Niantic Labs has been hard at work prepping up for the upcoming “Pokémon GO” Fest happening this weekend, and to maintain each fan’s jovial mood, the developer is continuously dropping bits and pieces of goodies. The most recent one is not as huge as with the update that brought players Raids, but it brings more tweaks to the Gym system. The update is now live and brings the iOS version to 1.39.0 and Android to 0.69.0.
Gym time is now less annoying
“Pokémon GO’s” latest update adds a tiny but significant feature for those who have stacked up quite a lot of Pokémon at gyms.
Now, players are able to feed berries to their Gym-defending Pokémon from wherever – meaning players won’t have to scoot all the way to the Gym anymore.
Players now have the option to go to a Pokémon’s info screen and feed them from afar, although this option is “less effective” than actually visiting the Gym. Unfortunately, Pokémon fed remotely won’t be as motivated if their Trainer doesn’t actually stop by to feed them. However, the teleportation should do well for those too lazy to go outdoors, or for Trainers who have their critters far off.
More great news, spinning a Gym’s Photo Disc after finishing a Raid is now made possible. Players also get to check which gym their Pokémon is through their stats screen, and journals will now record how many Pokecoins a returning Pokémon has earned.
Are the Legendaries coming?
Meanwhile, the good folks over at Silph Road did their usual teardown of the new update, confirming what everyone had suspected when the new update rolled out: there are several references to Legendary Pokémon.
Dataminers have discovered a line of code in the update suggesting that “Pokémon GO” can now differentiate what’s Mythical and Legendary.
Further, there’s also a warning prompt for players attempting to transfer a Legendary Pokémon, the ability to check if a Raid Boss is Legendary, and an error message for those who try to drop their Legendaries at a gym.
It remains to be seen if Niantic is adding Legendary Pokémon until they're actually in the game. However, the new update strongly suggests that Legendary Pokémon will be rolled out this weekend at Chicago, likely as the mystery challenge players will need to beat at the end of the event.
Previously, Niantic announced in a blog post that if players around the world catch enough Pokémon, Chicago Fest attendees will get themselves a mystery challenge. Should this challenge be completed, and “extra-special” bonus will be unlocked across the globe – this might be it.
