This Week in Pokémon Go News

[inkstone]

Happy Friday, trainers!

Relatively light in terms of news this week, but that's okay because we have a game update!

Game Updates

As me_and pointed out, Niantic released an update! Actually, we had three this week: a larger one that included the changes I mentioned last week, a smaller one with minor audio fixes, and another smaller one with minor text fixes.

Here is a list of all of the changes. It has screencaps that are helpful for visualization since there are interface changes.

A couple notes:

• The Catch Bonus: When you encounter a pokémon, you now see the relevant medals you've earned at the top of the screen. Sharp-eyed trainers will also sometimes see those medals flash again when you've successfully caught the pokémon (the "Gotcha!" screen). People are still trying to figure out what that reappearance means because it's inconsistent. A lot of theories floating around, but nothing definitive so far.


• Gym Training: The CP of defender pokémon scales down in relation to your trainer level. So if you're a level 25 trainer and the gym you're training up has 3 defenders from level 15, level 23, and level 29 trainers, only the pokémon from the level 29 trainer will scale down. It will scale down to your trainer level+2. So in my example, the defender from the level 29 trainer would scale down to level 27.

The gym training changes are a bit of a refinement, so I'll make a post next Tuesday about the new system for everyone to share tips, advice & strategies.

PokeGo & You

A joint research study between Stanford and Microsoft found that PokeGo increases physical activity across all genders, age brackets, and weight levels. I know this is a shocking revelation to find in a game that encourages people to go outside and catch invisible pocket monsters. (The Study)

What's going on in your neck of the woods, trainers?

Comments

[kittydesade]

New gyms have apparently happened. Or at least in my neighborhood, one place by a coffee shop that was a pokestop is now a gym (and Team Mystic! GO MYSTIC!)

This might not be a general thing because there was also a gym by the school across the street and on the other side of a restaurant from that pokestop-now-gym? That they took down a couple updates ago, also for unknown reasons. So this might have been them moving it to a more suitable for all ages location, or they might have... yeah, I have no idea why. But new gym! Anyone else have other new gyms to report?

[inkstone]

I've seen reports of new gyms on Reddit, but I haven't seen any around me. No new pokestops either. (I know sponsored pokestops are beginning to roll out too.)

[kittydesade]

Sponsored? As in if a pokestop is in a brewery pub, the pub can sponsor it?

[inkstone]

Yeah, you know how in Japan, McDonalds was a sponsor of PokeGo? So all McDonalds became pokestops (maybe a couple gyms). It's starting to roll out to other countries. I'll see if I can find a screenshot. There's a note on the info screen that a pokestop is sponsored. I assume the establishment reaches out to Niantic to do so.

[inkstone]

So, yes, this is what the info screen looks like: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/57e6ep/my_new_pokestop_is_a_sponsored_portal/

Definitely could use some minor text fixes. That's so unreadable.

[kittydesade]

.... Thaaat is entirely illegible, yes. Wow. But at least it doesn't look like it's in-game intrusive.

[storme]

Our local town hall *was* a gym, then a pokestop appeared right on top of it, then the gym disappeared... and now there's a new gym, a half-block away at a public fountain, where there used to be a pokestop! I don't think anyone local minds the switch, and presumably it was inconveniencing the town hall somehow to have the gym there.

[ephemera]

So far, I'm enjoying the team-of-pokemon for levelling up gyms, and I like the new badge look.

I'm curious about the Catch Bonus - I would swear I've had a couple of Drowsey catches (my most-caught Pokemon) where I got bonus XP for no discernible reason, so I'm wondering if that's maybe a thing?

In other news, I walked my Growlithe enough that I have an Arcanine of my very own, which pleases me greatly!

[inkstone]

I know you get bonus XP for every 100 pokemon of a specific type you catch. It's only noted as "Bonus." Maybe that's it?

[tyger]

I haven't done anything more interesting than walking around the block this week, unfortunately. Which has been A++ for my recovery, but nothing super exciting pokégo wise. Has the radar thing been finalised, btw? I'm having trouble figuring it out.

I'm going into town tomorrow, though, so there should be a bajillion pokéstops, if nothing else. :3 Depending on wait times and where we are exactly, I might even get to try a gym! :D

[inkstone]

No word on any updates to the tracker. You still have to use the triangulation method.

[tyger]

Ugh, I'm so bad with that. Oh well, we'll see how it goes!

[lizbee]

Is anyone else having GPS problems? The app keeps losing my location, and I have to restart to get it going again.