Pokemon Go Announces Huge Halloween Event, Featuring New "Gen 4" Pokemon

Pokemon Go has announced their annual Halloween event, filled with plenty of scares and several new Pokemon.

Halloween is a special time of year for Pokemon Go. In 2016, the game used Halloween to launch its first in-game event, which breathed new life into the game and its fanbase. Last year, Halloween served as the start of the game's "Gen 3" launch, which added tons of new Pokemon and other surprises. This year, Pokemon Go is getting even more ambitious, with new Legendary Pokemon, special research, and other surprises.

As with past Halloween events, players will get double candy for every Pokemon caught during the event. That means that players can potentially earn up to 40 candies per Pokemon catch when paired with a Pinap Berry.

Players will also get their first chance to capture several new Pokemon originally seen in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Both Drifbloom and Stunky will appear in the wild for the first time, and Pokemon Go also mentioned that several other Dark-Type and Ghost-Type Pokemon would appear during the event. The game will also feature a limited-time Special Research quest to help Professor Willow get to the bottom of some strange occurrences at his lab. Other field research involving Ghost-Type and Dark-Type Pokemon will also be available for a limited time.

The game is also adding some new avatar items featuring Ghost-Type Pokemon, including backpacks and hats based off of various Pokemon. It's unclear whether these are free items or paid items at this time.

Finally, players will have their first chance to battle the Legendary Pokemon Giratina as a Raid Boss. This Ghost/Dragon-Type Pokemon appeared multiple times in trailers for the "Gen 4" launch and will be the new Legendary Raid Boss between now and November 20th.

Pokemon Go's Halloween Event starts at 4 PM ET on October 23rd and will run through November 1st at 4 PM.