Pokémon Go Update: Latest Pokémon Go news and everything that’s new
Everything you need to know about the latest developments for Pokémon Go for Android and iOS, including the arrival of legendary Pokémon, increases in the game’s level cap, and the long-rumoured PvP mode and trading. Your complete guide to the latest Pokémon Go update and all the Pokémon Go news you need is right here.
Pokémon Go has been officially released for a couple of years now, but Niantic hasn’t taken much of a break.
Instead the developer has been hard at work adding extra features to the game. We’ve already seen the arrival of the series 2nd and 3rd generations of Pokémon and select legendary creatures, but there’s still a lot more to come.
At the top of our wish list is having the ability to finally trade Pokémon with other players. Niantic has been promising this feature since the game first launched two years ago, but it’s still yet to arrive — presumably because it’s a feature with such a high potential to completely ruin the difficulty of the game.
Related: Pokémon Go special research quests
Pokémon Go News: Trading and Player Battles
We know that trading and player battles are coming, given that the company has been talking about the features as recently as September last year when Pokemon company boss Tsunekazu Ishihara confirmed that trading and player-vs-player battles are in development for the popular mobile title.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Ishihara said “we’ve only achieved 10 percent of what Pokemon and Niantic are trying to do,” hinting at future updates to come. “Going forward we will have to include fundamental Pokémon experiences such as Pokémon trading and peer-to-peer battles, and other possibilities.”
Having not received a mention since back in 2016, it’s reassuring that both features are being worked on at Niantic.
The last time we heard about trading was when Niantic CEO and founder John Hanke, took to the stage at Comic-Con.
Related: Pokémon Go beginner’s guide
While Hanke remained tight-lipped when it came to details, the Pokémon Go beta did include a trading feature, which allowed players to send in-app trading requests to nearby trainers. The other trainer then had the option to accept or decline.
Whether the final version that comes to Pokémon Go will allow you to trade with players around the globe via the internet remains to be seen. Starting with Pokémon Red and Blue, the original games featured different types of creatures, which could be swapped with beasts from other players via a physical cable. Of course, Go won’t be limited in this way, but it’s previously been reported that users will need an NFC-equipped smartphone in order to take advantage of the upcoming trading feature.
Pokémon Go Update: Field Research
Field Research has been Niantic’s way of introducing more exclusive Pokémon into the game. The way they work is by giving players select tasks to accomplish such as hatching a certain number of eggs or catching certain types of the creatures.
For really rare Pokémon, the game includes ‘Special’ research tasks. In recent months this has given players the ability to get their hands on ‘Mew’, and you can check out our guide below on how to get your hands on Gen-1’s most ellusive creature.
More recently Niantic announced that you’ll soon be able to capture Zapdos if you complete enough research quests in May 2018.
Pokémon Go News: Increasing the level cap
According to Twitter user PokemonDoctorYT who was lucky enough to run into Niantic CEO John Hanke on a flight, the company currently plans to increase the game’s level cap to an unspecified new maximum.
In the game’s initial days, earning enough XP to level up was a bit of a chore because of the limited number of activities you could engage in.
However, with the new raids, and the daily XP bonuses you get for catching your first creature of the day, levelling up has become much easier.
Presumably this is why Niantic is thinking about raising the level cap past the current maximum of 40, but we’re hoping that the higher levels will introduce some new gameplay possibilities rather than just giving players more of what they’ve got already.
Pokémon Go Update: Gen-4 Pokémon to be revealed?
As part of this same flight conversation, rumours also emerged that the game will shortly be including Pokémon from the fourth generation of the series.
The game originally launched with the series 1st generation of 150 creatures, but over time we’ve seen the number of Pokémon you can catch, balloon to around 386 with the first three generations of the series now covered.
However, Niantic is nowhere near done, and will apparently be moving into the fourth generation of the creatures soon.
Pokémon Go Events: What’s next after Pokémon Go Fest?
Pokémon Go’s first summer event, Pokémon Go Fest, didn’t exactly go according to plan back in 2017.
Far from it.
Many trainers were unable to access the game during the Chicago-based event, due to “software and network problems,” as Niantic delicately put it in a recent mea culpa/blog post.
However, the company is planning to put this disaster behind it with an all new event according to PokemonDoctorYT.
At the moment there are few details about what this event will entail, but at the very least we hope that Niantic puts plans in place to prevent the connection issues that plagued its first attempt.
Pokémon Go Update: Submitting new Pokéstops
The final revelation that came out of this conversation was a little tidbit about Pokéstops, which have remained more or less static since the game first released back in 2016.
Initially, the Pokéstops in the game were brought over from Niantic’s previous game Ingress. However the massive popularity of Pokémon Go made it clear that some of these locations were in wildly inappropriate places.
While Niantic was dealing with these issues it shelved the idea of introducing new Pokéstops in the future, but it appears the company might be preparing to re-introduce the feature. The news will be music to the ears of anyone who lives in a small town without its fair share of the virtual locations, which have become increasingly important as a result of the introduction of the new Research Tasks.
Are you still playing Pokémon Go? What new features do you want to see? Get in touch with us @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
