In Pokémon GO, the Johto Tour took place on February 26, 2022. MeinMMO author Franzi Korittke absolutely did not want to miss this event and will tell you how she found it and what was really bad.
What kind of event is it? The trainers of Pokémon GO embarked on the Johto Tour on Saturday. The Pokémon of the Johto region were the focus of attention.
Trainers with and without a ticket were able to look forward to numerous spawns that appeared within 12 hours in 5 different habitats in the game. The special thing: all Pokémon from the Johto region could be caught in their shiny forms with some luck.
For example, the regional Pokémon Corasonn celebrated its shiny debut, along with other monsters like Kapoera, Remoraid, and Phanpy. Additionally, trainers received some cool bonuses, such as double candies when catching or a shortened hatching distance for eggs.
Who is writing here? I am Franzi Korittke, a freelance author at MeinMMO and have been playing Pokémon GO daily for over 3 years. Of course, I could not miss the Johto Tour and played at least for several hours.
How I found the event surrounding the Johto Tour and what I thought was really bad, I have summarized for you below.
Few bugs and cool shinies at the Johto Tour
Overall, I was positively surprised by the implementation of the Johto Tour. At past events, there were often issues with Pokémon GO struggling with the large number of accesses in the game. Friend lists were often unreachable or the game threw other errors. However, during the Pokémon GO Tour: Johto, no major problems were observed.
Since I wrote for MeinMMO in the morning, I could only start playing a bit later, but during the time I was active, no major problems occurred. It was more the usual little annoyances that Pokémon GO also experiences outside of events, like a faulty raid lobby.
That bothered me less, and I was thrilled to play and catch with almost no problems. I was especially looking forward to the many spawns, partly because this was the first time that all Johto Pokémon were supposed to be available as shinies.
Johto Tour brings me a cool, long-awaited shiny
It had already been announced in advance that there would be new shinies for the Johto Tour, so it was less of a surprise. And even though my yield of shinies is unfortunately limited, I am still satisfied.
What particularly excites me is the catch of a very special Pokémon that I have been waiting for ages: Shiny Ho-Oh. How many times have I tried to obtain this monster in its shiny form in the past? And finally, it is here. Just for that, the event was worth it for me.
In addition to shinies like Snubbull and Gyarados, which I have caught several times before, I was also able to snag further shiny specimens that I had not yet registered in my Pokédex. The selection includes Sonnkern, Griffel, and Teddiursa. Overall, I am satisfied with my yield here as well.
Special surprise at the Johto Tour
A real surprise was also the legendary monsters Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, which Niantic let spawn in the wild. Although they were not so easy to catch, I was thrilled by this opportunity and gladly collected the double candies.
Especially for my Raikou, every candy is needed to level it up properly. After all, the Electric-type Pokémon is among the best attackers in Pokémon GO. Naturally, the corresponding legendary raids surrounding Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Ho-Oh, and Lugia were also present.
Due to the shortened raid times, I could do numerous raids, so my free passes were not enough. Besides the legendary specimens, I would have especially liked a shiny Corasonn, which I unfortunately did not receive.
Nevertheless, I consider the event a success. After the many smaller events that have taken place recently, I especially liked the numerous different spawns and the many raids. I also found the change of habitats great. However, one thing was really bad for me: the GO Gym trainers.
That’s why I found the GO Gym trainers really bad
In principle, I think Niantic’s idea is great that trainers can actively participate in the design of such events. Similar principles have already been used in other Pokémon GO events in the past.
While in the past, it was often criticized that the trainers, against whom one can fight at the PokéStop similarly to Team GO Rocket, spawned too frequently, they were rather rare during the Johto Tour.
This would have bothered me less because during this event I personally would have preferred to focus on catching and playing raids. But to complete one of the limited research tasks, it was necessary to defeat all GO Gym trainers. The problem: they were virtually nowhere to be found.
GO Gym trainers were hardly to be found
Just as it happened to many trainers, it also happened to me. I searched for the GO Gym trainers, but even after an hour, none could be found at the surrounding PokéStops. After a while, I finally discovered a flickering PokéStop, and indeed, there he was. When I reached it and wanted to click on the Gym trainer, he disappeared right away.
Even though I was eventually able to battle the trainer at another PokéStop, the search for the next one continued. I found this very annoying and it didn’t provide me with any fun at all. For this reason, I finally capitulated and decided to focus on the nice things of the event.
Dud of the event, especially for rural players
Nevertheless, I found the spawn rate of the GO Gym trainers in relation to such extensive research to be far too low, and thus it was my personal dud of the event.
If Niantic wants to include such a concept in the future, I would wish for the trainers to be found more frequently. Especially for players living in rural areas, such a low spawn rate can result in tasks not being completed in the given time.
This is because there are only a few PokéStops in smaller villages, and the next one may be several kilometers away. Thus, these players depend on a certain mobility. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the Pokémon GO Tour: Johto and I look forward to more events like this.
How about you? What did you particularly like about the Johto Tour? And what did you think was really bad? Feel free to share your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange views with other trainers.
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