Pokémon Masters EX continues its kick off to 2024 with Rising New Year's Resolutions Story Event, new Seasonal Sync Pairs, and more main story content

Following on the return of two Master Sync Pairs earlier today at midnight Japanese time, two new Seasonal Sync Pairs are making their Pokémon Masters EX debut today alongside the launch of the brand new Rising New Year's Resolutions Story Event. The first developer letter for the year has also dropped, sharing additional information on a selection of upcoming events, rallies, and scouts.

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Story Event: Rising New Year's Resolutions
The new Rising New Year's Resolutions Story Event sees Wallace preparing to host a mountain top New Year's fireworks event. This event will run through to January 15th, at 9:59pm (PST).

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By completing battles during this event, players can earn New Year Ticket A and New Year Ticket A+ items, which can be exchanged for a variety of valuable items including 5★ Scout Tickets, Power-Ups, Move Candy, Special Skill Feathers, and Strike and Sprint Move Candy Coins. Players can also obtain Gems, Field and Tech Move Candy Coins, and Event Medals for completing special missions during the event.

Completing the Beat the Rain Clouds! story stage in this event will allow players to team-up with an exclusive 3★ Sync Pair, Katherine (Furisode Girl) & Slurpuff, a Fairy-type Tech Role Sync Pair with an expanded sync grid. After unlocking Katherine & Slurpuff, players will be able to exchange their New Year Ticket A and New Year Ticket A+ for items to improve the pair's potential and move level, as well as Custom Sync Orbs for the pair.

As usual for events of this type, players will have an increased chance of receiving bonus rewards if they take on event battles using teams that feature specific sync pairs. The more of these sync pairs that players place in their lineup, the greater the bonus received. The applicable Sync Pairs and reward rates are as follows:

• Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon, Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa: +60% (x1.6) Bonus Rewards
• Lisia (New Year's 2023) & Rapidash, Dawn (New Year's 2023) & Oricorio, Sabrina (New Year's 2022) & Chingling, Volkner (New Year's 2022) & Electivire, Lillie (New Year's 2021) & Ribombee, Lance (New Year's 2021) & Gyarados: +40% (x1.4) Bonus Rewards
• Fairy- and Dragon-Type Sync Pairs: +20% (x1.2) bonus rewards

These bonuses stack additively, so having a team consisting of Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon, Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa, and Lisia (New Year's 2023) & Rapidash would grant a combined +160% (x2.6) rewards.

Players should also note the following when playing this event:

• The number of plays available for Daily Extreme Battle 1 are reset every day at 10:00pm (PST).
• To participate, players must have completed Main Story Chapter 1: The More the Merrier (Normal) in single-player.
• The sync pairs that appear as opponents in battle have different capabilities than those players can actually obtain.
• All mission completion rewards must be claimed within three days of the mission period ending.
• Leftover New Year Ticket A and New Year Ticket A+ items will be automatically converted to coins at a rate of 10 coins per item at the end of the event, and sent to players' Present Boxes

Limited-Time Expedition Areas and Locations in the Trainer Lodge
Until January 15th, at 9:59pm (PST), limited-time locations themed around the Rising New Year's Resolutions! story event will be available during interactions at the Trainer Lodge, along with a Limited-Time Expedition Area. Players will be able to form a Special Team in this Expedition Area that can receive substantial amounts of Expedition Awards. Drop-In Events will not appear for Special Teams on Expeditions. Once the limited-time expedition area disappears, Special Teams will be automatically disbanded, with any unclaimed items able to be received by going to the expedition screen.

New Sync Pairs make their debut in New Year's themed Scouts
Two new Seasonal Sync Pairs make their debut today alongside the Rising New Year's Resolutions story event.

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Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon are a Fire-type Field Sync Pair with an unlockable Strike (Special) EX Role.

When raised to 6★ EX, Wallace's outfit is shifted to a palette based on a shiny Blacephalon.

Wallace (New Year's 2024) & Blacephalon are able to apply the new Hoenn Circle (Special) effect to the allied field of play through their Hoenn Analysis Status Move, which powers up the special attack moves and special sync moves of all allied sync pairs, and reduces special attack move and special sync move damage taken by all allied sync pairs, by an amount dependent on the number of allied sync pairs with the Hoenn theme. Their Strange FLames Mind Blown Buddy Move also has unique effects, increasing Blacephalon's Special Moves ↑ Next effect by zero to ten ranks at random. More details about the sync pair can be found on Bulbapedia.

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Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa are a Dragon-type Support Sync Pair with an unlockable Tech EX Role.

When raised to 6★ EX, Clair's outfit is shifted to a darker shade of blue, reminiscent of her cloak from the main series video games.

Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa have a selection of Status Moves allowing them to improve the Defense, Attack, Sp. Attack, and Critical-Hit Rate of all allied sync pairs. Their T-Move: Team Free Move Next 9 Passive Skill also Applies the Free Move Next effect to all allied sync pairs whenever Clair (New Year's 2024) & Drampa use one of their Trainer moves. More details about the sync pair can be found on Bulbapedia.

Both of these Seasonal Scouts give players bonus presents for the first three times players perform a Sync Pair Scout x11, awarding an appropriate Move Candy Coin for that Sync Pair's primary role each time. This Seasonal Scout also include a daily discount, where players can perform a single scout for x100 paid gems. This daily discount can be used 1 time per day during the entire length of the scout.

In addition to the regular Seasonal Scouts, players can also take advantage of a Wallace Seasonal Tiered Scout and Clair Seasonal Ticket Scout. These scouts each have ten tiers, each of which is a Sync Pair Scout ×11. Players are able to scout once on each tier by using Paid Gems, with the amount of gems increasing with each tier. Additionally, Tiers 5 and 10 of each grant the player special tickets to use in the associated Wallace Seasonal Featured Ticket Scout and Clair Seasonal Guaranteed Ticket Scout.

• Tier 1: 300 Paid Gems
• Tier 2: 900 Paid Gems
• Tier 3: 1,500 Paid Gems
• Tier 4: 2,000 Paid Gems
• Tier 5: 3,000 Paid Gems - 5★ Great Scout Ticket (T or U)
• Tier 6: 2,000 Paid Gems
• Tier 7: 2,500 Paid Gems
• Tier 8: 2,500 Paid Gems
• Tier 9: 2,500 Paid Gems
• Tier 10: 3,000 Paid Gems - 5★ Master Scout Ticket (T or U)

The Wallace Seasonal Scout, Wallace Seasonal Tiered Scout, Clair Seasonal Scout and Clair Seasonal Tiered Scout will all run through until January 18th at 9:59pm (PST). The associated Ticket Scouts meanwhile will run through to January 25th, 2024, at 9:59pm (PST).

Monthly Poké Fair Scout Vol. 17
The Fair-Exclusive 5★ Cynthia & Garchomp are the featured Sync Pair for the latest Monthly Poké Fair Scout in Pokémon Masters EX. This scout will remain available until January 31st, at 9:59pm (PST). Teaming up with the pair will unlock Cynthia as a Guest for the Trainer's Lodge.

Cynthia & Garchomp previously featured in the Monthly Poké Fair Scout Vol. 1 that was run in August 2022, and also appeared in Monthly Poké Fair Scout Vol. 5 and 11 in January and July 2023 respectively. No upgrades to the pair, such as an EX Role, have been announced in conjunction with this latest Monthly Poké Fair Scout.

As normal for Poké Fair Scouts, 5★ sync pairs have a 10% chance of appearing in this scout. The first five times players perform a Sync Pair Scout x11 for the Monthly Poké Fair Scout Vol. 17, they will receive a bonus present of 3★ Friend Key x15. These keys allow players to increase the Friendship Level Cap for a single Guest in the Trainer Lodge by 10. This Monthly Poké Fair Scout also includes a daily discount, where players can perform a single scout for x100 paid gems. This daily discount can be used 1 time per day during the entire length of the scout.

New content for the Mysterious Stones Chapter
The brand new story area A Voice Calling Out to Rei for the Mysterious Stones Chapter is now available in-game. To access this area, players will need to have acquired a minimum of 200 Mysterious Stones. These can be obtained as completion rewards from Daily Region Rotation battles, as well as rarely from Trainer Lodge expeditions, and from some area info in the Training Areas.

Mysterious Stones that are exchanged in Monthly Exchanges will still count for unlocking this and other areas for the Mysterious Stones Chapter, as these unlocks are based on stones aquired rather than stones on hand.

Champion Stadium: Sinnoh Challenge
Until February 4th, at 9:59pm (PST), the Champion Stadium is rotating around to Sinnoh, giving Trainers the opportunity to challenge Sinnoh Elite Four members Aaron, Bertha, Flint, and Lucian, as well as Champion Cynthia.

Successful Trainers will gain access to Master Mode, which allows players to face more challenging battles against the Elite Four, an in-game badge that signifies their accomplishment, and other special reward items including Champion Spirit, which can be used to raise sync pairs up to 6★ EX.

To participate in the Champion Stadium, Trainers must have completed Main Story Chapter 10: A Reason to Battle (Normal) in single-player. To attempt the Sinnoh Challenge, players must also have completed the Kanto Challenge on Normal difficulty. The Normal difficulty of the Kanto Challenge is always available, regardless of the current regional rotation of the Champion Stadium.

Trainer Lodge Updates
Volkner, the Gym Leader from Sunyshore City, can now be invited to the Trainer Lodge by players who've been able to team up with Volkner & Luxray from a Sync Pair scout.

Other upcoming Updates and Events
Returning Events in January
Last year's New Year's Story Event, Gather Up! Dream Duo!, featuring Lisia and Dawn, will be receiving a re-run.

New High Score Event
The game's next High Score Event, focusing on trainers weak to Grass-type Sync Pairs, will start on January 8th.

Updates for Challenge the Strong
During January, a new battle will be added to Challenge the Strong. As of writing, neither the launch date nor the opponent for this battle has been officially announced.