Published Oct 17, 2026, 4:00 AM EDT
Hannah covers horror, sci-fi, and games at Collider, where she writes news and features, reviews new releases, and interviews the people who make them. She’s helping build out Collider’s gaming coverage, with Pokémon as one of her specialties. If she isn’t writing about a monster, she’s probably watching one on a tape from her VHS collection.
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet introduced some unsettling additions to the Pokédex, even by the franchise’s standards. Paldea’s wildlife includes creatures whose appearances give very little indication of the stories attached to them. Its Ghost types continue a long Pokémon tradition of putting something disturbing behind a design that could otherwise pass for harmless.
Bramblin is a good example. The Grass/Ghost-type resembles a tumbleweed, but its Pokédex entry explains that it formed when a soul unable to reach the afterlife became tangled in dried grass. Another entry adds that Bramblin doesn’t even know where it’s going as the wind carries it through the wilderness, making its wandering considerably sadder than its appearance suggests.
Bramblin has now officially arrived in Pokémon GO through the Fall Marathon: Buddy Trek event. Its debut began October 13, with the event continuing through Monday, October 19, at 8 p.m. local time. Trainers can encounter the Tumbleweed Pokémon through regular Incense and event research, giving collectors several ways to add the Paldean ghost before this debut event ends. The debut follows September’s Phantump Catch Mastery event, which gave trainers another seasonal Shiny target.
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
Regular Incense is one route into the hunt, but Daily Adventure Incense is excluded from the event lineup. Bramblin appears in both halves of the announced Incense schedule, so the October 16 rotation keeps it available. Players who missed the opening few days still have the weekend to search. From October 16 at 10 a.m. through October 19 at 8 p.m. local time, the Incense lineup also includes Hisuian Growlithe and Helioptile. Hisuian Growlithe has an increased Shiny encounter chance through Incense during that period, providing another target while looking for Bramblin. Bramblin itself is not listed as Shiny-eligible in the announcement, so its arrival is a Pokédex debut hunt.
Event-themed Field Research offers another way to encounter Bramblin, alongside Pokémon including Doduo and Electrike. That makes checking available tasks worthwhile for players who would prefer another encounter route alongside Incense. The announcement also identifies GO Pass tasks as a way to find the newcomer. The free GO Pass: Fall Marathon gives trainers something useful to work toward during those searches. Reaching Rank 10 unlocks two-hour Incense during the event, allowing a single activation to cover a longer outing. Trainers receive the pass automatically, and purchasing the Deluxe upgrade is not required to reach that milestone.
There are two deadlines to keep track of as the event finishes. Players can earn GO Points and progress through the pass until October 19 at 8 p.m., while unlocked GO Pass rewards remain available to claim until October 21 at 8 p.m. local time. That extra collection period doesn’t extend the announced Incense schedule, so anyone still missing Bramblin should prioritize the hunt before Monday evening.
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Niantic, The Pokemon Company, Nintendo