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Pikmin Bloom is getting weekly challenges

With a step goal for you and your friends.

Pikmin Bloom will add a weekly challenge feature this Thursday, 28th April - the biggest new feature to come to the game since it launched worldwide five months ago.

Each week, you'll be able to sign up to a challenge goal to hit solo or with friends. This week will see the options of 50,000 or 100,000 steps.

You'll be able to start the challenge via a new widget in the app's home screen, and select in-game friends to join in with you. Progress through the week then updates in real-time, with individual contributions shown in a meter.

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Completing the weekly challenge will reward you with various nectars, with rarer nectar available from finishing the tougher challenge option. (If you fail, however, you'll still get something.)

Another new Pikmin costume type, Snack Pikmin, is also being added this week.

In a briefing on the feature attended by Eurogamer today, Niantic said it was considering other challenge types in the future - flowers planted or Pikmin collected - as well as walking.

Overall, it's a neat new feature for the game and one which may encourage play with friends - something that isn't a big part of the game at the moment.

Five months in, Niantic didn't give out any new stats on the game's success today. On the one hand, I can still plenty of flower trails around me when I load the game right now. On the other, its sedate pace and mix of step-tracking and mini-blogging has kept it as something I check infrequently compared to Pokémon Go.

Now, Bulborb fighting - when?