Pokemon GO has come quite a long way since its launch in the fabled summer of 2016. Its population of Pokemon now represent more than four regions of the game world, and while players were already introduced to substantial amounts of new content in 2020, the new year promises to be just as exciting.
Pokemon Trainers already have plenty of confirmed Pokemon GO details to look forward to in the new year, but given Niantic’s habit of quietly dropping special surprises, players would do well to expect a good number of unannounced additions to the game too. 2021 will likely bring not only new species of Pokemon to the game, but also entirely new gameplay features and ways to engage with the Pokemon communities fans have grown to celebrate.
While 2021 has just barely gotten started, Pokemon Trainers already have a solid idea of a few of the major events set for the early year, namely the January and February Community Days. Machop, the classic Fighting-type hailing from Kanto, will appear frequently on a special January day, while the aromatic Roselia will take the spotlight for February’s Community Day. These two events already promise players a thrilling change from the usual, as most players were expecting a Starter Pokemon to be featured in early 2021.
Aside from these Community Days (and more), players also know they can at least look forward to the usual updates, such as Pokemon still missing from the game and new Shiny Pokemon. That said, as Pokemon GO catches up to the main series with regard to “generations” of Pokemon, 2021 may possibly change Niantic’s usual release patterns, and though these changes may still be unknown, fans can still predict a general map of what’s to come.
Most obviously, 2021 will bring most of the remaining Generation 6 critters, known in the Kalos region, to Pokemon GO. In a similar vein, Niantic is likely to introduce at least one, if not two, new generations before the year’s end. Pokemon Trainers will hopefully acquaint themselves with the rest of the Pokemon X and Y natives, such as Aromatisse, Dragalge, and Goodra. While the entirety of Generation 6 won’t likely be introduced at once, players should expect the majority of it to make an appearance before 2022.
Given other new Pokemon games in development, it’s very likely Niantic would be hoping to get some more introductions underway, especially given the rising popularity and relevance of Galarian Pokemon. The Pokemon Trading Card Game is currently undergoing a revival of sorts as well, so between that and Pokemon‘s general 25th Anniversary, Niantic will probably want to get Pokemon GO a bit more up to date in terms of current regions and Pokemon.
Needless to say, players can expect more new Shiny Pokemon in the ew year. There are still numerous Pokemon that cannot be encountered as Shiny in the game, so at the very least, players should expect some of those Pokemon’s Shiny variants to be introduced in 2021. That being said, it’s more than likely that Niantic will continue to hold onto some of those yet-to-be-introduced Shiny Pokemon, and simply press forward with brand new introductions. Pokemon Trainers will most likely see Shiny forms of new Generation 6 Pokemon, but they’ll also most likely encounter at least a few Generation 7 Shinies as well.
Pokemon GO will not only introduce new Shiny Pokemon in 2021, but as of January, it has already proven that those Shinies will be introduced in different ways as well. For the first time ever, Niantic released a Shiny Starter Pokemon without a Community Day event. Also for the first time, Pokemon GO Trainers were able to catch a guaranteed Shiny Mythical Pokemon. Between that, and the fact that Snivy was released without the honor of a Community Day, fans can no longer confidently predict the pattern of Community Days to come—at the very least, it implies that future Starter Pokemon may not get Community Days either.
For a free-to-start mobile game, Pokemon GO has taken an oddly casual approach to introducing paid cosmetic items. This has certainly been something appreciated by fans, but more importantly, as Niantic has started to introduce said cosmetics, it has managed to do so in a budget-friendly way. Bluntly, players are receiving more and more free cosmetics from Niantic. While certain milestones and achievements reward players with unique cosmetics like the Gyarados Hat, the game’s developer has also started simply gifting new style pieces.
From the Mega Evolution bracelet to recent Gucci x The North Face high fashion collaborations, Pokemon Trainers now have a fair palette of style options to choose from, regardless of how much money they want to invest in the game. 2021 will likely expand on this in some way, shape, or form. Hopefully, some other real-world style icons follow suit with this recent Pokemon fashion crossover, and players can go for some virtual shopping fun while out doing their actual shopping.
Pokemon Trainers should expect a whole new set of Legendary and rare Pokemon to take on in Raid Battles. On top of that, Niantic will undoubtedly make adjustments to Team GO Rocket. Of course, the Team GO Rocket Grunt and Leader lineups will probably continue to change as per usual, but there’s also the chance that Niantic adds in a new character altogether.
In 2020, Pokemon Trainers were able to meet Jessie and James in a Meowth balloon—perhaps in 2021, Butch and Cassidy, or some other notable Team Rocket baddies will float on into Pokemon GO. Not to mention, there are also the game’s other villainous associations. Will the Hoenn-resident Team Aqua and Magma every make their ways into Pokemon GO? Either way, players can also expect new Shiny Shadow Pokemon to come too, considering that Team GO Rocket Leaders (which include Jessie and James) can sometimes use Shiny Pokemon on their teams.
Signs of this are already present in the game, but 2021 will bring new unique challenges to Pokemon GO. Right now, players are beginning to see a new sort of challenge, dubbed a “Collection Challenge.” These new event-research task hybrids basically give players a set amount of time to track down and capture a select pool of Pokemon species. Once the entire “collection” has been captured by a Pokemon Trainer, they’ll receive a special reward depending on the challenge.
Given that it’s only January, it’s all too likely that Niantic has a bit more than just Collection Challenges up their sleeves. As the game moves forward into 2021, Pokemon Trainers will have to keep their teams ready for surprising twists in gameplay, some of which will hopefully involve collaboration. While players can currently team up against Gyms and Raid Bosses, many fans complain the game still lacks a sense true of collaboration.
2021 may finally introduce new ways for Pokemon Trainers to battle together, whether it means challenging a sort of “Raid dungeon” like in Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s new Dynamax Adventures, or simply taking on Team GO Rocket with a group of buds, Niantic would be ignoring many fans if they didn’t introduce some sort of new co-op challenges to the game too.
Last but not definitely not least, players should look forward to new gameplay in 2021. 2020 was an unprecedented year for almost countless reasons, but Niantic rolled with the punches and adapted Pokemon GO to pandemic life. With a new year on the horizon, players should expect some of these pandemic-related changes to slowly either roll back, or develop into something wholly new. It’s clear that Pokemon GO has gone through some evolving itself, though, and there’s surely more to come.
As mentioned above, the year will likely bring new forms of challenges to the game, which begs the question: what elements of gameplay will these challenges take advantage of? Now that the game has introduced Field Research, Special Research, cosmetics, Buddy Pokemon, Raid Battles, and Friendship, what other literally game-changing features await? Community Day has always been the go-to Shiny Pokemon extravaganza, but given that Snivy lacked a Community Day feature, who knows? Perhaps Niantic has a new Shiny-focused event in store for players too.
Pokemon GO is available now on the App Store and Google Play.
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