It was announced on the Pokémon GO website that the game’s Water Festival is starting today (March 22) at 1:00PM PDT and will last until March 29 at 1:00PM PDT. According to Forbes, the event is “meant to correspond with World Water Day, which was started by the UN to bring attention to the worldwide clean water crisis.”
This event will give players the opportunity to catch many water type Pokémon. Magikarp, Gyarados, Squirtle, Wartortle, Blastoise, Totodile, Croconaw and Feraligatr will all get increased spawn rates during the week of the event and it was implied in the official announcement that Lapras will get an increased spawn rate. There will also be a Magikarp Hat available for avatars to wear once purchased using the in-game currency of Pokécoins.
Additionally, there will be increased spawn rates for second generation water Pokémon in areas where water Pokémon are commonly found, such as lakes, rivers and beaches. The list of water Pokémon from the Johto region that will potentially have higher spawn rates near bodies of water is as follows: Chinchou, Lanturn, Marill, Azumarill, Politoed, Wooper, Quagsire, Slowking, Qwilfish, Corsola, Remoraid, Octillery, Mantine and Kingdra.
According to GameSpot, there was an update released for the game yesterday that let’s players find evolutionary items (Sun Stone, King’s Rock, Metal Coat, Dragon Scale and Up-Grade) more easily. Previously, these items could be found at Pokéstops, though they were extremely rare. Now, as long as you visit at least one Pokéstop a day for a full week, your first Pokéstop on the seventh day will be guaranteed to give you an evolutionary item.
Between the update and the Water Festival, now seems like a good time to get out and fill out some Pokédexes.