Pokemon Go will have its ups and downs as will any GPS based mobile game app. It is something fun to do on those days when you want to move around for no real reason. If nothing else, it will give you a reason to do just that. Pokemon Go remains active with a good number of users logging in daily and playing. Gyms still regularly change teams (save for those very much in out of the way places) and they usually fill up quite quickly. The game is alive and thriving. The Legendary Dogs make raiding interesting and offer a rotating challenge for players to take on.

Recently, working with Nintendo, Niantic sent a few people over to Japan to explore and play Pokemon Go. From this, the challenge to catch up to 3 billion Pokemon was offered to all the trainers across the world. It is rare that something this big happens within Pokemon Go. Thankfully, with a week-long event, there was time to get in and participate without much concern for missing out on something. This challenge was accepted readily by the community at large, mostly in hopes that it would launch and play out effectively. Some of the events, especially when the first, have had trouble with tracking and effectively being implemented.

There were 3 tiers of progress for this Global catch event: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. In each, 1-3 rewards were unlocked. Bronze unlocked Double XP and 6 Hour lures at 500 million catches. Silver added in Double Stardust at 1.5 billion. The last ones at 3 billion catches, releasing Farfetch'd all over the world and Kangaskhan in Asia for 2 days. Each of these added an increase of Pokemon appearing globally as well.

The event can be considered a success. Many already consider it better implemented than the location specific attempt that had been previously made. Each of the milestones were activated just after they were passed. The team behind the challenge was engaging with the community and providing both encouragement and feedback. The additional Pokemon with the augmented experience and Stardust offered something for both new and long-term players of the game. Everyone is undoubtedly stocking up on their stardust to power up their raid and gym teams to push toward their Max CP. The increased spawning is very noticeable in areas where Pokemon appear infrequently or moderately. This does also make it an ideal time to use your in. In addition, a hidden reward as activated as well.

When it come time for rewards, the announcements were made quickly. Most of the rewards last for an extended period, like the increased experience, lures, and stardust. All these will be in place until December 1^st. But then as the catching continued to add up, a new reward was added into the mix: Ho-oh. This was not announced previously, but it comes as a very welcome surprise. This Legendary will be in rotation until December 12^th, 2017.

Ho-oh is the other legendary birds Pokemon of the Second generation. It is a Fire/Flying Pokemon. This does mean that your Rock attacks are going to especially effective, so will water. This Pokemon can have a Maximum combat power of 2222. This bird can the following moves: Quick Moves: Steel Wing and Extrasensory; Charged Moves: Brave Bird, Fire Blast, and Solar Beam. While it is a very good idea to bring in a Water or Rock/Ground type Pokemon, Ho-oh with Solar Beam is very devastating attack. Otherwise, bringing in many Electric-types will be a massive help against this very tough foe Otherwise, they are a fairly safe choice because of the Fire or Physic-type moves it will be using.

Suggested counters are Omaster (Rock Throw/Rock Slide or Water Gun/Hydro Pump), Golem (Rock Throw/Stone Edge), Raikou (Thundershock/Wild Charge), Tyranitar (Bite/Stone Edge), Zapdos (Charge Beam/Thunderbolt), Gyarados (Dragontail/Hydro Pump). After that you have Aerodactyl, Sudowoodo, Kabutops, Magneton and Arcanine. Remember to keep typing in mind and try to learn what attacks the Ho-oh has before engaging it. This can save you from a big surprise.

Ho-oh being released for a limited time after completing this event does offering a great incentive for the community to rally behind another event like this. There are still 2 unreleased Pokemon from the first and second generation: Mew and Celebi. If they are offered as timed exclusives as rewards, it gives a lot of incentive to players to participate. The more rewarded one can feel, the more incentive there is to play with the App. It could just be an event focused on those two Pokemon exclusively with very difficult goals to achieve.

The event was a great idea simply because there are enough users globally active where it was a simple question of when the goals would unlock. It is also a very easy metric to track and not something that would be hard to mess up. The timer on Farfetch'd worked perfectly, with the Normal/Flying Leek wielding duck being available for about 48 hours in all regions. This is definitely an event that would be very fun to see occasion more regularly. It would help keep players invested in the game and ensure that there was some reward satisfaction available to more casual players as well as the Raiding Community. The surprise addition of unlocking Ho-oh for 2 weeks was a great surprise as well. It is something else for the community to rally behind.