Niantic took over the Rose Bowl and the nearby golf course for its Pokemon Go Tour: Sinnoh celebration in Los Angeles, but not everything ran perfectly. A rush of cars descended on the facility causing a traffic jam before the event, and those who parked faced long lines to get into the event.
Entering the venue was so onerous that Niantic announced that they would extend the event gameplay for three hours until 8 p.m. Fans welcomed the gesture, but those who left the Rose Bowl had to sit through more traffic to escape the stadium parking lot to enjoy that overtime play.
ADJUSTMENTS AT THE GATES
For Sunday, Niantic is adjusting how it lets players into the venue, said Angela Ferguson-Martins, the company’s live events marketing manager. They plan on opening more gates so that trainers will have a smoother experience entering the Rose Bowl and those lines won’t be too long.
On Saturday, those with tickets for the Golf Course entrance saw a line wrap around Parking Lot K while other players entered through Gate A and saw similar queues. The two entrances bring players to different habitats with differing facilities. The Golf Course entrance spills players into the Mountain Hot Springs and that gives players a straight shot to raids and other lands while Gate A will start trainers off at Seaside Metropolis, which has food and drink vendors along with mascot photography opportunities.
Saturday’s session was packed and there was a shortage of gyms for Dialga and Palkia raids. It led players to clump together at two spots in the Entangled Ruins and Bubbling Mire. It made traversing those areas hectic. Later, Niantic added more raiding spots to the Seaside Metropolis, but the event could have used even more gyms. According to Ferguson-Martins, Pokemon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Los Angeles will see 30,000 trainers over two days. Walking the paths and trying to avoid other trainers who were also busy catching, it felt like there were more people.
She also said the team is constantly taking in feedback from players and making adjustments.
SPEED RUN THAT QUEST
My best advice for handling Pokemon Go Tour: Sinnoh is to finish the questline as quickly as possible. That will get you to the Masterwork Research quickly and you can make major progress on the Sinnoh portion of that task. As for maximizing the opportunity at rare shiny variants, players should spin as many discs as possible and keep the tasks that ask players to power-up a certain type of Pokemon.
The tasks are specific to each habitat but they reward players with encounters with Stunky, Hisuian Voltorb and other sought-after shiny. When it comes to Adventure Effects, score a Origin Forme Palkia as soon as possible to use its Spacial Rend ability. That widens your radius for interaction so that you can shiny check or catch more Pokemon in the area.
Also, player should plan their paths so that they hit gyms around half past each hour. As part of the Sinnoh-Husuian connection, the spawns change once every hour. They start off with Sinnoh Pokemon, and then 30 minutes later, or the back half of the hour, it changes to Husuian Pokemon. That’s when players will see Origin Forme Dialga and Origin Forme Palkia.
Again, it’s important to bring your own external batteries, but if you don’t, you can crowd into Power Stations. For those looking for swag, players can win pins and other items at quiz centers scattered around the habitats.
SHINY SPIRITOMB?
Players should be on the lookout for Spiritomb stops. They’re part of an extra quest that dropped on Friday and gives players 10 encounters with the Forbidden Pokemon. What’s notable is that the shiny rate on the Pokemon seemed high. Everyone in my group got one. Ferguson-Martins said Niantic introduced the Spiritomb stops about a month ago and they see it as a fun way to get local trainers involved. It nudges visitors to explore the city if they want to complete the quest line.
There are four Spiritomb stops at the Rose Bowl. You’ll have to travel elsewhere in Los Angeles and Orange counties to find the rest. A good place to go after Pokemon Go Tour is downtown Pasadena. There are plenty of Spiritomb stops scattered in the area to finish the quest.
It’s also important to party up because that unlocks one encounter with Registeel, Regirock, Regice and Regigas. Better yet, you can get more candy for those legendary Pokemon by accomplishing party goals.
Lastly, don’t forget to do a route before or after the event. That’s the only way to get White Basculin. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any routes on the golf course portion of the venue so if you’re going to catch that Pokemon, it’s best to do it outside in downtown Pasadena or elsewhere.
As for the shiny rate, I had rough day, hatching more variants rather than catching them in the wild. I feel like I had more success at Pokemon Go Fest. Thankfully, there’s a second chance with the Pokemon Go Tour: Sinnoh – Global edition coming next weekend.
