The new Pokemon Go update arriving today includes some pretty big changes, which everyone will want to know about. The two large additions Trainers will notice is the new dynamic weather gameplay and the new Gen 3 Pokemon.
And both are connected.
Pokemon Go Saphire and Ruby were the first games in the Pokemon franchise to start utilising weather, and it just so happens that Niantic have decided to pair these features together.
New Pokemon Go Gen 3 releases will be happening over the coming weeks, and will be directly affected by the new dynamic weather gameplay.
As Trainers go exploring the world in search of Pokemon, the current weather in their vicinity will be visible on the in-game map. And much more exciting then that, the real-world weather around Trainers will impact the gameplay of Pokemon Go.
THE BASICS:
This will include changing Pokemon habitats and where they can be found, increasing Combat Power, and earning more Stardust after catching a Pokemon.
For example, Water Pokemon will come out when it’s raining and this will affect all Pokemon, not just Gen 3.
The Water Pokemon you encounter in the rain will be stronger, and offer a higher amount of stardust, meaning the CP value will be higher than usual.
Catching Water Pokemon in the rain will provide a stardust bonus and will also encourage the stronger types from that species to appear.
POKEMON BATTLES:
Pokemon Go battles will also be affected, with movesets that sync with the current weather conditions getting a boost.
Here’s more from Niantic engineer, Matt Slemon.
“Dynamic Weather is the inclusion of real-world weather into the world of Pokemon Go, Matt explains.
“This means that visually, the game will start to look different. If it’s sunny outside, you will see the sun out, if it is raining, you should expect to see rain.
“This helps us get closer to the original vision of Pokemon Go, an AR Pokemon game.
“If you go into a battle at a Gym or a Raid with your Charizard partner, you should expect that in the sun, their fire-type moves will do additional damage.
“That means that defenders who can correctly predict what the weather patterns are going to be, will be in a much better position to defend those Gyms against players who don’t.”
As you can imagine, this will also make big changes to Pokemon Go Raid battles, providing more strategy to the decision of joining one.
“If that Raid boss has more affinity to the weather in the area, it’s going to be a more difficult opponent,” Slemon adds.
The trade off is that if you can then capture the Charizard, you’re going to get a good one.
“If you capture the Charizard, you still get the bonus Stardust, in addition to find that the Charizard has higher CP.”
“Pokemon care about the dominate weather condition outside, so we send that to the user.
Every weather condition has a couple of Pokemon types attached to it, so it mean EVERY Pokemon has at least one kind they care about.
NEW POKEMON GO UI:
The Pokemon Go UI will also see some changes, with a new Weather Widget being added.
This will tell players at all times what the current effects are, tapping the widget will display a reminder of what that is doing to the gameplay.
“It will tell you what types are affected and what those effects are, Slemon adds.
It should also be noted that this will be part of everyday gameplay, with Niantic not considering any kind of combo with existing events, such as the summer solstice celebration.
Niantic have also confirmed that this is a fully-fledged Pokemon Go update, without the need for a beta phase.
But that doesn’t mean feedback won’t be needed, Niantic are actively looking for more information on their new feature so they can improve it.
OTHER CHANGES:
Niantic have confirmed to the Express that there will be safety features in place, removing the weather bonuses if the conditions outside become too severe.
This will apparently include some kind of message popping up to notify players.
It should also be noted that visually, even if players turn off the AR support in capture mode, the map will still be affected by the real weather, snow will still be on the ground, etc.
“The art team have really been able to make those scenes pop, I might be overselling it now but I’m really excited for people to start seeing the new appearance,” Slemon adds.
More is bound to be revealed today and in the coming weeks when it comes to this new features, however, right now it looks to be quite a change in the formula fans have got to know.