Pokemon Go's Friendship Day Global Challenge Is Being Removed

Pokemon Go developer Niantic is tweaking the game's upcoming Friendship Day event. As the studio announced on Twitter, it is removing the event's Global Challenge. In its place, Niantic is increasing the amount of XP you'll receive from completing the Friendship Day Collection Challenge, from 100,000 to 175,000.

Friendship Day takes place this Saturday, April 24, from 11 AM to 2 PM local time. Various Grass-type Pokemon such as Chikorita, Cottonee, Foongus, and Sunkern will appear in the wild more frequently than usual throughout the event, and you'll see green confetti raining down on the map screen.

Niantic is also offering a few friendship-themed bonuses during the event. First, you'll be more likely to receive a Lucky Pokemon in a trade. To make it easier to exchange monsters with other players, Niantic is temporarily increasing trading distance to 40 km.

On top of that, you'll receive triple the usual amount of Stardust each time you catch a Pokemon during Friendship Day. Finally, any Lure or Incense you use during the event will remain active for three hours. You can read more about Friendship Day on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In the meantime, Pokemon Go's Sustainability Week event is currently underway. As part of the event, you have your first chance to catch Binacle and Shiny Trubbish in the game. After that, Pokemon Go is holding a New Pokemon Snap event to celebrate the launch of the Switch spin-off. That runs from April 29 to May 2 and features many of the monsters found in New Pokemon Snap, as well as Shiny Smeargle.