‘Pokemon Go’ heats up winter with Season of Heritage, Johto Tour

December introduces a new month of events and more importantly it heralds the Season of Heritage. From the looks of it, the three-month event from 10 a.m. Dec. 1 to 10 a.m. March 1 will have two tent poles that players should watch out for.

The first will likely happen around January as “Pokemon Arceus” is scheduled for release Jan. 28. It’s the big entry to the main series of games on the Nintendo Switch and introduces players to the Hisui region and a past age in the “Pokemon” universe. If the area looks familiar, it should to fans of “Pokemon Diamond” and Pokmeon Pearl.” The Hisui region ends up being the Sinnoh region in the modern day.

‘POKEMON ARCEUS’ AND TOUR DATES
With the latest entry, players should expect new variants of old Pokemon. Nintendo has already revealed Hisuian Growlithe and Hisuian Braviary. In addition, players will find evolved forms of old favorites in the form of Basculegion, Kleavor and Wyrdeer. Players should expect some of these new Pokemon to show up in “Pokemon Go” or perhaps relatives tied to them.

The second big event is the “Pokemon Go Tour: Johto,” which runs Feb. 26 and 27. If it’s anything like the previous Kanto celebration, players should expect the entire Johto roster to finally be shiny. That could include potential new shinies such as Hoothoot, Noctowl, Hoppip, Skiploom, Jumpluff, Girafarig, Slugma, Magcargo, Corsola, Remoraid, Octillery, Mantine, Phanpy, Donphan, Tyrogue and Hitmontop. This is a huge event for collectors and players looking for great PvP Pokemon, especially with the new rebalancing for the new Go Battle League season. (Hint: Grab a Hoothoot for Great League)

It looks like the Tour events are here to stay and will be the winter counterpart to the summer’s Pokemon Go Fest.

NEW SEASONAL ADDITIONS
The other major additions to the season includes monthly seasonal bonuses and timed research. They revolve around the team leaders with December starting with Blanche’s Stardust Challenge which requires players to collect a certain of number stardust. Each time they hit a milestone, they earn encounters, items and even a Deino Hat Avatar item.

The other Timed Research quests for January and February require players to pre-purchase a ticket for Pokemon Go Tour: Johto. Those who are devout fans of avatar hats will want to pick it up because Jaunary’s XP Challenge with Spark lets players earn a Goomy Hat and February’s Catch Challenge with Candela gives trainers a Noibat Hat. We all know that Niantic is secretly a haberdashery masquerading as video game company.

WILD SPAWNS OF NOTE
When it comes to wild Pokemon for the season, players should be on the lookout for the following:
Cities — Porygon (shiny available), Snubbul (shiny available), Glameow (shiny available), Bronzor (shiny available), Lillipup (shiny available), Trubbish (shiny available), Solosis and more.
Forests — Caterpie (shiny available), Taillow (shiny available), Croagunk (shiny available), Ferroseed (shiny available), Joltik, Karrablast, Shelmet and more.
Mountains — Clefairy (shiny available), Aerodactyl (shiny available), Teddiursa (shiny available), Meditite (shiny available), Hippopotas (shiny available), Numel, Munna and more.
Bodies of water — Psyduck (shiny available), Lapras (shiny available), Wingull (shiny available), Barboach (shiny available), Feebas (shiny available), Bidoof (shiny available), Finneon and more.
Northern Hemisphere — Delibird (shiny available), Turtwig (shiny available), Chimchar (shiny available), Piplup (shiny available), Cottonee, Vanillite, Winter Form Deerling and more.

Personally, I’d go for the rarer shinies on the list such as Ferroseed, Trubbish, Clefairy and Psyduck.

SEASONAL EGGS AND BONUSES
As for the egg situation this season, nothing stands out. In 2km eggs, players will find that Bellsprout and Swinub are back in the rotation. In 5km eggs, trainers will find babies such as Happiny and Munchlax. The bigger eggs of the 10km and category appear to stay the same.

The seasonal bonuses are the same when it comes to incense, remote raids and gifts from Pokestops. One of the big new benefits focuses on trading: Now players will get extra Pokemon candy and guaranteed Candy XL when exchanging Pokemon. This can add more incentive to pare down that storage.

PLENTY TO CELEBRATE IN DECEMBER
As for December activities, players can look forward to plenty of great raids and rewards for the final month of 2021. That’s highlighted by the December raids. For the first time, Reshiram, Zekrom and Kyurem will have their shiny variants available for raids. Expect plenty of players to go hard for these powerful legendaries.

Reshiram and Zekrom will appear in raids from 10 a.m. Dec. 1 to 10 a.m. Dec. 16. Kyurem will close out the month from 10 a.m. Dec. 16 to 10 a.m. Dec. 31. When it comes to raid hours from 6 to 7 p.m., Reshiram and Zekrom will appear Dec. 1, Dec. 8 and Dec. 15. Kyurem will appear Dec. 22 and Dec. 29.

The Mega Raids are pretty good, too, with the introduction of Mega Steelix and Mega Abomasnow. Both of these creatures are making their debut and it’s worth raiding them to get enough Mega Energy to evolve both. The Mega Evolution of these Pokemon could be great when shortmanning raids or during certain Community Days.

The December Research Breakthrough is great as well with Deino. Its shiny form is among the most sought-after variants in the game along with Snorlax.

Spotlight Hours will feature several decent creatures. I would concentrate on the Dec. 21 and Dec. 28 Spotlight Hours featuring Snover and Cubchoo respectively. Snover Spotlight Hour has the nice bonus of having double catch XP while Cubchoo has double catch candy, which is not nearly as impressive. Dec. 7 and Dec. 14 feature Electabuzz and Magmar respectively. These aren’t as sought-after because both Pokemon have had a Community Day and were featured in several events. The Dec. 7 hour will be of slight interest because of the double transfer candy. That will be a good time to clear out excess Pokemon.

The highlight of December will be the Community Day, which reruns Pokemon from the past year. If you have missed out on any of the previous events, Dec. 18 and Dec. 19 is a great time to play catch up on any you may have missed. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days and features half hatch distance if players use incubators, double catch stardust and double catch XP. Players who evolve the Community Day Pokemon to their final form will see them get their exclusive move.