Update: Niantic has confirmed the content arriving in Dual Destiny and, despite our speculation yesterday, it doesn’t appear to include any Sonic-themed content. For shame!

The Unova Tour is official though, kicking off alongside the season with new Special Research. You can also find new Pokémon making their Go, including Shadow and Max variants.

Elsewhere, there are a ton of Community Days planned, new Holiday-themed stickers, an egg event, and the return of the GO Battle League.

Let’s take a look at all of the new content confirmed in detail, alongside the original post beneath it.

Unova Tour

  • Begins: November 28 at 00:00 AM GMT

As we speculated, Dual Destiny will kick off with the Unova Tour. Well, actually, the Unova Tour will kick off on November 28, almost a week before the full arrival of the new season.

Special Research

The themed Special Research won’t arrive until December 3 though, at 10:00 AM local time, running until March 4.

New Pokémon in the Galar Region

New Pokémon from the Galar region have arrived in Pokémon Go. Galar is the region from Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Shadow Pokémon

Shadow Pokémon will make their debut in all new Shadow Raids. These come in one, three, and five star variants, with the first two available daily, and three star only available on weekends.

The three Pokémon Niantic highlighted includes:

  • Shadow Regirock
  • Shadow Regice
  • Shadow Registeel

All of the above are only available in five stars, and feature Shiny variants.

More Max Pokémon

The suite of Dynamax Pokémon has increased, with three more confirmed and more to follow.

These include:

  • Dynamax Machop
  • Dynamax Krabby
  • Gigantamax Lapras

Community Days

There are a ton of Community Day events arriving as part of this update:

Community DayDate
December Community Day 2024December 21 – 22
January Community DayJanuary 5
January Community Day ClassicJanuary 25
February Community DayFebruary 9

Holiday-Themed Stickers

Niantic has introduced six festive stickers that you can unlock from spinning PokéStops, opening gifts, or just buying them outright from the shop.

Egg Event

Each month throughout December – March, Niantic will release an ticket that will provide you with various bonuses and a new Timed Research.

It’s all egg-themed, so you get a free Incubator on your first PokéStop or Gym visit per day.

Go Battle League

The Go Battle League makes a return with Dual Destiny. In fact, there are three different Cups that we know of arriving, though more will be announced at a later date:

  • Fantasy Cup
  • Holiday Cup
  • Love Cup

PokéStop Showcases

Pokémon Go will feature new PokéStop Showcases each Saturday – Sunday and Monday -Wednesday. These will change on a rotation.

Research Breakthroughs

New Field Research means new Research Breakthroughs, which can trigger encounters with the following Pokémon:

  • Alolan Raichu
  • Pancham
  • Furfrou
  • Hisuian Avalugg
  • Jagmo-o
  • Frigibax

New Pokémon in Eggs and the Wild

This is a wildspread change, so we can’t list every single Pokémon for different locations and eggs. Suffice to say, there are new Pokémon available all over the place.

You can see a partial list on Pokémon Go Live.

Seasonal Bonuses

Last, but most certainly not least, Pokémon Go will introduce the following seasonal bonuses as part of Dual Destiny:

  • Additional free Raid Pass per day
  • Additional Stardust earned from Team Go Rocket Battles
  • Additional Stardust from Gifts.

Original Post: Niantic is teasing a whole new season of Pokémon Go arriving in December, going by the title ‘Dual Destiny’. It kicks off on December 3, 2024, and runs three whole months until March 4.

The teaser runs a mere 11 seconds and really doesn’t showcase much of anything. We see Gyms appearing in a bunch of real life locations, across a range of different seasons.

Speculation has already run rife though, with many of the locations pointing towards a Unova Tour. The ring transitions are also very Sonic the Hedgehog, though some fans think it points towards Hoopla.

It then ends with the name of the season, Dual Destiny, and the full dates of December 3 – March 4. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know.

When Does the New Pokémon Go Season Dual Destiny Release?

Pokémon Go’s next season, Dual Destiny, begins on December 3 and ends on March 4.

What Could it Include?

From this point on, we can only speculate as Niantic has only released the above teaser so far. We’ve taken to social media to see what the general consensus is, and this is what the player base is expecting:

  • A focus on Unova along with a themed Tour
  • The return of Hoopa
  • A Sonic the Hedgehog crossover
  • Remote trading
  • Black and White Kyurem
  • Exotic class items

Why a Sonic the Hedgehog Crossover?

Again, this is purely speculation, but there are hints. If you watch the teaser trailer above, the transition sequences to different cities look suspiciously like Sonic rings.

The third movie in the series, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, launches December 20 in the cinema, which is shortly after the season begins.

Lastly, Pikachu was referenced in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer, which we’ve included above as proof. It’s very random, but we’re actually here for it.

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