Pokémon Go is celebrating April Idiot’s Day with a giant in-game shock — and the most effective half is that it actually is not a joke.
Right now sees the long-awaited launch of fan-favorite creature Mimikyu, the ghostly Pokémon who attire up in a Pikachu costume. Followers have been clamouring for Mimikyu’s launch for years, with its continued non-appearance each Halloween now one thing of a meme within the recreation’s group.
This week, developer Niantic introduced what gave the impression to be a reasonably bland-looking Electrical-type Pokémon occasion, scheduled to happen over the April Idiot’s Day week. Followers had hoped that one thing extra was afoot — and certainly, as April 1 arrives world wide, Pokémon Go lastly delivered.
Load up Pokémon Go in the present day and you will see Mimikyu silhouettes showing in your radar. May this be a trick, although? After so lengthy, certainly the creature would not simply launch on April Idiot’s Day? Many followers have mentioned they assumed this was a prank by Niantic, designed to get their hopes up just for the rug to be pulled… however no, this actually is the arrival of Mimikyu, with extra to return this night.
In addition to showing within the wild and in random occasion process rewards, in the present day’s Highlight Hour, going down from 6 to 7pm native time, will see elevated Mimikyu spawns within the wild alongside that of Pikachu. A number of different Mimikyu encounters will also be discovered within the present occasion’s cross, which had been obscured with “?” till now.
In fact, all of this had been considerably spoiled by datamined info floating round social media that pointed to Mimikyu’s upcoming launch. However for almost all of Pokémon Go’s playerbase who do not sit on-line, in the present day will carry a brand new species to catch that ought to come as a really nice shock.
Mimikyu is among the Pokémon franchise’s most beloved creatures, although nobody has seen its precise look and lived to inform the story. Beneath its crooked Pikachu disguise, the true Mimikyu lies hiding. “Its precise look is unknown,” reads Mimikyu’s Pokédex entry from 3DS title Pokémon Solar. “A scholar who noticed what was below its rag was overwhelmed by terror and died from the shock.” An analogous entry from Pokémon Extremely Moon reveals one other such story: “A gust of wind revealed what hides below this Pokémon’s rag to a passing Coach, who went residence and died painfully that very evening.”
Final week, it was revealed that The Pokémon Firm was already contemplating a future the place the overall variety of pocket monsters obtainable hits “possibly 10,000” species. On the time of writing, the Pokémon franchise extends to 1,025 species — together with the three new starter creatures already unveiled for subsequent 12 months’s Swap 2 video games Pokémon Winds and Waves.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at [email protected] or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social