Pokemon GO Festival Of Lights Event's Most Important Features

Today we're taking a peek at the Pokemon GO Festival of Lights, an event that releases one of the most cute Pokemon in the Pokemon universe. This event continues the Season of Mischief, makes Gifts far more awesome, and lets you level up your Friendship with a Buddy Pokemon twice as fast! This event is all about becoming better friends with in-game associates and Pokemon alike.

While the event is running you should drop in on the in-game shop for a free Festival of Lights t-shirt. There'll be new Dedenne-inspired avatar items in the shop as well – though not quite as free as the shirt. Now's a pretty good time to flip over to some warmer layered clothing while you're at it – it's getting chilly out there!

While there's little reason why a clothing item would disappear after it's been made available in the shop, there's a decent possibility that items you've never worn have less of a chance of sticking around in the game than those you've worn even one single time. As such, it's not a bad idea to go in and place any Free Avatar Item on your Avatar when it's launched, even if you then go back and switch to your otherwise standard attire.

The Festival of Lights reveals the first-ever appearance of Dedenne in Pokemon GO. This Pokemon was originally discovered in the Kalos region and is long overdue for a Pokemon GO release. This monster is effectively an alternate-universe Pikachu, with a bit of Fairy type power mixed in. At launch there is no Shiny Dedenne, and Dedenne does not evolve into any other Pokemon.

If you're seeking Shiny Pokemon during this event, keep your eyes on Blitzle, Pikachu, Electrike, Whismur, Darumaka, and Magnemite. Every single Pokemon appearing in 7km eggs that you find during this event have the potential to be Shiny Pokemon, too.

If you're out there Shiny hunting in the wild, you can still tap away at the non-Shiny Pokemon Cottonee, Tynamo, Litwick, Fennekin, Dedenne, and Slugma, but there is no chance they'll appear as Shiny Pokemon – they literally do not have their Shiny iterations loaded in the game's files.

During the entirety of the event, you'll get the ability to open 45 gifts per day. You'll get "increased gift rewards" as well – so if you've ever wished for top-tier gift action before, now's the time. This event also has 2x friendship increase between human friends and Buddy Pokemon – go level up!

One excellent way to level up your friendship with in-game friends is via Raid Battles. Raid Battle action just changed in a big way with some fantastic top-tier Raid Bosses during this event, so you'll need to keep your eyes open and your invite button tapping finger strong!