Pokemon GO Valentines Day event update: Porygon, Lickitung, Candy

Earlier today the Pokemon GO event for Valentine's Day began, bringing double candy, halfsies on Buddy walking distance, and special event surprises too. Niantic was purposely vague about which Pokemon they'd be making more common in this update, suggesting that it was "Pink" Pokemon that'd be more likely to appear than normal. We've been tracking the spawns since the event was turned on, and there are some oddities!

Double candy for this event includes several different activities and actions. Users that capture Pokemon during this event will get 2x candy per Pokemon instead of one. Users that hatch Pokemon Eggs during this event will get twice the amount of candy that they'd normally get – that could potentially be a large amount indeed. Users can transfer Pokemon to Professor Oak will get 2x candy instead of one, each.

Instead of giving double candy for walking Buddy Pokemon for this event, Niantic is doing the same thing they did with past events. Each Buddy Pokemon will require half the distance that they'd normally require to get one candy, instead. This makes the whole process easier on the system... somehow.

Likelihood of encountering a number of otherwise-rare Pokemon has increased substantially. Users will see "many adorable pink Pokemon," the likes of which aren't generally seen in all biomes around the world. This includes a number of Pokemon confirmed by Niantic (*starred) and some we can safely assume by association.

1. Chansey*

2. Cleffa* (in Pokemon Eggs)

3. Clefairy

4. Clefable*

5. Igglybuff* (in Pokemon Eggs)

6. Jigglypuff

7. Wigglytuff

8. Smoochum* (in Pokemon Eggs)

9. Jynx

10. Porygon* (!)

Porygon is one of the rarest Pokemon in the game – at least, in the real world of actual spawns it is. With increased regularity in spawns, it might actually be seen by more than 1 out of every several hundred users! Also note that Mew is a Pink Pokemon, but that'd be one of the LAST Pokemon we'd expect to appear without warning.

Also on the list of possibilities that aren't yet confirmed as having increased spawn rates – but have historically been considered "Pink" Pokemon:

11. Slowpoke

12. Slowbro

13. Exeggcute

14. Lickitung (!)

15. Mr. Mime

Highly unlikely Pokemon that are Pink and part of Gen 2:

16. Flaaffy

17. Hoppip

18. Slowking

19. Snubbull

20. Corsola

21. Miltank

22. Blissey

Lure Modules will be more valuable this week than at any point in the history of Pokemon GO. Instead of lasting 30 minutes, each Lure Module will last a whopping SIX HOURS apiece! This event began earlier today and will run until the 15th of February, 2017.