Dedenne makes its Pokemon Go debut during the Festival of Lights

Pokemon Go's next event, the Festival of Lights, will welcome the adorable mouse 'mon, Dedenne, and usher in new goodies through additional field research tasks, raids, and outfits. Niantic's holiday celebration begins Friday, November 5 at 10 a.m. and runs through Sunday, November 14 at 8 p.m local time. 

Dedenne joins from the Kalos region, and—for you luckier trainers—the Raichu-lookalike will come in its usual shiny color swap. The new Pokemon also joins the game bearing gifts, as your daily limit on opening surprises increases from the usual 20 to 45 with even more rewards. In the spirit of the holidays, Niantic is boosting friendship level increases from these exchanges to make them twice as fast, so enjoy the holiday cheer a little more with your pals over the next month. 

The festival also means rates for wild encounters are changing up; you'll run into Pokemon like Pikachu, Blitzle, Fennekin, Whismur, Slugma, Tynamo, and others more often. Niantic noted Darumaka and Litwick would be lurking about, too, perhaps with their own shiny versions.

As for your other usual chores, Pokemon Go's latest field research tasks will guarantee you encounters with Blitzle, Darumaka, Magnemite, Electrike Electabuzz, Magmar, and Vulpix—all in their shiny forms. Litleo also has its own research, but the task will saddle you with its regular ole version for now. These changes impact the Festival of Lights' little egg hatchlings, and the rarest Pokemon from a 7km egg is now Budew. 

Raids will welcome new tier five challenges that include Cobalion, Terrakion, and Virizion, while Mega Manectric occupies the Mega Raid. Unfortunately, this next transition means there isn't much time left for you to add Megal Absol to your team, which just made its own first appearance in Pokemon Go over Halloween. It's joined by Darkrai, who has visited the Pokemon Go world in the past, but will also leave come November 5. 

While Pokemon Go welcomes new critters, says goodbye to the old, and gets into the gift-giving spirit, players can delight in freebies inspired by India's own celebrations. Niantic will give away a free Festival of Light shirt throughout the event and add Dedenne-inspired fashion to the store.  There's a lot going on in the next celebration, and those of you in India get a little more fanfare with double catch candy rates and increased Blitzle and Dedenne spawns on November 7.

Pokemon Go has had quite an eventful 2021, and Niantic's mobile behemoth continues to capitalize on the monster-catching popularity as it hit $5 billion in lifetime revenue this year. And while you may be gearing up to enjoy a firework-filled Festival of Lights, don't forget there's still time to wrap up your loose ends in the current Season of Mischief arc.