Christmas comes to Pokemon Unite, closely followed by a magical masked moggy

It’s time to swap your Pokeballs for snowballs as a new festive mode has launched in The Pokemon Company International’s 5v5 MOBA Pokemon Unite. The presents don’t stop there, however, as a brand new challenger is entering the arena, all the way from Paldea.

Until December 30th, Shivre City will be swamped with snow, which can only mean one thing; gratuitous snowy violence! Snowball Batlle will see any KO’d Pokemon instead turn into snowmen, which is quite an amusing thought. Finding a defeat the dastardly Delibird will nab you a present containing a random one-time battle item, helping you keep your foes on their frozen toes.

If raining a torrent of snow-filled devastation upon your foes isn’t enough to grab your attention, then perhaps you will be interested in a new character. Meowscarada will be making their debut on Aeos Island, stepping into the Speedster role. Their Overgrow ability lets them do a spot-on impression of Homer Simpson, and disappear into some leave when below half health.

When this is triggered, Mewoscarada will benefit from a short boost to movement speed and damage dealt, but will also recover health proportional to the attacks it makes. An excellent way to get back in the game. If you wish to try out this intriguing new option, you can obtain their Unite option by taking part in Meowscarada’s Flower Petal Challenge until January 9th. Complete missions, collect 100 of each of the four coloured petals, and they are all yours.

Finally, as we all love something for nothing, logging in daily before January 9th will get you ten free Holiday Balls, up to a maximum of 100, you greedy blinkers. These can be loving placed or launched at the Prize Machine to can some decent prizes, including Holowear. You can only use these on designated collections on the same day you obtain them, so don’t miss out.

Pokemon Unite is available to download from the App Store and Google Play. There have also been whispers that Metagross will be debuting on December 28th, so stay tuned for that.