Which Alolan Pokemon are coming to Pokemon GO?

It seems like only yesterday that the only Pokemon in Pokemon GO were those from the original group of 150. But that was nearly two years ago now, and Niantic has worked on adding more to the mix steadily through a series of updates since then. The studio recently teased the arrival of more characters from the Pokemon Sun and Moon games, which featured special Alolan forms of Pokemon originally found in the Kanto region — familiar faces but revamped in interesting new ways.

Niantic hasn’t announced yet exactly which of the Alolan Pokemon are coming, saying only that it would release the info over the coming weeks as the characters actually started showing up in Pokemon GO. Still, it’s possible to take a look at the teaser image below and take a stab at who you should be able to catch in-game pretty soon.

Note that the Alolan forms generally have different Types than their Kanto region counterparts, so we’ll list those too so you know what kinds of differences to expect. Let’s go from left to right across the silhouettes:

• Alolan Digglett – Ground/Steel Type – Abilities: Sand Veil or Tangling Hair
• Alolan Meowth – Dark Type – Abilities: Pickup or Technician
• Alolan Vulpix – Ice Type – Ability: Snow Cloak
• Alolan Geodude – Rock/Electric Type – Abilities: Magnet Pull or Sturdy
• Alolan Marowak – Ghost/Fire Type – Abilities: Cursed Body or Lightning Rod
• Alolan Exeggutor – Grass/Dragon Type – Ability: Frisk
• Alolan Sandslash – Ice/Steel Type – Ability: Snow Cloak
• Alolan Muk – Dark/Poison Type – Abilities: Gluttony or Poison Touch
• Alolan Raichu – Electric/Psychic Type – Ability: Surge Surfer
• Alolan Dugtrio – Ground/Steel Type – Abilities: Sand Veil or Tangling Hair
• Alolan Rattata – Dark/Normal Type – Abilities: Gluttony or Hustle

That covers all of the Kanto region Pokemon that have Alola counterparts, as the rest are evolutions of someone already on the list above. IGN has a helpful comparison of Pokemon who have both forms.

Until Niantic officially reveals its plans, we don’t know yet whether you’ll have to do something special to find and catch Alolan Pokemon or if they will simply start appearing in areas where their normal forms would generally spawn. They could be the subject of special events or just start showing up. One thing we can be fairly certain of, given the way previous groups of new characters have been introduced, is that their arrival will be spaced out instead of taking place all at once.

Be sure to check out our other recent Pokemon GO articles, including details on the upcoming Community Day and Summer Tour events.

Nick Tylwalk

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Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.