Are you a shiny Pokémon hunter? If you are, and you can get yourself down to one of Pokémon GO’s Earth Day cleanup events, you’d better do so. Never mind the future of our planet, there are sparkly Digletts at stake!
Ever since it first started to be rolled out back in July 2016, Pokémon GO has had the lofty goal of making a positive difference in our lives. This has mostly centered around getting us up and out there, walking and adventuring, in the name of catching Pokémon.
It achieved that pretty darn well, too. The world’s dogs didn’t know what had gotten into their owners, only that they were suddenly taking about five times as many walks than they were before. Some of that magic may have subsided now, but Pokémon GO continues to make a ridiculous amount of money. While it’s still super popular, Niantic is still pushing that eco-friendly angle.
What if GO players want to have a positive impact on something other than their own waistlines and love handles, though? Good news: just as they did last year, Niantic have cooked up an Earth Day initiative that will help users make a real difference to the planet. If they do, it’s Shiny Digletts for everyone (well, possibly).
As the team stated in a blog post, last year’s event was a huge success, with thousands of players co-ordinating over 68 events. 6.5 tons of trash was collected. For this April’s Earth Day initiative, Niantic is teaming up with Playmob again, along with 15 NGOs, to host similar cleanup operations in various communities.
“Many of our partners are not only hosting cleanup events but are engaging in long term impact projects that seek to make significant positive impact in local communities around the world. They are looking to engage with communities to make a difference over the span of one day, and over the long term,” Niantic write, indicating that this is clearly an initiative we should all be supporting.
There are various ways you can get involved with the clean-ups, whether by joining in an existing one or staging your own smaller-scale event. You can sign up here, and/or nominate an NGO here.
Events run from April 13-28, and there are some in-game incentives for performing well. Here’s the breakdown from Niantic:
If 2,000 players attend and cleanup, global rewards will be:
- Pokémon GO - Increased appearances of Ground-type Pokémon
- Ingress - Increased probability of getting heatsinks, multihacks, shields (all kinds) and power cubes (all kinds including Lawson)
If 5,000 players attend and cleanup, global rewards will be:
- Pokémon GO - Shiny Diglett + Increased appearances of Ground-type Pokémon
- Ingress - 2× AP linking
If 7,000 players attend and cleanup, global rewards will be:
- Pokémon GO - 2× Stardust and Candy for Event Spawns / Groudon in Raids + Shiny Diglett + Increased appearances of Ground-type Pokémon
- Ingress - 2× AP fielding
There we are, then. If you’re interested in making this Earth of ours a cleaner place, and you wouldn’t say no to some Pokémon GO in-game rewards into the bargain, why not get involved?