Gaming enthusiasts have discovered references to Pokemon Go Gen 2 in the game’s code after an APK teardown. This suggests that the developer is working on the next generation of the game. Pokemon Go quickly rose to popularity, but now, gamers’ interest is dropping and Pokemon Go Gen 2 could bring them back.
What could the next Pokemon Go update include?
Pokemon Go had both good and bad aspects, making it the center of news stories for a long time. As interest in the game started to wane, Niantic’s team has been trying hard to make the game a hit again. To do this, they are adding features and fixing bugs so that players will spend more time playing the game on their smartphones. But Pokemon Go Gen 2 is surely the most-awaited update.
People at The Silph Road dug into the Android app’s code and found that the game code has a reference to 100 new Pokemon — a huge number of new Pokemon for sure. Apart from the 100 new Pokemon, the data miners also found that the move “Transform” has been added to the game.
This is Ditto’s staple move. Though it is not clear how Niantic plans to implement the move into the game, it can be believed that Ditto will finally be catchable. Ditto is the only non-legendary first-gen Pokemon not found in Pokemon Go. It’s an unusual Pokemon, as it doesn’t battle as itself but instead shape-shifts into its opponent and copies its moves.
When is Pokemon Go Gen 2 update coming?
It must be noted that the code found in v0.45 doesn’t mean that the new Pokemon are already in the game. For example, players will not be able to find the adorable Snubbull on their travels as yet. It is, however, possible that Niantic is starting to build the infrastructure into the app to introduce them in the not-too-distant future, notes Wired.
The Silph Road detailed exactly what it found and what it could mean for the fans of the game:
“Presently, no moveset data has been assigned to the new species. Furthermore, the moves themselves haven’t even appeared in the code yet. This means a server and client-side change will have to occur before Gen 2 is launched. So nothing to hold your breath for, travelers. It may yet be a few more weeks or months.”
The Silph Road added that Niantic is surely “picking up momentum,” but as now, there is no evidence on when these additions will make their way into the Pokemon Go universe. People at the network believe that to bring some of the new Pokemon to the game, the company will need both a client and server-side update. The update could be anywhere from a few weeks to months away from release to the general public.
Nevertheless, the fact that Niantic is continuously working on the game serves as an assurance that though the hype surrounding Pokemon Go may have died down a little, the game is far from dead.
What the recent update offers
According to Wired, breeding could also be introduced with any second-generation update, as the original Gold and Silver versions did. This means more patches are coming in the future. However, all this is for the future. Meanwhile, the current update has new rewards as its main feature.
Detailed last week, the first time a player catches a Pokemon each day, he or she will receive bonus XP for their character as a reward and also extra Stardust to help evolve their critters. Also the first PokéStop visited will giv bonus items and XP. A seven-day streak of either gives you an even bigger payout.
With the update, Gym battles have also become somewhat fairer. Now when a player defeats a rival gym’s leader, there will be a brief window during which only the player will be able to place a Pokemon in the vacant tower, claiming the gym for his/her own team. This, according to Wired, ends a frustrating feeling when other passing players claim a gym that you just conquered.