Gaming

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Giving New Birthday Surprise, but Not for Everyone

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s new birthday giveaway is limited only to certain players.

Nintendo's Pokemon Scarlet and Violet

Pokemon giveaways are pretty common in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet by this point seeing how the games have been out for nearly two years now, but The Pokemon Company just started another new kind of giveaway that it hasn’t done before. Instead of giving away a Pokemon that’s tied to the competitive scene or one that’s only available for a very short while before the distribution ends, this new Pokemon Scarlet and Violet giveaway is tied to players’ birthdays and will stick around for a year before it’s gone. The only catch is that, like many fun Pokemon events and giveaways, this Pokemon Scarlet and Violet distribution is limited to only certain regions.

The Pokemon that’s being given away is a Tandemaus which comes with a special birthday ribbon as well as a unique move: Celebrate. It’s a move that’s pretty much only available to special Pokemon obtained through birthday events or some past competitive tie-ins. It does absolutely nothing other than dropping a gift down from the sky which is opened to reveal that, surprise, your Tandemaus is inside of gift just waiting to celebrate the fact that you own it. A pretty worthless move aside from the novelty of it, but considering how hard it is to get a Pokemon that has that move, it’s worth keeping if you’re a Pokemon collector.

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Unfortunately for those who do like collecting Pokemon and want one of these, you’re going to have a hard time getting one unless you have any trips planned in the next year or so. This Pokemon Scarlet and Violet distribution is limited only to players in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore, and Pokemon fans have to go to an in-person Pokemon Center to claim their code. It seems as though this giveaway is a direct-to-player one as well which would mean that codes aren’t being passed around, so buying a code wouldn’t be an option either. Your only hope at getting one of these special Tandemaus variants would be to either have one traded to you or to be able to visit a location in-person, but you’ve at least got until around November of next year to do so since the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet giveaway is going to last about a year.

The Pokemon Company has been running these birthday distributions for different Pokemon games for awhile now, but this Tandemaus offer is a departure from the norm. Eevee was given away many years ago with the different Eeveelutions given away in the following years until those options were exhausted, so now, it’s Tandemaus’ turn.

Tandemaus isn’t too remarkable in battle aside from the unique use of its Population Bomb move, but the Pokemon does have a very rare evolution. It turns into Maushold and typically evolves into a family of four mice, but there’s an extremely low chance of it evolving into a Maushold consisting only of a family of three. It’d be neat to see this birthday Tandemaus be preconfigured to always be a three-mouse evolution, but that likely won’t be the case.