. However, there is one big difference between this version and the one that was originally released.

Armored Mewtwo returns with the powerful psychic attack Psystrike. Alongside the Fast Move Confusion, Psystrike is universally considered its best Charge Move.

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It will be available in five-star Raid Battles for the duration of the event.

Party hats for the classics

Niantic like their party hats and they’re returning on some classic Pokemon for the special 2020 Pokemon Day event.

Pikachu and Eevee will be wearing party hats in the wild, while Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle will be wearing them in 7km eggs. If you’re really lucky you may be able to find any of these Pokemon in their shiny form, too.

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Clone Pokemon Go
Clone Pokemon are the latest type of species to be added to Pokemon Go…

Clone Pokemon

Some of you may remember the Clone Pokemon from the Pokemon movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back. Well now, more than 20 years later, they are being introduced to the world of Pokemon Go.

They look distinctly similar to their normal counterparts (why wouldn’t they’re clones after all) but do have different patterns on their skin. Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise clones will be appearing in four-star Raid Battles and Clone Pikachu may appear when using Go SnapShot.

At the moment these are the only four Pokemon that have been confirmed and we’ll have to wait and see whether any others will appear in future events.

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Double the special trades

The bonus for the event is that trainers will be able to do two special trades per day, instead of just one. Special trades constitute the following:

  • Pokemon not already in your Pokedex
  • Legendary Pokemon
  • Shiny Pokemon
  • Pokemon with forms not already in your Pokedex (like Unown, costumed Pikachu, and Castform)

Elsewhere in the world of Pokemon, trainers are expecting the reveal of a new Mythical Pokemon and remain hopeful on details of potential new games.