Pokemon GO Christmas 2018 And Present Pikachu
This week we're diving into the final two Pokemon GO events for the masses of players playing during their end-of-year holiday break. Most trainers playing Pokemon GO this week are either on a break from school or have a bit more time during their day this week at work than normal – as such, there's a whole lot of Pokemon going on! Even so, the biggest secret of the game this week still isn't easy to spot!
This week we've got a lot of things going on, from a new batch of Pokemon GO Gen 3 monsters release to the first appearance of the Star Piece. We've gone over what Niantic has listed for the dual event – we've also gone ahead and listed MOST of the details Niantic didn't list. We've got so many lists, there's no way you'll have found a detail we didn't cover!
SEE EM ALL: Pokemon GO Christmas week event details (all the details)
Unless you count the Pikachu Present. During the span of this event, there's a special sort of Pokemon you might never have the opportunity to catch, ever again. That is the Present Pikachu. This Present Pikachu is different from the Santa Hat Pikachu – though the two can overlap.
During the course of this event, at least two sorts of Pikachu Family Pokemon can have the Present move. This move is new, and is limited for Pikachu to this event only – as far as we've been able to tell. Generally Pikachu has one of a couple other moves as its Quick Move: Thunder Shock or Quick Attack.
This event – and likely this event only – Pikachu can also have a move called Present. This move exists in Delibird, too. Delibird is a Gen 2 Pokemo with a holiday gift-giving theme – the most holiday-centric Pokemon in the game!
The Present move only appears in Pikachu in three different ways. One is capturing Pikachu as a starter Pokemon. To do this, you'll need to follow these instructions from all the way back in July of 2016. They still work!
Another way to get the Present Pikachu is to apply a Fast TM (Technical Machine) during this event. It would appear – in all of our tests, at least – that any Fast TM will turn the Quick Move of any Pikachu to Present. That includes Witch Hat Pikachu, Ash Hat Pikachu, Shiny Pikachu, etcetera.
The third way to get a Present Pikachu is to evolve a Pichu. Any evolution of Pichu will result in a Present Pikachu – only during this event. As far as we've been able to tell, this is the only time the Present move will be available to Pikachu – unless Niantic brings this ability back next year. We shall see!