Niantic's mobile games have kept fans' attentions using various content releases, with Community Days being a prominent example. A Community Day takes place once a month, and in Pokemon GO these revolve around a specific monster; January 2022's Community Day featured Spheal, and an extra Community Day Classic was held today featuring Bulbasaur. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite shuts down on January 31, but it has historically held Community Days offering bonus items for completing set tasks. Pikmin Bloom acts a bit differently.
The Pikmin crossover game, Niantic's second Nintendo-themed venture, is more concerned with exercise than offering mechanics that facilitate event task lists. Taking part in a Pikmin Bloom Community Day is as conceptually simple as walking 10,000 steps to receive a commemorative badge, and players incur other benefits as they get steps in. Pikmin Bloom's January 22, 2022 Community Day is its third attempt at the event, and shows Niantic getting more comfortable with what makes the game special. However, its rewards could still use some work.
Pikmin Bloom Community Days Represent a Seasonal Turnover
Despite featuring the skeleton that future events would follow, the first Pikmin Bloom Community Day on November 13, 2021 was rough around the edges. Players were tasked with walking 10,000 steps between 9:00 a.m. And 6:00 p.m. Local time, receiving passive benefits like 1.5-times Pikmin Seedling growth, fruits providing twice their usual nectar hauls, and "Big Flowers" (set on the same landmark grid as Pokemon GO's Gyms and PokeStops) blooming into pansies rather than default daisies.
There wasn't much in-game fanfare to demarcate a Community Day compared to any other, and the badge players could earn was delayed. It didn't get distributed for over a week, finally appearing on participants' profiles starting November 21. The game's second Community Day on December 18 fixed some of these issues by removing the time limit and adding a progress bar onto the main screen, with its signature Poinsettia Flower Badge appearing immediately after hitting 10,000 steps.
However, today's Community Day set a true standard. Themed around the camellia flower, the January 2022 event added an extra bonus in that Pikmin Bloom players can earn Coins twice as fast - only needing to plant 250 flowers rather than 500 per-Coin. Niantic notes in its Community Day announcement that camellia Big Flowers bloomed sparingly starting January 1, and that camellias will officially replace poinsettias from January 22 onward. In a sense, this suggests Community Days will represent a change of seasons; players can only receive specific nectar for one month at a time, likely in a pattern that will repeat over the coming months.
Flower Nectar Is Too Ephemeral For Community Day Prizes
Pikmin Bloom Community Days celebrating a changing of the guard does give it an identity akin to Pokemon GO Community Days, but it doesn't produce the most appealing rewards. Nectar is used to bloom Pikmin leaf sprouts into flowers every day, and when players do this they receive corresponding petals that let them plant flowers across the in-game map. Ultimately this serves the game's underlying point of "filling the world with flowers," but in a practical sense this is how players help grow Big Flowers and receive the aforementioned Coins without microtransactions.
The in-game shops offerings are limited, leaving players little to do with Coins beyond charging their item-finding Detector. Pikmin Bloom's beautification is also limited, as planted flower trails disappear over time. This makes sense from a game design perspective, as eventually players would fill out the areas around them and no longer be able to plant, cutting off how many Coins they could earn. However, it means the special flowers accessible via nectar are ephemeral, so they're a weak reward for a special monthly event.
It doesn't help that the kind of nectar characterizing any given Community Day will be available through normal means for about a month after. The badge that players earn for their efforts are permanent, but can't be prominently displayed as a way to differentiate one's profile from their friends. More work will have to be done to make Pikmin Bloom Community Days as big as in Pokemon GO, but Niantic is moving in the right direction. One answer may be to add unique stickers for roadside-designated Pikmin that match a Community Day's flower, similar to the holiday season Decor available between December 21, 2021, and January 11, 2022.
Pikmin Bloom is available now on Android and iOS devices.