Niantic accidentally unveiled an early look at its new Pokemon Go Collection Challenge feature. Some Pokemon Go players have reported that their Unova Collection Challenge went live ahead of tomorrow’s Unova Celebration Event. The Collection Challenge is a new feature that gives players rewards for capturing certain Pokemon during the event. Players will earn 3,000 Stardust, 30 Poke Balls, and 5 Rare Candies if they catch Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Lillipup, Herdier, Zebstrika, Roggenrola, Solosis, and Ferroseed during the Unova Celebration event. Notably, the Collection Challenge is not live for all players and likely appeared either as a test run or as an error on some players’ accounts. The Collection Challenge will officially go live for all players on January 5th. Players who complete Collection Challenges will also make progress towards a new Elite Collector profile medal.
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According to early reports, players can only make progress on a Collection Challenge by catching or hatching Pokemon – trading Pokemon or evolving existing Pokemon won’t count towards the Challenge.
The new Collection Challenge acts similarly to the Timed Research Challenges added to Pokemon Go last year. Those challenges acted similar to Research quests, but usually coincided with different events and needed to be completed in a certain amount of time. These challenges serve as extra ways to keep players engaged during events, especially when players have already collected all the Pokemon that appear in the event.
The Unova Celebration Event will go live tomorrow morning, and will feature appearances by Pokemon like Snivy, Tepip, Oshawott, Lillipup, Herdier, Roggenrola, Drilbur, Scraggy, Tympole, Venipede, Trubbish, Gothita, Solosis, and Ferroseed in the wild. Additionally, Shiny Snivy will be added to Pokemon Go for the first time, and players can also obtain a Genesect holding a Burn Drive by participating in 5-Star raids. The Unova Celebration Event is the first of several planned events focusing on various Pokemon regions that lead up to the Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event in February. Pokemon Go has several other major events planned for the month of January.
