Pokémon Go Tour Hoenn is kicking off this weekend and plans to spawn every Hoenn Pokémon from Torchic to Rayquaza for fans to catch to help complete their Pokédex. The event also debuts Primal Groundon and Primal Kyogre after last week’s abysmal Las Vegas in-person event.
Just like with previous Johto and Kanto events, fans are hoping for a chance at catching their favorite shiny Pokémon from the Hoenn region. After all, the past two events have given ticketed fans a boosted chance at finding shiny Pokémon during the weekend event so many expected Hoenn to follow the same direction.
This doesn’t seem to be the case though. At least at first glance. With Hoenn Global no longer being a paid ticketed event and instead being offered for free, shiny boosting appears to not be appearing as a feature of the Global Tour. This shouldn’t be new to anyone, as Niantic confirmed to Eurogamer in a report earlier this month that shiny boosts will only be available to some species, but not all Pokémon.
This has left a lot of people scratching their heads though on which Pokémon will be shiny boosted during the event. This is a question we recently presented to Niantic.
“Select Pokémon will have a chance of being Shiny boosted. We want the experience of encountering a shiny Pokémon to be a moment of surprise, so we can’t disclose specifics here.” Niantic told Dot Esports when enquiring about the lack of news on boosted shiny Pokémon at the event. “Increased chances to encounter shiny Pokémon were available to ticket-holding Trainers at the in-person event in Las Vegas.”
When pushing Niantic to confirm that not every Pokémon will see shiny boosts, Niantic said we should infer from its statement for that to be the case, only using the traditional line of “if you’re lucky you may encounter one of the Pokémon” on the day as a shiny.
Related: Should you pick the Ruby or Sapphire badge ticket for Pokémon Go Tour: Hoenn?
So what does this mean? Well, it appears that increased shiny boosts might only be for a small selection of Pokémon in the Global Tour this weekend, likely referencing the version-exclusive bonuses that will spawn every hour depending on which version of the ticket you choose. Though this is not confirmed.
That would mean out of the 100 plus Pokémon Hoenn has available, a mere dozen would see shiny boosted throughout the entire weekend. A far cry from the global event fans were hoping for.
