New Year's Event recap

Ahoy, the New Year 2022 event in Pokémon GO has now ended. On the market square in my city we still have lots of lights and decoration for Christmas. I figured that would make a nice AR photo so I took this one there yesterday.

This event brought in a lot of the Party Hat Costumed Pokémon in the game. Not all of them as I believe there are for example a Pikachu and Eevee with a Party Hat too. The majority at least.

Several of these were only available through Raids (same as when they were first introduced). Some were in Field Research and 7 km Eggs too. It was said this would be the case for Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. However one day I saw a Party Hat Bulbasaur in the wild and another day a Squirtle. Which was quite strange. As Niantic's blog post doesn't list them under the Wild Encounters for the event. Perhaps there was a mistake with them. Here is a photo of the Bulbasaur on the nearby radar.

Party Hat Wurmple was in the wild, 2020 Glasses Slowpoke and then New Year's Hat Pikachu and Hoothoot. Most of mine were caught in the wild. A few of Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander from Field Research Encounters. We also had a Timed Research that gave a Costumed Hoothoot, Pikachu, Wurmple, Slowpoke and Wobbuffet.

I've hatched a few eggs too. Not too many as I haven't played so much during the event. When my last 2 of the 7 km Eggs hatched, I got the Pichu in the very last one! Awesome! Now I don't have to ask any friends if they have a spare New Year Hat Pichu to add to trade.

I didn't keep my Hoothoot from the Timed Research (shown in the previous blog post), because I had to make some space and figured maybe I'll get a better one. Sadly it didn't happen xD So now a 2-star is my best one. Doesn't matter much as I won't use it for battling, but still prefer keeping the best ones.

I've traded most of the hatched ones to gain Trade Distance for the Medal for it. The Hoothoot in the above photo came from a gift from US, trading it with a friend for a Hoothoot from here gave both of us about 7770 Trade Distance.

My best Slowpoke that I encountered during this event was a 98% IV at level 1 with the 17 CP 😅 Since it was my best one, I decided I'll evolve this one into Slowking with the 2022 Glasses.

That's also the Slowking featured in the thumbnail.

During the event I've been Mega Evolving my Abomasnow several more times. Usually once a day, sometimes two times. And the silver medal for Mega Evolving a Pokémon 50 times popped up near the end of the event. I don't Mega Evolve that often, so it took me a while to get. Now the road to the Gold Medal will take way longer, because its requirement is at 500 😅

I didn't encounter any Shiny Pokémon during this event. Not too strange, as I didn't play that much. But still had daily walks the past two days so I did have a decent chance to encounter one.

How did the event go for you?