The Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year, starts tomorrow, February 5. But we can’t have a holiday celebration without a corresponding Pokémon GO event, so that’s exactly what we’re getting.
Niantic recently announced that an in-game event celebrating the Lunar New Year is set to take place over the course of the next few days. The event began today (February 4) at 1:00pm PST/4:00pm EST and will continue until next Wednesday, February 13, at 1:00pm PST/4:00pm EST. During the event, certain Pokémon representing the twelve Chinese Zodiac signs, namely Rattata, Ekans, Mankey, Ponyta, Electabuzz, Dratini, Mareep, Miltank, Torchic, Poochyena, Spoink, and Buneary, will spawn more frequently than normal. And since 2019 is the Year of the Pig, Shiny Spoink will start appearing as well.
In addition to these increased spawn rates, players will earn twice as much XP as usual when catching or evolving Pokémon during the event. Lastly, trading with other trainers during the event will make the traded Pokémon more likely to become Lucky than normal. For those unfamiliar with the term, trading will sometimes result in the traded Pokémon becoming Lucky, meaning they’ll likely have better IVs and will also require less Stardust to level up than they usually would.
