Niantic has officially announced the upcoming Pokemon GO Halloween event. The limited-time event will introduce the first batch of Gen III Pokemon.

More specifically, the Halloween event will introduce Ghost-type Pokemon, namely Shuppet, Banette, Duskull, Dusclops, and Sableye. All the other Gen III Pokemon, which debuted in Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire, will start arriving in December.

Other spooky Pokemon such as Gengar, Houndoom, and Misdreavus will also have raised encounter rates during the Halloween event, which will start on October 20 at 12:00 p.m. PDT (8:00 p.m. UK time) and end on November 2 at 1:00 p.m. PDT (9:00 p.m. UK time).

During the two-week event, players will earn double the amount of Candy from catching, hatching, and transferring Pokemon. Buddy Pokemon will also find Candy twice as fast, making the event another excellent opportunity for players looking to stock up on Candy.

The Halloween event will also introduce a special Pikachu with a witch hat and a Mimikyu-themed hat for player avatars to wear. The latter of which marks the first time Pokemon GO has referenced a creature from a much later generation - Mimikyu is a Gen VII Pokemon.

It's been known for a few days now that Niantic will launch a special event and introduce Gen III Pokemon for Halloween 2017. Leaked artwork, which clearly shows the aforementioned Gen III Ghost-type Pokemon, teased the special event earlier this week.

Niantic also took a similar approach with the Gen II Pokemon last year, introducing the Baby Pokemon first before releasing the other monsters first seen in Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver. The Gen II roster is still incomplete, though, as several creatures have yet to arrive, including Ho-Oh, Celebi, and Delibird.

Gen III includes over 100 new Pokemon. The most notable ones include Wailord, Milotic, Gardevoir, Metagross, and Shedinja, a Bug/Ghost Pokemon with an interesting ability in the main games. Fans of Dragon-type Pokemon will be delighted to know that Gen III will introduce a number of fully grown dragons in the form of Flygon, Altaria, Salamence, Latios, Latias, and Rayquaza.

For more details on the Pokemon GO Halloween event, check out the official announcement at the Pokemon GO site.