Event

Events celebrate a special occasion and offer rewards for trainers. These events usually last about a week and grant trainers a chance to complete their Pokédex by increasing the chance of acquiring rare Pokémon. Trainers may also see an increase in Pokémon spawns and receive more Items, XP, Stardust, and Candy.

Halloween
This event took place between October 26th to November 1st.

Trainers received double Candy for catching, hatching, and transferring Pokémon. The required Buddy distance was reduced by a quarter. This meant that Pokémon received Candy four times faster.

Trainers saw an increased spawn rate for scary Pokémon. These Pokémon included: Zubat, Golbat, Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, Drowzee, Hypno, Cubone, and Marowak.

Daily Bonus Celebration
This event took place between November 7th to November 11th.

To celebrate the new Daily Bonus feature, more Pokémon spawned and PokéStops granted more items.

Thanksgiving
This event took place between November 23rd to November 30th.

As a thank you to the community, Niantic rewarded trainers with double XP and Stardust.

It was also confirmed that trainers received four times the amount of XP when they used a Lucky Egg during the event.

Holiday
This event takes place beginning on the morning of December 25th 2016 and goes until noon (PST) on January 3rd 2017.

Each day during the event, trainers will be awarded a single-use Incubator when they visit their first PokéStop of the day. There will also be a greater chance of obtaining Eggs which would hatch the recently added; Gen II baby Pokémon.

From the morning of December 25th through the afternoon of December 30th (PST), Special, Great, and Ultra Boxes will be available for purchase from the Shop. These boxes will contain items that are usually not available for purchase and they will be offered at a discount rate. In addition, from the afternoon of December 30th through the afternoon of January 3th (PST); Bronze, Silver, and Gold Boxes will be available for purchase. The items in these Boxes include Incense, Lure Modules, Lucky Eggs, Poké Balls, and Great Balls.

Two weeks prior to this event, on December 12th, Gen II Pokemon began appearing in eggs. Reports of Pikachu and Raichu — donned with Festive hats — began to circulate the same day of the release of the second generation. They will be available until the end of the Holiday event.

Additionally, from the afternoon of December 30th 2016, through the afternoon of January 8th 2017 (PST), starter Pokémon and their evolved forms will be encountered more often. Lure modules' duration will also be increased to a whole hour, rather than 30 minutes.