The latest in-game event has come to Pokémon Go: a crossover with the popular manga and anime series One Piece. For this collaboration, players can encounter and catch Pikachu wearing a straw hat a la Luffy, the main protagonist of One Piece. “Straw Hat Pikachu,” as Niantic has dubbed this special Pikachu in English, is currently available until 1 PM local time on Monday, July 29.
Pikachu isn’t the only one who can don a straw hat this summer. Players can obtain straw hats from the game’s Style Shop for their trainer avatars to wear. Though this event is available for players to participate in worldwide, players in Japan will be able to visit statues of Luffy and other One Piece characters, which have become new PokéStops. The statues are located in Kumamoto Prefecture, where One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda was born. This collaboration is an effort to draw more people to Kumamoto Prefecture, after earthquakes severely damaged the area in 2016 just a few months before Pokémon Go’s release. July marks the anniversaries of both One Piece and Pokémon Go, making it an extra special occasion for both.
Aside from Straw Hat Pikachu, Armored Mewtwo is still available in five-star Raids for the rest of the month to commemorate the release of Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution, a reboot of the very first Pokémon film, in Japan. Though it’s still the same Legendary Psychic Pokémon, this particular form of Mewtwo has different stats and move capabilities compared to Mewtwo in its regular form.
A new update for Pokémon Go has been released, which drastically changed the appraisal system and added Team Rocket. The appraisal system is now easier for players to interpret, making Pokémon’s stats easier to measure. Though Team Rocket is here now—according to the patch notes—they have yet to appear within the game. Niantic has been teasing Team Rocket’s arrival for while now, though, so they should be showing up soon. Players will reportedly be able to challenge Team Rocket grunts in battle and catch “Shadow Pokémon”—possibly like the Shadow Pokémon from the GameCube titles Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness—abandoned by the grunts.