Pokemon Go makes Bidoof Day an annual event starting July 1

Pokemon Go
(Image credit: Niantic)

Pokemon Go is declaring July 1 the first official Bidoof Day, a new annual event celebrating the feckless but lovable beaver-looking Pokemon.

Bidoof has become a meme of legend in the Pokemon Go community, mostly making irony out of the fact that the Normal-type Pokemon is objectively the weakest pocket monster in the game. GamesRadar news editor Ali Jones described Bidoof as Pokemon Go's "least useful HM slave" (Ali's words, not mine). Niantic clearly wants to be in on the joke here - you can't help but notice that the Pokemon's name is suspiciously close to 'big oof' - or maybe it just feels bad for the put-upon "plump mouse."

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Whether Niantic is piling on or propping up Bidoof, the first of July of each year is now an official holiday in Pokemon Go land. The first event will kick off on Thursday, July 1 at 10am local time and run until 8pm. In that window of time, there will be a whole lot more Bidoof bidoofing around in the wild for you to catch. Better yet, any Bidoof you catch during the event will know Superpower, plus you'll be able to use a Charged TM to teach your Bidoof Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, or Thunderbolt. Once the event ends, you'll still be able to use an Elite Charged TM to teach Bidoof those same moves. Not so useless anymore, eh?

Bidoof Day will also introduce a new event-exclusive special research story. Notably, it'll be the first of its kind where your choices affect the story as well as "some parts of your event experience." As ever, completing the special research tasks will yield unique rewards, including an exclusive Bidoof Hat for your Pokemon Go avatar.

For the duration of the event, Bidoof will be the only Pokemon you'll face off against in one-star, three-star, and five-star Raid Battles. Likewise, Team GO Rocket Grunts will have Shadow Bidoof on their teams more often for Bidoof Day.

Finally, the Bidoof Cup will be available in the GO Battle League throughout Bidoof Day, pitting teams of Bidoof (and only Bidoof) against each other in tandem with Master League, Master League Classic, and the Element Cup, which will continue to run as usual.

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Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.