PokemonGo Extreme Fans

Author: Dave S

New PokemonGo App Update – No Gen2 but GPS drift and Apple Watch fixes

David S, Game Announcements, Pokemon GO

Hey gang!  It’s been quite a stretch of quiet from the folks at Niantic regarding the game.  Beyond the usual 2 week nest migrations (Nest Migration #11 happened January 12th, 2017 and happens every two weeks), some expansions of the Starbucks Pokemon Gym/Stops to more locations, and RAMPANT Gen 2 speculation, there’s been nothing of any real merit.  Although they’ve broken their silence about the game and an updates this is still pretty non-eventful.  Today via blog post they announced that an update is coming to bring Pokemon Go for Android to 0.53.1 and for iOS 1.23.1.

The one giant omission from the patch notes is any reference to legendary Pokemon nor more Gen 2 Pokemon.  Disappointing for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

The Apple Watch “fix” is so that the Apple Watch displays eggs obtained from PokeStops.   The biggest concern to players seems to be a tweak for the “GPS drift.”  The notes detail change of distance tracking for GPS drift which will have a HUGE impact to gaining km’s for eggs, buddy, anything distance based for the game.  Some users including this writer like to open the game even when not actively being played as the character will randomly move around acquiring location from the GPS within the phones.  Not a “hack” or major glitch by any definition as on guesstimates alone there’s no way people are getting more than maybe 1-3 kms extra out of GPS drift, that’s again having the phone open ALL day.  Let’s hope the folks at The Silph Road have some existing data to see how big an impact this has on players.  They seem to be pretty awesome on picking apart updates, getting data, and analyzing the game very well, check them out here and sign up to help ID nests around your area as well.

Seems to be yet another squeeze to push folks to only get the km’s from either walking or biking.  Let’s hope we’ll at least see something new and exciting here soon…

Pokemon Go is live on the Apple Watch!

Pokemon GO

Apple Watch users can rejoice; Pokemon Go is now available to help track kilometers needed to hatch eggs, receive alerts on nearby Pokemon, and track walks to hatch eggs or get buddy candy as a workout!  Apple Watch users now the ease of seeing notifications, swiping, and tracking exercise with ease that can now be applied to Pokemon Go!

From the blog release here’s the great things you can do now if you have the Apple Watch and iPhone:

“To recap the core features of Pokémon GO on Apple Watch, you’ll be able to

  • Log each play session as a workout, with gameplay counting toward personal Activity rings
  • Receive notifications about nearby Pokémon
  • Count distance toward hatching Pokémon Eggs and receiving Candy with your Buddy Pokémon
  • Receive notifications about PokéStops nearby and collect items from them
  • Receive notifications when Eggs hatch and medals are awarded”

For the full post on the Apple Watch launch click here.

Tis the season for a Pokemon Go Holiday Event!!

Game Announcements, Pokemon GO

Niantic has just released the details on the end of year Holiday Event!  It’s packed with a ton of Poke goodies!  Trainers have been awaiting the long rumored holiday event for weeks now and it looks like it was very much worth the wait!

Increased hatch rates – Starting Christmas morning, December 25, 2016 through the afternoon of January 3, 2017 (PST) we’ll see increased egg drops and hatching rates for Togepi and other recently released Johto region Pokemon.  To handle the increased egg hatching, Niantic is also increasing the incubator drops.  “Pokestops will award one single-use Incubator each day after your first Photo Disc spin.”

Holiday themed Poke’s will hang around for a while longer – Festive Pikachu will be around for a bit longer it seems.

This is where it gets better – Increased first partner Pokemon and their evolutions in the wild!!  This means all the Kanto region originals will be more plentiful so if you’ve still not got a Bulbasuar, Ivysaur, and Venusaur, or a Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard; you certainly will after this event.  These increased spawn rate items will run from the afternoon of December 30th, 2016 through January 8th, 2017 (PST).  As well any lures you drop at Pokestops will be extended to 60 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes.

Get the full post here.

So unwrap all your cool presents in the morning, then get out and enjoy the holiday event!!

More Pokemon and limited edition Pikachu are live!!!

Game Announcements, Pokemon GO

Our wait is over!  We were told to wait until today for new information on Pokemon Go additions and here it is:  Togepi and Pichu will be hatching from eggs starting later today!  Hailing from the Johto Region in the Gold and Silver video games these two are the first two of many more Pokemon that will be introduced in the coming months based on the update on Niantic’s blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well starting today at 10:00 AM PST limited edition Pokemon will be available for trainers to find all over the world.  They will be dressed in “festive hat” for the season.  See the video for more:

Share your new Pokemon catches on Twitter via the hashtag #PokemonGo and for the festive catches go AR, snap a pic and tag #HolidayPikachu

 

Starbucks and PokemonGo – 2nd major partnership announced

Game Announcements, Pokemon GO, PokemonGO Extreme Fans

Niantic has confirmed much of the speculation and rumors generated by leaked Starbuck’s emails that it has indeed inked a deal to partner with the huge chain.  Starbucks will now be an official partner with Pokemon Go!

Much like the Sprint partnership this means that all 7,800 company operated Starbucks will have Pokestops and Gyms.  What makes this different from the Sprint deal is that fans of Pokemon Go can get a special-edition Pokemon Go Frappuccino.

So if you dig Fraps and Pokemon Go take a spin or walk over to your local company operated Starbucks and get a drink and some Pokestop goodies or battle it out for Gym ownership!

New update introduces multiple Pokemon transfers

Pokemon GO

Niantic’s upcoming update to the Android and iOS platforms finally permit you to transfer more than one Pokemon to Professor Willey!  This is a very much needed feature based on the amount of Pidgey’s and Rattata’s we now have to catch for the chance for Dittos!

Additional updates include icon’s, Candy Count, total kilometer’s walked, and some text fixes.

See the full update here.

 

Sprint and Next Gen Pokemon Launch on December 12, 2016!!

Game Announcements, Pokemon GO

Sprint and Niantic have struck a partnership that promotes Sprint’s network and provides additional Poke Stops and Pokemon Gym’s at Sprint’s 10,500 locations in the US.  Tucked within the Sprint announcement today Niantic reveals new experiences and in-game events before the end of 2016!  Tucked within this update is a rather quiet line of news referencing December 12, 2016 announcement for “new Pokemon” being added into Pokemon Go!  Could this be our next-gen launch date?  Certainly seems so!

The Sprint announcement details a special experience being added to Sprint’s locations around the US.  Sprint and their affiliates (Boost and Sprint at Radioshack stores) will become gyms and Pokestops!  Seems nothing unique to those locations as Niantic says that it provides more locations to get the usual Poke balls and Razz Berries specifically. This announcement also provides some information on what trainers can expect if the partnership with Starbucks being rumored is also true.

 

Nearby feature expansion!

Pokemon GO

Niantic has updated it’s blog indicating the new Nearby feature has been expanded further.  Specifically, the rest of the continental United States and “large parts of Europe.”  Unfortunately no news of which part and how much of Europe is seeing the new feature.

fullnearby

The new updated Nearby shows pictures of locations with the Pokemon you’d expect to catch at them.  This was captured last night and shows an active Nearby list.  When clicking any of the Nearby pictures it will zoom in to the specific location:

individualnearby

Neat new feature for sure!!  Niantic is listening to feedback and has committed to tweaking this and any other parts of the game as it makes sense and improves the game so let them know what you think about this new feature.

Original Post:

nianticpost

Ditto Official – PokemonGo’s new Rare addition

Game Announcements, Pokemon GO, PokemonGO, PokemonGO Extreme Fans

Niantic has officially confirmed the release of the rare Ditto Pokemon into the game via an update post and video.  In the video you see what would happens when you catch a normal Pokemon only to get the special music and see Ditto pop up!  As the social media account have shown Ditto has been being caught by Trainers across the globe, but the post shares some neat details on Ditto especially where Gyms are concerned.

Ditto can be used in Gyms to train or battle Ditto will copy both the appearance and attacks of the first Pokemon it encounters.  This has some intereresting ramifications for battle.  Lets say I start my battle with a Pidgey then beat Ditto with the weak attacks then switch to a stronger more powerful one?  Guess further training and battling will show what happens when Ditto is being used or battle/trained against.

See the video:

 

Shiny, Rare, and Ditto? PokemonGo APK 0.47 teardown

Pokemon GO

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UPDATE!!

Ditto’s are being caught!  Posts to Facebook are showing users catching basic Pokémon that transform to Ditto’s!

One story here.

 

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The folks over at thesilphroad.com are at it again.  They published some interesting findings after digging into the recent APK 0.47 files released in the last update on or around November 18th.

As anyone following the update releases know Niantic’s release notes were very bare.  It claimed only that egg animation and small text files were fixed.  Under the hood it looks like much more is coming very soon.

Highlights of the findings are more Ditto code!!!  From the looks of the code there’s many references to Ditto.  There’s the potential that Ditto can be caught in the wild and used in battles.  Ditto capture sounds are different, along with background graphics (including a “spotlight” graphic described as potentially indicating an altered appearance.  There’s new tracker code tweaks too!

There was code that was found to reflect the words “RARE” and “SHINY” with an accompanied new sound file that plays when a Pokemon is captured with the RARE tag.  The SHINY tag can mean that new material to alter the the tint or color of the Pokemon.

All this is speculation but thesilphroad.com makes some very sound assumptions.  For the full read out head over to the article.