Surprise! Kecleon is getting a limited Pokémon Go event tonight

Although there’s no formal announcement by Niantic, Pokémon Go players say a mini-event centered around Kecleon will begin later today, Dec. 18.

According to Pokémon Go Hub, there are reports of the event having already started in other parts of the world since it’s scheduled to begin at 5pm local time. A Reddit post by Gx811 comes with an in-game screenshot detailing the event, with it also challenging players to try and catch the largest Kecleon they can find.

The event will make Kecleon appear in increased numbers at PokéStops, making it an ideal time to try and catch a Shiny Kecleon for your collection. The event, however, won’t last very long. It’s only scheduled to run for three hours and end at 8pm local time.

At first, Niantic dropping a Kecleon event today seems awfully random, but it’s suggested to be deliberate. As pointed out by Reddit user Ajativada, Dec. 18 is the 352nd day of the year, which matches Kecleon’s number in the National PokéDex. Kecleon was only added to Pokémon Go at the beginning of the year (six years after its fellow Generation Three Pokémon began showing up) so maybe Niantic will make this an annual thing?

Some people on Reddit are annoyed that Niantic gave no warning in advance about the event, such as littleheaven70: “Once again, New Zealand trainers get the short end of the stick by having no advance notice, while everyone else gets at least a few hours to rearrange their plans.” Others, like Kiwi1234567, think having the event come out of nowhere is quite fitting considering Kecleon can camouflage itself.

Plenty of players are just glad for the opportunity since you need to catch a certain number of Kecleon to complete specific research tasks. Unlike most other Pokémon, Kecleon will be mostly invisible at PokéStops and even prevents you from spinning them to get items. You can still, however, spot it thanks to the red zigzag marking on its body, which it can’t camouflage. Tap it to get it off the PokéStop and it will then appear on the map for you to catch.