Pokemon Go Tour: Johto Announces Two Big Rewards

Pokemon Go Tour: Johto will feature two big rewards pulled straight out of the original Pokemon Gold and Silver games. Next month, Pokemon Go will host its annual Go Tour event, which focuses on a different generation of Pokemon and promises an experience inspired by original Pokemon games. This year's event is the Pokemon Go Tour: Johto event, which will feature all 100 Pokemon introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver available with their Shiny forms for the first time in Pokemon Go. This week, Pokemon Go announced two additional rewards for participating in the event – an encounter with a Shiny Gyarados and an encounter with the Mythical Pokemon Celebi. Any Celebi caught during the event will know its signature move Magical Leaf. 

Both Celebi and Shiny Gyarados have been available in Pokemon Go for a while, but both Pokemon have ties to the original Pokemon Gold and Silver games. Players encountered the Shiny Gyarados at the Lake of Rage during their investigation of Team Rocket, potentially capturing the Red Pokemon (which also served as a way to showcase the franchise's new Shiny mechanic.) Meanwhile, Celebi was the game's Mythical Pokemon and also played a large role in explaining what exactly happened to Giovanni during the events of the game in the Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver remakes. 

Like last year's Pokemon Go Tour event, players will be tasked with capturing all 100 Pokemon first seen in the Johto region. Players will pick an "experience" themed around one of the game's two versions and will need to trade to collect certain Pokemon with players with the other experience. Certain Pokemon will have higher-than-normal Shiny encounter rates and changes are expected for the Legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh and Lugia as well. 

Tickets are now available for Pokemon Go Tour: Johto in the game's in-game store for a price of $11.99. Purchasing early will also get players access to Special Research leading up to the event, including a Timed Research event in February that results in an encounter with Noibat.