Varoom and Revavroom race into Pokémon Go with Taken Treasures event

Niantic has revealed yet another event leading up to the Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh celebrations that will take place next month: the Taken Treasures event, once more highlighting the more nefarious parts of the Pokémon series.

This event will begin on Jan. 27 at 12am and end on Feb 1 at 11:59pm local time. It focuses heavily on Shadow Pokémon and Team Go Rocket, while also introducing Varoom and Revavroom to Pokémon Go via 12-kilometer Eggs. As of now, Varoom is not listed to appear outside of these specific Eggs, nor will it be available as an encounter in the overworld.

New Shadow Pokémon including Corphish, Snorunt, Chimchar, Piplup, Croagunk, Dwebble, and Ferroseed will be able to be rescued from Team Go Rocket grunts and leaders, all of which may be Shiny during the event duration. Shadow Ho-Oh is making its return to five-star Shadow Raids, which can only be accessed locally and will also have a chance to be Shiny.

Other Shadow Raids will feature Alolan Sandshrew, Murkrow, Pineco, Croagunk, Scyther, Skarmory, and Golett. The normal Raid lineup includes Alolan Rattata, Alolan Meowth, Alolan Grimer, Galarian Zigzagoon, Weezing, Galarian Weezing, Tyranitar, and Bombirdier. Completing Field Research tasks will not only reward players with encounters like Hisuian Qwilfish and Bruxish but also useful items such as TMs and Mysterious Components.

Paid Timed Research will once more be returning for this event, giving players who can complete it while it is accessible the chance to earn an avatar pose of the player throwing and catching a Poké Ball. As with all paid Timed Research, if players cannot finish the tasks before their specific event ends, the research will disappear—a feature that remains controversial among players.

Varoom, the Single-Cyl Pokémon, is a Steel/Poison-type Pokémon that first appeared in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet alongside its evolution, Revavroom. The two Pokémon greatly resemble cars and were staple Pokémon of many members of Team Star, with the group of students even modifying a few of them into larger vehicles known as Starmobiles that represented the team’s individual squads.

But, just like in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, players will not be able to obtain the Starmobile forms of Revavroom that were used by the admins of Team Star and had unique signature moves. As these forms were never made obtainable in the main series titles, it’s unlikely they will in Pokémon Go either, though perhaps at some point in the future they could appear as bosses of some sort.

Varoom will remain encounterable following the conclusion of the Taken Treasures event, though it’s likely to remain exclusive to 12-kilometer Eggs obtained from Team Go Rocket for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Shadow Kyogre is expected to remain Giovanni’s signature Pokémon for the next several months—only if players have a Super Rocket Radar in their inventory from Special Research.