On 10/25/2022, we had our regularly scheduled Pokemon Go Spotlight Hour interrupted by a specter, an illusion that sought to trick one and all; Zorua! At least those in New Zealand and the surrounding areas did, as the special event was quickly canceled due to an error with the Ditto-esque transformation gimmick that they gave to the Tricky Fox Pokemon. This has led to quite a bit of confusion in the community, as such a small sub-set of players has had access to Zorua and Zoroark thus far, and it begs the question: "When will be our turn?" In the light of this rather strange event issue, here are a few ways that Niantic could introduce Zorua and Zoroark to the rest of the Pokemon Go community.
Introducing the Foxes
Let's be honest here; the introduction of Zorua and Zoroark was supposed to be a big, unannounced surprise in a manner similar to the way that Meltan was unexpectedly teased during Chikorita Community Day back in 2018. So how should Niantic introduce this family of Pokemon to the greater community now?
Repeat The Event Next Spotlight Hour
This is, perhaps, the most obvious option for Niantic. While we don't know what the first Spotlight hour of November will be quite yet, if they were to announce that they were repeating Zorua's tricky introduction on a global-scale for November 1, then that could be a reasonable way to give Zorua and Zoroark to the masses. This would give us all a new chance to catch them in their original intended context, and it would occur during the Día de Muertos celebration, so while the "spooky" feel of Halloween would be over, the lingering haunt of the Day of the Dead would still be somewhat on-brand for this Dark Type Pokemon family.
Insert Them Into the Halloween 2022 Part 2 Event
As of this writing, we are nearing the end of the first part of the Halloween Event, and are a mere day away from Halloween Part 2. It seems likely that Zorua was intended to be a last-minute addition to this half of the event, seeing as its release timing was remarkably close to it. But even if that wasn't the case, discreetly adding these Fox Pokemon to the festivities might be a great way to make up for the issue.
Update 10/28/2022
It turns out that this was the winner among our speculation points, as this is exactly what Niantic ended up doing.
Make a New Event
Maybe rather than giving us another spotlight bonus like intended, Niantic could give us a full Zorua Spotlight Hour in November? I'm sure that an event along those lines would be very welcome to say the least! And if not, we have an entire month that will likely host at least 3 unique events, so surely Zorua can slot into one? We could also have a Zorua Research day in order to give players a huge stack of them up front, or even give an unannounced Go Battle Night with Zorua as a guaranteed reward. The options are endless here!
Pretend Like This Didn't Happen
The objectively worst option would be if Niantic just moved on without giving us a makeup. It's entirely possible that they could make Zorua a rare disguised Pokemon like Ditto, or even go so far as to make it exclusive to Raid/Eggs/Research as we've seen with select Pokemon in the past. Hopefully this is not the future of Zorua and Zoroark!
Closing
No matter the outcome, it seems that Zorua and Zoroark are now set to become a global part of Pokemon Go in the near future. We're likely going to cover Zoroark more in-depth in the future, but in the meantime we recommend RyanSwag's video covering the subject, as he has an outstanding breakdown of Zoroark's utility.
As we await the announcement as to Zorua and Zoroark's global fate, do you have any additional ideas as to how Niantic could make up for this issue? If so, we'd love to hear them. Please give us a comment below, as we always appreciate the community's views on subjects like this!
