You can only get Spiritomb in Pokémon Go’s Halloween event this year by paying for it

The second segment of Pokémon Go’s 2022 Halloween event is coming soon, bringing more exclusive encounters, research tasks, and costumed Pokémon. Niantic just unveiled the full details of what to expect from this celebration, and one specific detail caught players’ eyes: Spiritomb’s return behind a paywall.

Spiritomb is a Ghost/Dark dual-type from Generation IV of the main series games and only appears in the mobile title around Halloween, with the first time being in 2019. That means fans always know to look for it when spooky season arrives. And this time, it comes as a reward for the event-exclusive Timed Research.

For part two of Pokémon Go’s latest Halloween celebration, you can purchase tickets to two tiers of paid Timed Research, one costing $1 and one that costs $5 (or the equivalent in your local currency, plus taxes where applicable). Both tiers include additional encounters with Yamask, with the $1 ticket, for the aptly called Yamask Timed Research, being solely focused on its regular and Galarian versions, and the $5 Halloween Timed Research adding extra rewards. You can purchase either one or both tickets.

Among the extra rewards, exclusive to the more expensive Halloween Timed Research, you can find items like Incubators and Incense, as well as encounters with Pokémon that resemble spiders, bats, black cats, and other spooky creatures. One of those, a reward for the very last set of tasks, is an encounter with Spiritomb. So far, it seems to be the only encounter with the Forbidden Pokémon to be available in the event.

If you decide to purchase and complete the exclusive paid Timed Research, you must do so as soon as you can: all rewards must be claimed before 10am local time on Tuesday, Nov. 1, or else they expire and you lose all you paid for. The event starts at 10am local time on Thursday, Oct. 27.