The Season of Mischief has ended, and its replacement has been announced: The Season of Heritage! Apparently, after seeing the raw power of Hoopa Unbound, Professor Willow decided to investigate what other "mysterious powers" may be hidden around. While researching, he found a cave with a strange door covered in locks.
As part of the Season of Heritage, our task is to help Professor Willow and the team leaders unlock this door. We'll learn more about history and our heritage along the way, hopefully in terms of how the past can help us prepare for the future. With its historical theme and announcement trailer, the event bears a striking thematic resemblance to the promotional material for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, which releases in January. This may suggest some sort of tie-in between the two games! Maybe we'll even see Arceus in Pokemon Go, finally...
The Season of Heritage runs from 10am local time on December 1, 2021 to March 1, 2022 at 10am local time.
Bonuses
For each month during the Season of Heritage (December, January, and February), there will be a special bonus in effect. For December, you'll receive double Stardust for the first catch of the day, every day.
Additionally, there are some bonuses that will last all season:
- Increased Incense effectiveness while moving and stationary
- Remote Raid participants will do more damage
- PokeStops will always drop gifts
- You'll earn one additional candy from trades
- You'll receive a guaranteed Candy XL when trading
Timed Research
Each month, one of the team leaders will spearhead an attempt to understand the strange cave door that Professor Willow found. Blanche, Team Leader for Team Mystic, has done some research on one of the mechanisms and found that it can be opened with the help of Ice- and Ground-type Pokemon, as well as an immense amount of Stardust. As a result, Blanche will help lead a Swinub Incense Day event (more info on that further down this page) and is offering a Timed Research questline, with rewards for collecting Stardust.
For each threshold of collected Stardust, you can earn some rewards that range from supplies to Pokemon encounters and even an avatar item. Note that these are cumulative totals, meaning you need 500 Stardust for the first reward, and then another 500 for the second reward, not an additional 1,000 after the first 500.
|
Stardust Earned (total) |
Reward |
|---|---|
|
500 |
10x Poke Ball |
|
1,000 |
10x Razz Berry |
|
3,000 |
Rhyhorn Encounter |
|
6,000 |
15x Pinap Berry |
|
10,000 |
Onix Encounter |
|
15,000 |
25x Poke Ball |
|
20,000 |
15x Nanab Berry |
|
30,000 |
Staryu Encounter |
|
40,000 |
20x Great Ball |
|
50,000 |
2x Silver Pinap Berry |
|
60,000 |
Alolan Exeggutor Encounter |
|
70,000 |
25x Ultra Ball |
|
85,000 |
Deino Encounter |
|
100,000 |
5,000 XP |
|
120,000 |
1x Lucky Egg and the Deino Hat |
During the month of December, you'll also receive double Stardust for your first catch of the day, each day.
Need help collecting enough Stardust? We've got a list of all the ways you can earn some. Make sure you're exercising all the available methods, because you might be missing some!
Spawns
Throughout the entire Season of Heritage, there will be certain spawns in different biomes. The northern and southern hemispheres will also have different spawns from one another.
Here's which Pokemon will spawn in each type of area:
|
Location |
Spawns |
|---|---|
|
Cities |
|
|
Forests |
|
|
Mountains |
|
|
Near Water |
|
And these are the Pokemon you'll find more often in each hemisphere:
|
Northern Hemisphere |
Southern Hemisphere |
|---|---|
|
|
Eggs
Of course, there's a new set of Pokemon that you can hatch from eggs.
Here's who you'll find in regular eggs:
|
2km |
5km |
10km |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
And of course, there'll be different Pokemon in the eggs that you earn from Adventure Sync rewards:
|
5km Adventure Sync |
10km Adventure Sync |
|---|---|
|
|
There was no announcement on which Pokemon will be in 7km eggs, though that is often tied to shorter events, so we'll probably know when those events arrive.
Events
There will be events throughout the Season of Heritage, but only some of them have been revealed thus far. For December, there are four events, one of which is the beginning of the Season of Heritage itself. Then, there will be three more major events: Swinub Incense Day, Dragonspiral Descent, and the annual holiday celebration event.
Community Day is also scheduled for mid-December, but Niantic has not labeled it an intrinsic part of the Season of Heritage like it has with the other events mentioned in the announcement.
Swinub Incense Day
Sunday, December 5 from 11am to 5pm local time
On the first Sunday of the month, there will be a special Incense event featuring Swinub. The strange door that Professor Willow found seems to have some connection to Ice- and Ground-type Pokemon, so Swinub is a perfect fit. As part of the event, Blanche and Professor Willow are asking Trainers to catch a ton of Ice- and Ground-type Pokemon, and to collect a ton of Stardust (more on that further down on this page).
- Swinub will be attracted to Incense throughout the event
- Swinub and Piloswine evolved up to Mamoswine will learn the time-limited move Ancient Power
- The in-game shop will have a 1 PokeCoin bundle with two Incense
- Event-specific Field Research tasks will be available
- Ice-type Pokemon will be attracted to Incense from 11am to 12pm, 1pm to 2pm, and 3pm to 4pm
- Ground-type Pokemon will be attracted to Incense from 12pm to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm, and 4pm to 5pm
|
Ice-type |
Ground-type |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
11am-12pm |
1pm-2pm |
3pm-4pm |
12pm-1pm |
2pm-3pm |
4pm-5pm |
|
|
||||
Dragonspiral Descent
December 7 to December 12 (times TBA)
There will be some type of event themed around the Dragonspiral Tower of the Unova region coming next week.
The Unova region is steeped in a rich history and celebrates its heritage proudly, and Unova's Legendaries are serving as Raid bosses throughout December, so this event seems fitting. We'll be sure to update this post with the details when they're announced.
Pokemon Go Holidays
December 16 to December 31 (times TBA)
As always, there will be a holiday event starting in December. Again, full concrete details were not given. Niantic did say that the event will be split into two parts, Ice-type and costumed Pokemon will be spawning, there will be new avatar items, there will be bonuses, and event-exclusive Field Research tasks will be available.
It's likely that Part 1 will run December 16 to December 23 or 24 and Part 2 will run from December 23/24 to December 31, given how past two-part events have gone.
Community Day Dates
Niantic announced the dates for the Community Days in January and February, though no other details were given.
Here are those dates:
|
December 18 & 19 |
January 16 |
February 12 |
|---|---|---|
|
2021 Roundup |
TBA |
TBA |
For all the information you need on December's Community Day, check out our full extensive guide on the event:
Pokemon Go Tour: Johto
February 26 and 27, 2022
The headliner event for the Season of Heritage is the upcoming Johto Tour. This event looks to be the same as the Kanto Tour event that took place in 2021, but this time with a focus on the Pokemon and places of Generation II.
This event serves as a celebration at the end of the Season of Heritage, sort of as a culmination of the next three months. Tickets will be sold for this event!
We don't know much quite yet, but the bonuses and features of the Kanto version were plentiful. All Kanto Pokemon had their shiny versions activated in-game, there was a timed challenge to catch or evolve every Kanto Pokemon, and a Special Research questline led to an encounter with Shiny Mew. Shiny Celebi has already been featured in two Pokemon Go events, so it's anybody's guess if they'll feature it again for this or if they'll go in a different direction.
January and February?
Full details for the goings-on of January and February were not revealed, but some info was given.
January:
- Instinct Team Leader Spark will be in charge of January's events and challenges
- You'll receive double XP for the first catch of every day
-
A Timed Research questline will reward you for earning XP.
- This Timed Research is only available to those who pre-purchase their Pokemon GO Tour: Johto ticket before January 10
- By working your way through this Timed Research questline, you'll earn encounters with Goomy and Shedinja, supplies, and more
- Complete the Timed Research to win a Goomy Hat for your avatar
February:
- Valor's Team Leader, Candela, will be heading up February's challenges and events
- You'll receive double XP from hatching eggs, and there will be an increased chance of getting Candy XL when hatching eggs
-
Candela's Timed Research challenge will task you with catching Pokemon
- Like Spark's, this Timed Research is only available to those who pre-purchase a ticket for the Pokemon GO Tour: Johto event before January 10
- In this questline, you'll earn supplies and encounters with Pokemon like Noibat, Pupitar, and Krabby
- Complete this questline to earn a Noibat Hat for your in-game avatar
The Goomy Hat and Noibat Hat, as well as December's Deino Hat, will be available for purchase after the Season of Heritage ends, meaning you can grab them if you don't participate in the Timed Research.