Pokémon Go's Halloween event adds a couple of surprising new features

Pokémon Go's annual Halloween event is often one of its best activities and, as expected, this year features a number of new bits and pieces in-game. The event's first half, running from October 20th to 27th, features the arrival of Mega Banette in Mega Raids for the first time, plus the Shiny versions of Noibat and Galarian Yamask. But it also offers some more surprising additions.

These include the decision by developer Niantic to sell not one but two cheap event tickets featuring time-limited quests and rewards, with both a $1 and $5 option available. From the sounds of things, these will each offer different rewards, with the former offering encounters with Yamask, while the pricier option gets you an admittedly very cool animated Halloween lantern avatar item/pose.

Niantic is obviously trying something new here with a pair of different ticket options for the same overall event, as well as the fact these rewards will be time-limited - even if you paid. Typically, event questlines from Special Research remain in-game permanently, allowing you to complete them at your leisure.

Another big change Niantic is quietly introducing here involves the event's egg pool. For the first time, hatching a particular Pokémon from an egg obtained during the event - in this case, the newly-Shiny Noibat - will give you better odds at getting a Shiny version than Noibat found in the wild.

Niantic has always kept the odds of finding Shiny versions of Pokémon hidden under the game's hood, though players have found ways to track them through wild Pokémon encounters. Offering a better Shiny chance via eggs will obscure that - and also likely encourage players to pay for Incubator items to quickly hatch more event eggs for boosted chance of a Shiny Pokémon.

So, what's the thinking here? Well, limiting the amount of time in which you can earn out your paid-for ticket rewards is a common enough strategy when it comes to seasonal battle pass mechanics. Putting a time limit on these quests encourages people to play and return to the game each day rather than leave tasks for later.

As for the change to eggs, this would seem to be a bid to encourage the sale of Incubator items. But the recently-added ability for Niantic to set different Shiny odds for the same Pokémon species when encountered in different ways in the game has some fans wondering how else this may be used in future.

We're expecting a second part for Pokémon Go's Halloween event to be detailed next week.