Pokémon Go's development team has now acknowledged a frustrating in-game bug plaguing the game's big 9th anniversary event, days after players first reported the issue.
The game's current 9th birthday shenanigans focus on Gimmighoul, the tiny coin-loving goblin Pokémon that is typically only available when you connect your Pokémon Go account to a Nintendo Switch with a copy of Pokémon Scarlet or Violet.
Now, to celebrate the hit smartphone game's latest anniversary, Gimmighoul has a new costumed variant and is also available in its Shiny version for the first time — though the mechanic to gather resources to evolve the creature isn't working as intended.
Gimmighoul has a unique evolution requirement that requires players to collect 999 Gimmighoul coins, before the treasure-hungry creature's appetite can be sated enough that it transforms into its evolution, Gholdengo. Collecting these coins is meant to be a challenge, with many players still a long way from amassing the required amount years after Gimmighoul's introduction. And it's because of this that the current event was so widely anticipated.
Collecting Gimmighoul coins in Pokémon Go is possible via two ways — from coins dropped when catching Gimmighoul itself using the Coin Bag feature (which requires fussing around and connecting your phone to your Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 every time you want to use it) or by spinning Golden PokéStops.
Normally, Golden PokéStops only appear when activated by a Golden Lure (which also requires fussing around and connecting to a Switch, five times in total) but, during the current event, any PokéStop can randomly turn into a Golden PokéStop for a brief time. This means the event is the easiest way to collect Gimmighoul coins in a long time, or it should be — except that the feature is currently bugged in a way that is sending fans to social media in enormous frustration.
Imagine seeing a Golden PokéStop on the horizon, trekking over to it, only to see it despawn back into a regular PokéStop just as you approach. Then imagine seeing another Golden PokéStop on the horizon somewhere else, walking over there, and having the same thing happen, over and over.
This is the experience of many Pokémon Go fans at present, as they fruitlessly hunt Golden PokéStops only to have them seemingly despawn the minute they get close.
"Wasted my whole lunch break thinking it was just me," wrote one player on the top Pokémon Go fan reddit TheSilphRoad.
"This is so annoying. It’s too hot to walk to the stop and it just disappear," said another, perhaps also stuck in the UK's current heatwave.
"This happened to me 6 times today. I gave up for the day," wrote a third. (You are not alone.)
Unsurprisngly, yes, this is indeed a bug, the game's development team has now acknowledged — but it is actually just a visual issue. In other words, the Golden PokéStop has not despawned after all, but is just no longer visible. So, yes, those PokéStops you walked away from were in fact still places to get Gimmighoul coins after all.
"Golden PokéStops turn blue before spinning," reads the description of the issue on the Pokémon Go Help Center website. "Issue description: When approaching a Golden PokéStop it may turn blue before spinning it. This is a visual bug and does not effect your ability to collect Gimmighoul Coins. Issue status: Investigating."
There are several other complaints about the event, too, such as the fact that even if you do find a Golden PokéStop, the chances of Gimmighoul coins dropping seem lower than in previous events. Also, that the non-costumed version of Gimmighoul did not seem to have had its Shiny version switched on until mid-yesterday afternoon — though this kind of error, that still requires the game's community to spot and report before it is rectified is more par for the course.
Pokémon Go's 9th anniversary event runs until this Sunday, July 6, for fans to continue trying to collect more Gimmighoul coins. In the meantime, impacted fans have suggested the game should now do more to aid in their treasure hunts.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
