Pokémon Go’s first ever in-game event ups the candy count for Halloween

Pokémon Go players will get the chance to participate in the game’s first ever in-game event this Halloween, starting Wednesday October 26 and running through November 1. The event will feature higher encounter rates for spooky Pokémon, including Drowzee, Zubat, Gastly, Gengar, Golbat, Haunter and Hypno, and trainers will also get more candy for catching, buddy training and transferring Pokémon.

The Go event will apply to players worldwide, and the most appealing part of this is likely the candy bonus, especially if you’re in an area where those ghost and vaguely Halloween-themed Pokémon are already present in plentiful numbers (as is the case here in Toronto). The candy multipliers mean you get more reward for each activity that generated candy today, which adds up to six candies per catch, two candies per transfer to the professor and four candies per success Buddy level-up, which is the biggest boost of all. That should result in a spike in walking steps worldwide by Go players looking to reap the biggest return during the event period.

In-game events are a great idea for Pokémon Go, and will hopefully help it recapture some of its early magic in terms of driving more real-world play and interaction between players. Seasonal events focused on holidays seem like an easy thing to keep up in future, and hopefully we start seeing more unique events with different modifications to gameplay down the road, too.