“Pokémon Go” players will encounter more water-type creatures throughout Gainesville as part of a first ever worldwide water festival.
“Pokémon Go” is a location-based game on iPhones and Androids that launched in July where players can travel to catch Pokemon, train and battle their virtual creatures in gyms, which are also based on location.
Because certain Pokemon are found according to environments such as bodies of water and recreation areas, it’s hard to find water-type Pokemon in Gainesville, which is considered landlocked.
Players have until Wednesday to take advantage of catching more water Pokemon.
Tillissa Barcia, 33, an administrator of the Facebook group, Pokémon Go: Gainesville, said she noticed a spike in people posting on the group page about more water Pokemon appearing across Gainesville.
“People were super excited, especially (because) you can catch lapras now,” Barcia said.
Lapras is considered a rare Pokemon to find and catch on the app.
Kristina Svatos, 21, downloaded the app when it was released in July. She plays the game whenever she walks around campus and rides the bus. She is aware of the water festival and said she will try to catch any water Pokemon that appear.
“I’ve gotten a ton of magikarps everywhere, and I’ve actually gotten a couple squirtles,” the UF public health junior said.
Even with the flow of water Pokemon popping up more frequently, Barcia and Svatos are hoping to catch a rarer type of Pokemon: a shiny magikarp.
“We’re so sad because we’ve caught so many magikarps,” Barcia said. “That’s an awful lot of magikarps and no shinies.”
Ken Humphlett, 51, an avid player calls the game a “kind of obsession.” He currently plays the game with two of his sons.
The UF alumnus and his sons went to Jacksonville last Friday to take advantage of the water festival.
“We caught a gyarados in Jacksonville, the three of us together,” Humphlett said. “And that was super exciting to see that cause I’ve never seen one in the wild before.”
In the future, he plans to evolve the shiny magikarp into a red gyarados, which is one of the most powerful water Pokemon, he said.
