Niantic’s Pokémon Go made an instant hit when it was launched back on July 7, this year. The location-based augmented video game has taken the mobile phone gaming world by a landslide.
As of August 8, 2016, the game had over 100 million downloads on Google Play alone! Moreover, Pokémon Go became the fastest game to top the Google Play Store and App Store, supplanting Clash Royale.
Since its release, the developer has been working hard to keep the game alive and vibrant by adding features and dealing with security issues posed by fraudulent gamers who seek to find ways to dominate in the game. The team has also added security patches to parry hackers.
Niantic Labs recent Pokémon Go update takes the Android version to 0.35.0 while the iOS edition now sits at version 1.5.0. At the moment, both the updates are rolling out across the globe. Players who have not received them yet should be patient as the process has just started and may take a couple of days before everyone is reached.
According to the patch notes released, the team has implemented the Pokémon Appraisal. This tool allows trainers to acquire more knowledge about a Pokémon’s offensive and defensive abilities from their Team Leaders- can be either Candela, Blanche or Spark.
As we know, the essential part of Pokémon Go is Pokémon themselves. The creatures are dropped at strategic places, trainers are supposed to catch them and decide whether to add them to their collection, give them out to Professor Willow for Candies or leave them at a local Gym. This tool now gives trainers the opportunity to study a Pokémon to determine its potential hence know if keeping it is worthwhile. As a trainer, you will be able to reach out to your Team Leader for information about the particular Pokémon you have caught to know whether it has the potential to win a battle.
In addition, trainers now have a more hands-on role when interacting with the Team Leaders. The three characters are very popular with fans and giving them a more active role in the game has been welcomed warmly by players.
The team also included some bot fixes which were not so essential. However, they are still necessary for improving the experience in the overall gameplay.
The Pokémon Go development team also declared they are working hard on other new intriguing features that will come in the subsequent updates of the addictive game. However, they did not give away any information about the said features.
Niantic teased an upgraded tracking tool a few weeks ago, perhaps, it’s one of the features still being tested. The studio also confirmed the company’s plans to add support for sponsored events. As a result, we are still waiting for that in addition to the option to trade Pokémon with friends that was also confirmed earlier this year.
Pokémon Go is already popular, these new updates will just make it even more famous and a great challenge for clones to match.