Highlights
- Ho-Oh joins Pokemon Unite roster on July 21 for the game's third anniversary.
- The game has added 44 new Pokemon species since its launch, with 64 in the current roster.
- More surprises, events, and deals are promised for Pokemon Unite's third anniversary.
Pokemon Unite is gearing up for its third anniversary, and the first big announcement around the anniversary event is that legendary bird Ho-Oh will be joining the roster. Ho-Oh will become available in Pokemon Unite on July 21, exactly three years after the game's original debut on the Nintendo Switch.
Pokemon first let players catch Ho-Oh in Generation 2. Ho-Oh was the cover star for Pokemon Gold, one of the two second-generation Pokemon games. A Fire and Flying type, it was the first legendary Pokemon to repeat another legendary's type pairing, following Moltres from Generation 1, and it was also the first creature announced for the second generation when it appeared in the Japanese manga magazine Corocoro in 1996.
The announcement of Ho-Oh's imminent arrival in Pokemon Unite came from the game's official Twitter account, showing the legendary bird flying among other Pokemon already on the roster who share similar typings, like Charizard, Chandelure, and Talonflame. While the five-on-five MOBA game for Switch and mobile devices launched with just 20 playable characters, adding Gardevoir to the Pokemon Unite roster just a week after launch, the development team has been steadfast at giving players more options, with the current roster containing 64 different Pokemon species.
Pokemon Unite is Adding Ho-Oh
While the addition of a new playable character on the roster should be exciting news for Pokemon fans, the tweet promises that there will be other good things coming for players to celebrate three years together. While the post doesn't go into much detail, it states that there will be some celebratory events and deals, and that more will be revealed as time continues to creep toward the anniversary date of July 21. The second anniversary for Pokemon Unite added popular legendary Mewtwo to the roster complete with its Mega Mewtwo X form, and its counterpart, Mega Mewtwo Y, arrived in the game during the following month.
Most recently, Pokemon Unite had been holding its Dragon Carnival event, which wrapped up on June 11. That event brought with it repeatable missions, a unique four-on-four quickplay mode that only allowed dragon-type pokemon to compete, and special rewards for completing the event-specific activities. Also, like what's being promised for the anniversary event, the event featured special deals in its shop, so players wondering what will be in store during the anniversary event may be able to look to the past to figure out what to expect.
Platform(s) Switch Released July 21, 2021 Developer(s) TiMi Studios Publisher(s) The Pokemon Company Genre(s) MOBA See at Official SiteSee at Nintendo eShop