Pokemon Go Announces Mega Pidgeot Event

Pokemon Go players will have one week to unlock Mega Pidgeot. Earlier today, Pokemon Go announced a new event to celebrate the launch of its new Mega Evolution mechanic. Players will have one week to beat 2 million Mega Raids in order to unlock Mega Pidgeot as a usable Pokemon. Currently, only Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise, and Beedrill have their Mega Evolved forms available to use in Pokemon Go. The event begins tomorrow, September 1st, and ends on September 7th.

More Mega Raids will appear as part of the event, and players can obtain research specifically related to raids during the event. Additionally, Pokemon Go will also have limited event-exclusive research tasks with Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise Mega Energy as rewards. Finally, Abra, Magnemite, Exeggcute, Rhyhorn, Tangela, Electabuzz, Omanyte, Aerodactyl, Murkrow, Treecko, Torchic, Lotad, and Roselia will all appear more often in the wild, and Shiny Lotad will be added to the game.

Mega Evolution has gotten off to a rocky start, as players are disappointed by the high bar to unlock a Pokemon's Mega Evolved form along with its rather limited payoff. Players need to complete up to 8 Mega Raids to unlock a Pokemon's Mega Evolved form for the first time, meaning that free-to-play players will have to work for over a week to unlock a single Mega Evolution. While a Pokemon's Mega Energy cost decreases after the first time it evolves, many players look at Mega Evolution as "premium content" that costs money to reasonably complete.

In response to these complaints, Pokemon Go added a special Raid Box with three Remote Raid Passes for just 1 Poke Coin and has promised that it is listening to feedback about Mega Evolution.

This week's Mega Evolution event is the first of three events this month. A second Mega Evolution event that will unlock Mega Houndoom will start next week, and a third event that unlocks extra Halloween bonuses will take place at the end of the month.