Spooky Season Is Upon Us Again! Halloween In Pokemon GO

Boo, Trainers! How’s the month of pumpkins and ghosts treating you so far? Are you over pumpkin spice everything yet? (I’m not.)

As per usual, Pokemon GO is queuing up some tricks and treats for us to enjoy! Let’s break them down!

Halloween Cup
Available from the 15th of October until the 25th, this is a 1500 and lower tier cup that only allows for Poison, Dark, Ghost, Bug and Fairy Type Pokemon.

Event bonuses available from the 15th till the 31st.

Double Hatch, Catch and Transfer Candy, guaranteed XL Candy for walking your Buddy

Lavender Town Music at night to get you in the spooky mood!

Event specific bundles available in the Shop (These replace the regularly available bundle boxes)

Pikachu, Piplup and Drifloon will be wearing hats! Pikachu and Piplup do not evolve if wearing these hats, but you might be able to snag ’em in Shiny.

New Avatar items available in the shop if you want to switch up that outfit to fit the season!

Spooky Stickers available from stops, gifts and the shop.

Continue the Season of Mischief Special Research as of the 15th.

New Special Research will be available. What lies behind the mask? Catch a bunch of Ghost Types to help Professor Willow learn about our spectral buddies.

Timed Research centered around the Halloween Cup.

Part 1: Creepy Companions (October 15th through the 22nd)

Wild Encounters will switch up – expect to see extra spooky Pokemon (Pikachu, Piplup, Zubat, Woobat, Drowzee, Stunky, Gastly, Shuppet, Misdrevus, Gothita, Yamask and Spinarak)

Spinarak is now available in Shiny! It’s blue and pink so easy to spot.

A switch-up in Raid Bosses as well – most notably, Galarian Slowpoke in 1 Star Raids and Giratina pops in for 5 Star Raids.

Drifblim in a hat available in 3 Star Raids.

Speaking of Galarian Slowpoke, you can now evolve them into Galarian Slowking! You’ll need to make it your buddy and catch 30 Psychic Types to do so.

A new Special Research Story will unlock: Misunderstood Mischief!

Part 2: Ghoulish Pals (October 22nd through the 31st)

The second part of Misunderstood Mischief will unlock.

Wild encounters switch up again (Pikachu, Piplup, Purrloin, Gastly, Shuppet, Misdrevus, Litwick, Yamask, Haunter, as well as some new arrivals! Phantump and Pumpkaboo!)

Just to reiterate: New Pokemon Phantump and Pumpkaboo will now be available to add some more entries to your Kalos Pokedex!

A new size-based mechanic will be available for Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist so you can catch them in multiple sizes, just like the main series games.

Darkrai sweeps back into 5 Star Raids

Drifblim in a hat in 3 Star Raids

Mega Absol makes its Pokemon GO debut in Mega Raids!

The 30th and 31st will see an increase in 5 Star and Mega Raids featuring Darkrai and Mega Absol.

All in all, a great grab bag of treats with very few tricks on offer!

The most interesting thing there is the new Pokedex additions, I think. Pumpkaboo and Phantump, not to mention Mega Absol.

Of course, not being available yet we really have no official information on them. I’ll keep you guys updated on those newbies when we have more info. However, let’s take a look at the other aspect of the spooky season… dressing up and changing that look! We recently had another addition to the GO roster that I haven’t yet written about – let’s take a look at the Poodle Pokemon, Furfrou!

Spotlight on Furfrou

Furfrou is a fun Pokemon introduced in Generation 6, the Kalos region. Which… y’know. Makes a lot of sense being it’s a poodle. Kalos was based on France and I think the only other animal more synonymous with France than the poodle is Pepe Le Pew and we don’t talk about him anymore.

Pokedex info on this one is pretty light in general – it was originally considered a Pokemon worthy of guarding the King and you can trim its fur into elaborate styles. It only really lets people it trusts trim it up, though.

So, does it take a little off the top when it comes to battling in Pokemon GO? Or does it get swept up off the floor?

With a Max CP of 2387, Attack of 164, Defense of 167 and Stamina of 181… this floofy pup is better off in an oversized handbag than on the battlefield. You’re only really using Furfrou if it’s one of your favorites and that’s absolutely fine! I do not judge! But there are no differing Stats, form to form and being a solid Normal Type it has no resistances except for Ghost and only one weakness in Fighting.

In terms of moves, you have Bite, Suckerpunch and Take Down (STAB) for Fast Attacks. Charged Attacks are… Surf, Grass Knot and Dark Pulse. Weird. So, no STAB options and nothing to really counter that Fighting Type weakness, either.

But, you get a massive range of aesthetic options, so, it’s not all bad! 10 different options are available and are region locked.