Pokemon Go kicks off 2020 with a Hatchaton event featuring Pokemon in party hats

(Image credit: Niantic)

To christen the new decade, Pokemon Go is hosting an Adventure Sync Hatchathon event through Thursday, January 16 at 1pm PT / 4pm ET / 9pm BT. As a recent datamine suggested, during the event, players will be able to catch special New Years Pokemon sporting party hats, including Shiny Raticate. A Shiny in a party hat? Now that's festive. 

This is a Hatchathon after all, so there's plenty of emphasis on Pokemon Eggs. Two special Pokemon may hatch from 2km eggs: party hat Pichu and Wurmple. Pichu may also hatch from 7km Eggs. For wild spawns, we've got party hat Pikachu, which I dearly hope is based on the party hat Pikachu from Super Smash Bros. Finally, two-star raids will have a chance of featuring Wobbuffett or Shiny Raticate, both wearing party hats as well. 

In addition to a shot at these special Pokemon, players will receive double Hatch Candy and Hatch Stardust throughout the event. The Adventure Sync reward this time around unlocks at 50km walked, and will net you 50,000 Stardust, 15 Rare Candies, and an Unova Stone used to evolve some Gen 5 Pokemon. 

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Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.