Pokémon GO has introduced seasons since early December. For MeinMMO editor Noah Struthoff, it’s a brilliant feature, but unfortunately the implementation doesn’t fit at all.
It could have been so nice. The seasons in Pokémon GO are a feature I’ve wished for since the beginning of Pokémon GO. In winter, there are mostly Ice-type Pokémon, and in summer, there are Water-type Pokémon. In spring, the Grass-types come, and in autumn, the Bug-types.
This is more or less how Niantic announced the seasons. “In the first season, for example, winter Pokémon will appear in the wild in the Northern Hemisphere” – this was proclaimed for the first season named “a festive season”. It would make sense because while in the real world the first snow falls and it gets cold, Ice-type Pokémon in the game would be just great.
Sack of Trash instead of Ice-type Pokémon
This is how the seasons were implemented: The reality now unfortunately looks quite different. Ice-type Pokémon hardly appear outside of events. There are sporadically a Petznief or Shnebedeck, but I rarely see the winter Pokémon.
Instead, there’s trash everywhere. You can take this literally, as the most common Pokémon for me is Unratütox – a Pokémon that looks like a trash bag.
While one thinks of Christmas Pokémon during a “festive season”, one instead has to catch trash bags. This is neither festive nor wintery.
If one is not being besieged by trash bags, there’s little diversity in the spawns. I usually find Karadonis, Makuhita, Smogon, or Hornliu during my rounds. These are Fighting and Poison-type Pokémon. Two types that actually don’t fit Christmas at all.
You need to keep this in mind: I’m only talking about the spawns outside of events. In events, there are mainly event Pokémon, such as Kiesling or Lithomith (in the Celebi event). I’m quite satisfied with that, but unfortunately outside of events, it looks very different.
This bothers me the most: I don’t see it quite so strictly with the seasons. However, particularly annoying is the diversity of the spawns because it’s actually hardly given. It feels like 80-90% of the spawns outside of events consist of 5-6 Pokémon. There’s barely any variety.
If I think about it, I’ve caught maybe 20 different types of Pokémon outside of events. There are currently over 600 Pokémon in the game, and only 20 species somewhat commonly found in the wild – that’s significantly too few for me.
Niantic has promised that in the next season, other Pokémon will be more frequently encountered, and that’s great. Still, I wish for at least a bit more diversity per season, because catching almost only 5 different Pokémon for 3 months is quite disappointing in the long run.
Do other trainers see it this way? The diversity of the spawns is also a hot topic of discussion among other trainers. It’s interesting that different regions around the world have different Pokémon that appear continuously. In India, players complain about Grillmak, South America has a Felino plague, and Scandinavia reports Shnebedeck on every corner.
Especially the weather plays a role here. In Germany, it’s currently mostly overcast, which is why Unratütox is ubiquitous. In Scandinavia, it snows a lot, so at least the Ice-type Pokémon Shnebedeck comes out.
It is still a problem. Because instead of allowing numerous Pokémon with weather enhancement to spawn, there are usually only 1-3 Pokémon that always appear.
The trainer expir3 sums it up well on reddit: “The season update feels like a step backwards in spawn diversity.”
This is what I wish for: Finally bring on the winter spawns that were promised! Of course, it doesn’t snow everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and the overcast weather lures out the Poison-type Pokémon. That’s all fine, but having Unratütox everywhere is very disappointing. Here I would wish for significantly more variety.
Now the Christmas event is waiting for us trainers. There will probably be fewer Unratütox appearing:
Pokémon GO brings a new Pokémon and these bonuses for Christmas 2020
