Starting today, March 20th, the Genesect event went live with a special weekend-event that lasts through Monday, March 23 at 10 pm local time. Also going on right now is a Genesect Special Research event that requires the purchase of an event pass to unlock it, which can be bought and played from now through Thursday, March 26 at 10 pm local time.
Image from Niantic's Pokémon GO website
First up, the Genesect-themed weekend event.
This event will have Normal-, Fire-, Water-, Electric- and Ice-type Pokémon spawn more often in the wild. Some of the Pokémon of these species that I have seen a lot today are Growlithe, Snorunt, Houndoor, Pikachu, Magnemite and Marill, amongst others that I can't immediately think of right now.
There is also an increase of some Bug-type Pokémon, although these are not all in the wild. Nincada is the only Bug-type Pokémon that has an increased spawn in the wild. Alongside that its Shiny has also been added to the game, so we have a chance to encounter a Shiny Nincada! Nincada will also be hatching more frequently from 5 km eggs, as will Karrablast and Shelmet. In Raids we can find various Bug- and Steel-type Pokémon as level one through four Raid Bosses.
An extra bonus during this weekend event is 2x Stardust for Catching and Hatching Pokémon.
This is one of the Nincada I found in the wild today.
Special Research event: A Drive to Investigate
Genesect can be encountered early through a Special Research event going on now through March 26th at 10 pm local time. To access this event it is required to purchase a ticket for the event for $7.99 or the equivalent in your currency. That will give access to the Special Research event and all of its rewards when it's purchased during the time window. It is similar to the event we had for Regigigas.
A small description for the event is:
Professor Willow has found a peculiar trail of damage that appears to have been created by a single Pokémon. The kicker? The damage seems to have been caused by attacks of a wide variety of types! Help him discover which Pokémon is behind them in this brand-new Special Research story event!
Included from the rewards in the A Drive to Investigate Special Research quest are the following:
- Early-access Genesect encounter
- 5 Premium Battle Passes, 3 Super Incubators, 3 Charged TMs, 3 Fast TMs, 3 Incense, 3 Star Pieces, 1 Poffin, 15 Rare Candies, and 1 Glacial Lure
- A Drive to Investigate medal
- Research objectives that lead to encounters with various Bug- and Steel-type Pokémon, including Pinsir, Scizor, Skarmory, Karrablast, and Shelmet, as well as other Pokémon that appear in the story or are related to Genesect
- Research objectives that lead to an encounter with Durant, which is typically available only in the eastern hemisphere
- Exclusive Genesect-themed avatar items, such as a bag and a cap
- Encounters with Scyther, Skarmory, Nincada, and Shieldon after completing exclusive Field Research tasks
This time the item rewards are quite a bit different from the event with Regigigas. There we received up to 10 additional Free Raid Passes when we had the event ticket, but they had to be used during the event as you can only hold 1 Free Raid Pass at a time. And it came with a Sinnoh Stone and an Unova Stone. With this Genesect event, we received 5 Raid Passes, however they're Premium Raid Passes so we can store them in the inventory and use whenever we want. On top of that we get 3 Super Incubators, 3 Star Pieces and a Poffin from the items that can be bought with PokéCoins. Making the value of the items higher than their PokéCoin cost, although the ticket can't be bought with PokéCoins. I would've preferred it more to see a few more Raid Passes in the rewards, but those Super Incubators are also nice to hatch some 10 km Eggs faster.
I haven't entirely made up my mind yet about whether or not I'll be buying the ticket for this Special Research event. I'm kinda bummed out that the events such as the monthly Community Day have been postponed, but then we do get this paid one. Although this one can be played on your own, whereas the Community Day would cause more people to come together. The weekend event with more spawns and 2x Catch and Hatch Stardust is of course free for everyone to enjoy, so that's nice!
I'll decide by tomorrow if I'm going to buy it or not.
Have you bought, or are you going to buy, the A Drive to Investigate event ticket?
I'm posting this here and I also posted it on Steemit for now.