Fan Fest News

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Pokemon Go – Are 3rd Generation Pokemon Coming This Holiday Season?

We’ve been working hard to catch the new Legendary Pokemon popping up across the map in Pokemon Go, and with word of Mewtwo coming soon, it looks like things are getting even more heated. Though what if Legendary Raids aren’t your thing? What if you just want to go out there and catch more Pokemon? Well then, you’ll be very happy to learn what was discovered in the data-mine of Pokemon Go v0.71.0 …Cue the trumpets!!!!

Generation 3 Is Coming Soon – But When?

“Data miners just discovered lines of code for the Gen 3 Pokemon”, hmmm, why does this headline sound so familiar? Well that’s because the same thing happened last November when data miners on Silph Road first discovered the names of Gen 2 Pokemon in the APK metadata. Like last time, not only were the new Pokemon names discovered (135 new species this time) but also new candy families (73 to be exact). Though it’s important to note that only the names were discovered and not the sound files nor any additional moves that were introduced in Gen 3 (ie: Leaf Blade, Blaze Kick, etc). Due to this lack of information, we know the Gen 3 update is still a little ways away, and if the timetable remains the same, we can predict WHEN.

As previously stated, this data was found for Gen 2 on November 7th and Gen 2 was finally released on February 16th. This is a time span of about 3 months, which would place the release of Gen 3 in the last week of November/ first week of December. Though considering the recent path of Pokemon Go, I wouldn’t be surprised if they push it off for a month or two in favor of their other plans. Remember that Pokemon Go is still introducing more Legendary/ Exclusive Raids. Some could also say that we’ll get Trading or PVP battles before Gen 3’s release, but I’m not holding my breath. That being said, the real reason I’m hesitant about Gen 3 being released around Christmas is Delibird – a Gen 2 Pokemon that is based on Santa Claus.

Releasing such a holiday specific Pokemon AND an entire new Gen at once is a bit much for a company that likes spacing things out; but hey, I’d be more than happy to have a fully booked/ Poke-fied Holdiay season! So start brushing up on your Gen 3 knowledge, and if you’ve never played, here’s an Honest Trailer to help you out.

Exclusive Raid Updates:

Additional support for Exclusive Raids is slowly being added as emblems and default items for winning the raids are getting lines of code. A bit more is needed before these features become widely released as it’s not just the mechanics for Exclusive Raids that need testing but also how each gym will handle becoming an Exclusive Raid. (ie: Will they happen at random intervals or only once enough people have completed a raid at that gym.)

Remember that Exclusive Raids can only be done by people who’ve recently completed a Raid there. So if no one completes Raids at a certain gym, starting an Exclusive Raid there would be literally pointless as they’d be making an event that no one would be eligible to participate in.

Additional Gameplay Changes – Incubators, Shiny Pokemon & More:

  • The two existing incubators have gotten a cosmetic update while a 3rd type known as “Super Incubator” has been discovered. It’s unknown whether these Super Incubators will be purchasable or awarded to players. Nor is it known whether these Super Incubators allow multiple uses, hatch eggs faster or both.
  • Some new text regarding “shinySpawn” has been found but it is unclear if this affects spawn rates, the spark effect when a shiny Pokemon appears OR will make Pokemon on the world map also show the shiny effect – as opposed to just in the catch screen.
  • Movesets are now searchable in the Pokemon screen. So if you really want to find all your Blizzard users, now’s your chance.
  • Ditto popped up in this update again under the title “Metamon_ID”, which is its Japanese name. Perhaps this is just an update to allow ditto to masquerade as one of these new Gen 3 Pokemon.