In Pokémon GO the Safari Zone Liverpool took place last weekend. Our author Noah Struthoff was there and had to play from home due to the coronavirus.
This was the plan: At the beginning of the year, Niantic announced the Safari Zone in Liverpool. It quickly became clear to a friend and me that we didn’t want to miss this event. So we ordered tickets along with a flight and hotel.
However, the coronavirus messed up our plans. The Safari Zone did not take place in Liverpool. Instead, every trainer was given the opportunity to experience the event spawns from home.
In the end, the Safari Zone was a complete success due to this adjustment. I caught 33 Shinies and I believe that such an event would be really great for the future.
Safari Zone from Home – Here’s how it went
These were the adjustments: Every trainer who purchased a ticket for the Safari Zone in Liverpool could benefit from bonuses on one day. On the event day, there were special spawns for 6 or 8 hours (depending on which ticket you bought) that you would have normally found in Liverpool. It didn’t matter where you were located. The account with the ticket could see the spawns and no one else.
Additionally, incense lasted for 8 hours and attracted a Pokémon every half a minute. This made it twice as effective as the usual incense.
This is how the event started: Exactly at 10:00 local time, the spawns changed, and water Pokémon appeared everywhere in my city. A highlight was the regional Pokémon Relicanth, which can only be caught in New Zealand and the South Seas.
This is how I played: I walked through my small town for the full 8 hours. I was only accompanied by one other person and avoided any contact with other people.
I constantly used the catch trick and we kept running our usual lap that we normally use for playing. I only spent half an hour using lures, which lasted a full 3 hours.
What was the haul? The spawns were incredible and reminded me somewhat of the number of spawns during a spotlight hour. In those 8 hours, I caught over 2100 Pokémon and received a total of 33 Shinies.
For me, the new Shiny Lampi and a hat Pikachu, which can’t be caught outside of Safari Zones, were particularly interesting. I caught both as Shinies.
You can find my entire haul here:
Safari Zone for Home – An Event with a Future?
This is the current status of live events: In May, the Safari Zone for Philadelphia will take place. This will also be held from home and not onsite.
John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, has already announced that they are working on a big GO Fest that can take place from home. So it is quite possible that there will be a similar event.
This speaks for such an event: The Safari Zone has shown that an event with a fee can indeed be organized from home.
The spawns in my small town were comparable to the spawns at the GO Fest 2019 in Dortmund and especially the incense item makes this event playable everywhere.
If Niantic actually organizes a GO Fest for everyone from home, I can only recommend it to everyone, as you get full value for your money.
