New Year’s event, debut of Mega Aerodactyl, and more to release in Pokémon Go in January 2022

Pokémon Go is ringing in the new year with a plethora of new events, many of them celebrating the beginning of 2022 and the upcoming anniversary of the Pokémon series alongside the introduction of many familiar faces.

In a new blog post today, Niantic revealed that January 2022 is set to be full of new events for all players to enjoy, featuring an abundance of Pokémon spawns in the overworld and in raids.
Players will have multiple opportunities throughout the month to encounter and catch powerful Pokémon that often only appear during special event durations.

January will begin with Pokémon Go’s New Year’s 2022 event, starting on Dec. 31 and ending Jan. 4. Shortly thereafter will be the Mountains of Power event, enabling players to encounter Pokémon from Johto and Sinnoh more frequently from Jan. 7 through 13. The month will conclude with a Kanto celebration, this time focusing on the region’s Power Plant with increased spawns of Electric and Steel-type Pokémon from Jan. 19 to 31. More details regarding these events are expected to be released as they draw closer. These final two events in January will continue the ongoing story within Pokémon Go‘s Season of Heritage.

January’s Research Breakthrough will be the Rock Snake Pokémon, Onix. After achieving a Research Breakthrough, players will receive Mega Steelix Energy that, when enough is accumulated, will enable players to Mega Evolve their Steelix for a brief duration.

Spheal, the Clap Pokémon, stars as the focus for January’s Community Day on Jan. 16. When fully evolved into Walrein, it will learn both the fast attack Power Snow and the new charged attack Icicle Spear. This event will take place from 11am to 5pm local time, but Walrein will be eligible to learn these event-exclusive moves up to two hours after the Community Day concludes.

This month’s Spotlight Hours will give players the opportunity to catch various rare Pokémon alongide limited benefits every Tuesday from 6pm to 7pm local time. The first Spotlight Hour will feature Solosis, the Cell Pokémon, on Jan. 4 with 2x Transfer Candy. On Jan. 11, Diglett will steal the spotlight, giving players 2x Catch Stardust. Plusle and Minun round out January’s Spotlight Hours on Jan. 18 and 25 respectively, with Plusle offering 2x Catch Candy and Minun gifting 2x Transfer Candy. Each of these Pokémon can be Shiny except for Solosis.

January’s Raid Hours consist of these Legendary and Mythical Pokémon returning to raids throughout the month. Kyurem will be appearing during Jan. 5’s Raid Hour and is eligible to be Shiny. Heatran will be reappearing for Jan. 12’s Raid Hour and will also be able to be Shiny. The Mythical Pokémon, Genesect, will debut in its Shock Drive form on Jan. 19. To round out the Raid Hours for January, Regice will be returning at increased rates on Jan. 26 and can be Shiny.

More Mega Raids will also be making an appearance throughout January, including the introduction of a new Mega Evolution for a popular Kanto region Pokémon: Aerodactyl. Mega Abomasnow will continue appearing in Mega Raids until Jan. 7 but will be replaced by the debuting Mega Aerodactyl afterwards until Feb. 1. As for normal Raids, Kyurem will remain until Jan. 7, Heatran will return from Jan. 7 to 15, Genesect in its Shock Drive form will appear for the first time from Jan. 15 to 24, and Regice will appear from Jan. 24 to Feb. 1.

Players will be able to take in all of the new year festivities in Pokémon Go through numerous events throughout the month of January that begin as soon as the last day of 2021.