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When Pokemon Go announced details for the "Forever Forward" season in late May, a lot of players voiced their
displeasure about spotlight hour being replaced with a weekly showcase event.
A few weeks later, on June 18, the game's development team brought spotlight hour back as a weekly occurring event, now from 6 to 7 p.m. local time every Thursday, instead of Tuesday, like most players were accustomed to for many years.
Spotlight hour in Pokemon Go is an event that features a specific Pokemon appearing more frequently in the wild for one hour, in addition to some kind of bonus -- like receiving twice the amount of stardust for catching Pokemon, twice the amount of experience points for evolving Pokemon or twice the amount of candy for transferring Pokemon.
By using the mega evolution system, trainers can accumulate large amounts of candy and candy XL for the featured spotlight hour Pokemon each week.
Candy and candy XL are essential resources trainers need to evolve Pokemon and/or level up their combat power. As is generally the case in life, the more resources you have available to you, the better off you are, which is why spotlight hour is considered a great time to play the game.
Next week's spotlight hour features Eevee with a bonus of two-times catch candy. Ideally, trainers will want to have a mega level three Pokemon evolved that covers normal typing -- either Audino, Pidgeot, Lopunny or Kangaskhan -- to get the maximum amount of candy from the hour.
Eevee has had several community days in the past, so most trainers probably have thousands of candy for it already. However, new players or returning players will want to take advantage of this spotlight hour because Eevee has a dynamax and a gigantamax form, both of which require a lot of candy and candy XL to max out.
If you're a hundo collector of the "eeveelutions" -- the eight evolved forms of Eevee -- you're definitely going to want to play this spotlight hour and find a friend to trade Eevees with the next day, as there's an increased chance of triggering lucky trades during "Friendship Friday," which takes place every Friday through the end of the "Forever Forward" season in early September.
The odds of getting a hundo from a lucky trade are one in 64, which is a much better chance than a regular trade with a best friend in the game, with your odds going down to one in 1,331. The lower your friendship status is with the person you're trading, the more difficult your odds become, which is why it's important to open and send each other gifts every day.
Another tip would be to only trade your lowest CP Pokemon during Friendship Friday. That's because you'll receive two guaranteed candy XLs per trade, and you're more likely to receive candy XL from transferring Pokemon with a higher CP than you are with lower-level ones.
If possible, keep your high CP Pokemon until the following week's spotlight hour, which features the bonus of two-times transfer candy, alongside more Bidoof appearing in the wild.
Even if you can't catch Bidoof or play the event, it's a great opportunity to transfer Pokemon from your inventory, such as legendary Pokemon caught from raids during global Go Fest.
I was among those who were not satisfied with the temporary removal of spotlight hour because it's such an important event to take advantage of during the week. It also encourages community involvement for people to meet up and have fun together.
For example, my birthday last year was during Weedle spotlight hour, and I was able to get two shiny encounters while playing with my friends, Justin and Nolen, at Penn State Altoona. It was then when I was invited to tag along with their group for the Kalos Tour in Los Angeles, where Nolen gave me the third shiny Weedle I needed to complete the evolutionary line caught from my birthday.
So there are a lot of personal memories associated with Pokemon caught from spotlight hours, and it's good for the community as a whole that they're back and hopefully here to stay, even long after the Forever Forward season ends.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520 and mchurella@altoonamirror.com