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Pokemon Go's big, friendly update has finally rolled out, kicking off a summer of events sure to keep all of you mobile trainers busy. With Pokemon Go Fest on the horizon and new legendaries rotating into raids, you might have missed the sudden arrival of a bunch of new Alolan critters. Getting them shouldn't be too complicated, but only if you're willing to get out there and make some new friends.
Niantic announced this weekend that a collection of Alolan Pokemon have been introduced into Pokemon Go. Since the first Alolan to show up in the game, Exeggutor appeared in celebration of the announcement of the recent "friends" update, it should come as no surprise that you'll need to take advantage of some of those new features in order to get the rest of the crew. As a side note, Gamespot is reporting that Exeggutor actually appears in the wild again, only on a much rarer basis than during the announcement promotion.
Last week's Pokemon Go update introduced both friends lists and sharing, which you'll want to take advantage of if you want to snag the Alolan versions of Grimer, Vulpix, Sandshrew, and Meowth. Diglett and Geodude are said to be coming to the game soon, too, so keep your eye out for their arrival. The trick to getting these versions of popular Pokemon is to receive them as gifts from friends.
Thanks to that new update, when you spin a disc at a Pokestop, one of the items you might snag now are gifts you can send to friends. And before you ask, no, you can't open them yourself. If you send those gifts to friends, they'll receive items like Pokeballs and fruit, as well as special 7 km eggs. If your friend throws one of those eggs into an incubator and gets to walking, they'll eventually hatch an Alolan Pokemon.
Alolan Pokemon were first revealed in Sun & Moon. They look a bit different from previous versions and even have new ability types. Think of it as a way to throw an extra strategic wrinkle into the game, as well as collectability, without having to design a whole bunch of new Pokemon.
Anyway, those four mentioned above are available through the friend eggs in Pokemon Go right now, and the other two will start popping up in the game world once Pokemon Go Fest kicks off from July 14-15. Also worth pointing out is that legendary Pokemon Lunatone and Solrock have started swapping regions to celebrate the arrival of summer. Joining them in raid battles is newcomer Regice, who will be available through July 19.
Combine all of that with the upcoming Pokemon Leg's Go games for the Switch, and now might be a good time for former players to jump back into the game.
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