Pokémon GO Snubs Veteran Players on Anniversary

• Pokémon GO's 8th anniversary event excludes longtime players.
• Shiny Celebi event is off limits for those who completed a 2020 quest.
• Event offers Meltan encounters, party hat monsters, and Timed Research.
• $5 Masterwork Research includes shiny Celebi and valuable in-game items.
• Niantic hasn't explained the exclusion of longtime players.

Pokémon GO is refusing to let longtime players come to its birthday party.

In a deeply bizarre move, the shiny Celebi event of its 8th anniversary celebrations is off limits for old-timers.

By John Walker

Published Friday 11:35 AM

Mobile game megahit Pokémon GO never misses a chance to make an inexplicably dreadful decision.

Its latest comes with the celebration of the game's eighth birthday.

It has made the bizarre decision to refuse access to longtime players who completed one specific quest back in 2020.

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Every year, Pokémon GO celebrates its anniversary with a few in-game events, some free, some premium.

For 2024, the Pokémon GO's 8th Anniversary Party offers a bunch of features.

• A way to encounter Meltan without a Mystery Box
• A range of recycled monsters wearing party hats
• Some bog-standard Timed Research tasks, both free and paid
• The main highlight: a $5 Masterwork Research called Whispers in the Woods featuring shiny Celebi

Oh, and the only new Pokémon to gain a party hat this year are Grimer and Muk.

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Whispers in the Woods is a new super-long quest that will end with players receiving one of the ultimate chase Pokémon, a shiny Celebi.

Along the way, it also offers an impressive haul of in-game items:

• 153 Ultra Balls
• Three Super Incubators
• A Poffin
• Some Rare Candies
• Lure Modules
• TMs
• Battle Passes
• A chunk of XP and Stardust

Even leaving aside the Celebi, this is a mighty haul of in-game items for five bucks.

Just the incubators alone would usually cost you more.

Which makes it quite the most astonishing discovery that anyone who happened to complete the Distracted By Something Shiny Special Research in 2020 isn't allowed to take part.

The option to buy a ticket is just grayed out in the shop with the unhelpful message:

"You already have a ticket for this event or have an active or completed Research that disqualifies you from being able to purchase this ticket."

Visit the blog for the event, and you're informed in a footnote:

"Trainers who completed the Distracted by Something Shiny Special Research story will not be able to purchase this Masterwork Research story."

There's no reason given, and we've not yet heard back from Niantic in response to our asking why.

Now, it's likely something to do with the Gen II mythical Pokémon being an extra-special unique creature rather than one among many of its kind, a la Pikachu or Charizard.

But then this is already entirely undermined by allowing players to have both a regular and a shiny version of the monster, so you know what?

Complaining about not being able to give Niantic another five bucks at a time when Pokémon GO has been allowed to become quite so rotten might seem a little strange.

But it's because it only exacerbates the frustrations.

There's so little of any substance to do in the game of late.

The paltry events that do show up that would previously have been free are now paid-for.

Recent Masterworks have been so inconceivably massive as to be unmanageable.

Glimmers of Gratitude, for instance, requires you to capture an eye-watering 492 Pokémon from each of the first four regions for its first stage of seven.

Whispers In The Woods would finally be a more manageable event to enjoy with a cool Pokémon at the end.

The chance to catch a shiny Celebi with better stats than perhaps you received before and a ton of super-useful in-game items for a relatively cheap price.

Refusing access to those who are committed to the game enough to have been playing for over four years is a wildly stupid decision.

It's a far more galling one given it would be worth buying even if it just refused you the Celebi at the end.

As we mentioned, we've contacted Niantic to ask what's up.

In the meantime, longtime players enjoy catching a Muk with a hat. Weeeeeeee.