Regions

Regions are an organized areas of the Pokémon world known from previous games about Pokémon such as games from core series. In Pokémon GO there are currently only three regions referred, which are Kanto, Johto and Hoenn.

Kanto
The Pokémon known from Kanto region were the base Pokémon released in Pokémon GO, but not all Pokémon of this region were released at one time.

History

 * Most of the Pokémon from Kanto was released with the game release.
 * November, 2016 – Ditto was released in the games, disguised as other Pokémon.
 * July, 2017 to July , 2017 – Articuno was available from Raid Battles.
 * July, 2017 to August , 2017 – Moltres was available from Raid Battles.
 * August, 2017 to August , 2017 – Zapdos was available from Raid Battles.
 * From August, 2017 to August , 2017 - All three Legendary Birds were available from Raid Battles.
 * On August, 2017, during the Pokémon GO Stadium event, Mewtwo was confirmed as a Raid Boss.
 * Currently Mewtwo is available only from EX Raid Battles.
 * On March, 2018 – Mew became available as the reward for completing Special Research tasks.

Johto
Johto is the second region from which Pokémon are available in Pokémon GO. The Pokémon from this region were firstly released in December, 2016 as Baby Pokémon available to hatch from Pokémon Eggs.

There are currently only two Pokémon, that are still not available nor officially scheduled to be released and they are Smeargle and Celebi.

History

 * December, 2016 - Togepi and Pichu along with another Baby Pokémon and Togetic as evolution of Togepi were released as Pokémon available only to hatch from Pokémon Eggs.
 * February, 2017 - over 80 Pokémon from this region became available to catch in the wild and hatch from eggs.
 * From July, 2017 to August , 2017 - Lugia was released as the Legendary Raid Boss and were available to catch only after defeating it.
 * From August, 2017 to September , 2017 - Legendary Beasts were available as the Legendary Raid Bosses and were available to catch only after defeating them. All three of these Pokémon were exclusive to following regions:
 * Raikou could be battled throughout the Americas
 * Entei could be battled throughout Europe and Africa
 * Suicune could be battled throughout the Asia-Pacific region
 * On September, all three of Legendary Beasts moved to different locations and are available until October in following regions:
 * Raikou can be battled throughout the Asia-Pacific region
 * Entei can be battled throughout the Americas
 * Suicune can be battled throughout Europe and Africa
 * On October, all three of Legendary Beasts moved for last time to different locations and were available until November in following regions:
 * Raikou - Europe and Africa the
 * Entei - Asia-Pacific region
 * Suicune - the Americas.
 * From October, 2017 until December , 2017 - Ho-Oh was released as the Legendary Raid Boss and were available to catch only after defeating it.
 * December, 2017 - Delibird was announced to be released along with 20 Ice and Water-type Pokémon from Hoenn.
 * It was released day later, on December, 2017.

Hoenn
Hoenn is the third region from original core series of which Pokémon are now available in Pokémon GO. Selected Pokémon from this region were mostly released in 5 waves: Listed waves don't include Hoenn-region Legendary Pokémon that were temporally released as Raid Bosses. Currently there are 13 Pokémon that are yet to be released.
 * 1) In October 2017 as a part of Halloween event - 5 Ghost-type Pokémon.
 * 2) In December, 2017 as main release of Hoenn-region Pokémon - 50 selected Pokémon.
 * 3) In later December, 2017, more Pokémon of this region were made available - 20 aquatic themed, mainly Water and Ice-type Pokémon.
 * 4) In January, 2018, yet more were made available - 23 dessert themed, mainly Ground and Rock-type Pokémon.
 * 5) In February, 2018, more selected, sky themed, mainly Flying and Dragon-type Pokémon.

History

 * On October, 2017, five Pokémon of Ghost and Dark types were released as a part of Halloween event. Those were Sableye, Shuppet, Banette, Duskull and Dusclops.
 * December, 2017 - 50 selected Pokémon from Hoenn-region were announced to become available to catch in the wild and hatch from eggs later that week along with Weather game feature.
 * They were made available to catch in wild and hatch from eggs on December, 2017, along with Mawile and Absol introduced as Raid Bosses.
 * This release might be called the "main release" of this-region Pokémon, as it brings  to the gameplay  the most of them.
 * From December, 2017 to January , 2018 - Groudon was available to be defeated and caught in Raid Battle.
 * On December, 2017 - 20 Water and Ice-type Pokémon from Hoenn region were announced to catch in wild and they were released day later.
 * From January to February, 2018 - Kyogre was available to be defeated and caught in Raid Battle.
 * On January, 2018 - 23 mostly Rock and Ground-type Pokémon from Hoenn region were announced and later this day released to catch in wild.
 * On February, 2018 - 19 mostly Flying and Dragon-type Pokémon from Hoenn region were announced to catch in wild and they were released day later.
 * From February to March, 2018 - Rayquaza was available to be defeated and caught in Raid Battle.
 * From April to May, 2018 - Latios was able to be defeated and captured across the Americas and Africa; until it switched with is counterpart Latias, which is now available in Europe and Asia.
 * From May to June, 2018 - Latias is able to be defeated and captured across the Americas and Africa; while is counterpart Latios is available in Europe and Asia.

Trivia

 * Another term used in Pokémon GO players community to describe Pokémon groups from each region is Generations. Which also is partially valid but it wasn't officially referred in game nor by its creators on official social-media and information channels.
 * Therefore Kanto is Generation I, Johto is Generation II, Hoenn is Generation III and so on.
 * More about generations is available here.
 * Common thing for Pokémon, that were not available with main release of Kanto- and Johto-region Pokémon, is that those Pokémon either were legendary and/or mythical or have certain, special moves like Ditto, Delibird or Smeargle.
 * Pokémon from Hoenn region although didn't have their main release as they were released in smaller groups.
 * There has been Pokémon species from Hoenn added to game code since update 0.71.0.
 * Taking into account, that new Pokémon are released in the game every 6-8 month, Pokémon from Sinnoh region might be released on the anniversary of the game.
 * On December, 2017 in Apple Watch Store, Pokémon GO banner with Starter Pokémon from Hoenn region appeared- spoiling official announcement about release of Hoenn-region Pokémon that happened next day.
 * Release of fifty Pokémon from Hoenn region and Weather feature had trailer with similar cinematic style as trailer for release of Legendary Pokémon in raid battles and new gyms system and trailer of the game itself.
 * There are at most sixteen known regions that have appeared in the various Pokémon canons.