This Week History: Friendship, Spark’s Rewards, Gym Battles

The biggest thing to hit Pokémon GO (during possibly the entire year) was the release of the Friendship System! The friendship system introduced the ability to add Friends in Pokémon GO, open Gifts that could reward brand-new 7km Eggs featuring some never before seen Alolan Pokémon variations, and of course, one of Pokémon GO’s long-awaited features, trading!

Spark’s Candy Research Rewards

After having completed Spark’s Candy Research Challenge, it was time to reap the rewards of Trainers’ hard work. This meant taking advantage of a slew of Candy-related bonuses, including 2x Catch Candy, 2x Hatch Candy, 1/2 Egg Hatch Distance, and a guaranteed Rare Candy per raid!

Kyogre Returns

Just as it was previously notified and announced, Trainers were a bit mixed when it came to Kyogre’s return, with some Trainers happy to get a shot at catching its shiny variant, while others were displeased to see it return to raid battles once again. Either way, this did not stop the turnout for Legendary Raid Hour featuring Kyogre!

Mini-News Roundup – Pokéstop Submissions

There wasn’t that much to announce this week when it came to the small stuff, but one of the best things we saw was the release of Pokéstop Submissions in Singapore! Besides this, Trainers in Chicago were surprised to see Niantic testing out Multi-Thousand Person raid battles right after GO Fest.

Gym System Rework

After a year of complaints, arguments, and hatred, Niantic decided to surprise Trainers by giving the Gym System a complete and total overhaul, just like the impact the Friendship System had in 2018, the Gym System Rework was the big thing to see back in 2017.