The Pokémon Go team has just announced on its blog the details of how its upcoming update will change certain dynamics of its gameplay. As a location-based game, Pokémon Go requires its players to literally walk around to discover Pokémon or access ‘PokéStops’ and Gyms for items and special encounters.
Although with the recent outbreak, the company is supporting the movement to stay indoors. Hence, the introduction of an upcoming update that lets you raid indoors.
Remote Raid Battles
Let’s get straight to it. Basically, once this feature rolls out, you’ll be able to participate on ANY ongoing raid battles you see on your Nearby list or any Gym that you can tap on your map. One Remote Raid Pass is required just like a normal raid battle, but the number of this special pass that you can hold will be limited — meaning you can’t stock up on them and go on a raiding spree.
This is an important aspect: The folks at Pokémon Go says that at launch, the attack power of Trainers battling from home and Trainers able to be exactly at the raid location will be equal. However, later on, it will be changed in a way that those who are physically at the Gym’s location will have higher attack power as compared to those raiding from home.
Additionally, the company says it will soon be making adjustments to the above-mentioned feature to ‘include changes to the number of Trainers who can join remotely, and the ability to invite friends to raids regardless of their location.’ That’s right. Soon, you will be able to raid and take down legendary Pokémon with your friends even if they’re in a different country.
This will totally redefine the game in a positive way. The most interaction two distant players can have right now is through sending ‘gifts’ from their location to yours and it contains normal items any player could get simply anywhere. With this upcoming implementation, they’re adding another reason to play the game and teaming up with close friends will be encouraged.
So when should we be able to try this out? According to their blog post, Remote Raid Passes will initially appear at the in-game shop under the 1 PokéCoin bundle. The team says it will be ‘coming soon’ so that’s one thing to watch for. When the feature is officially introduced, however, it will be available as a single option in the Store for 100 PokéCoins.
Other updates
Daily Research Task
Apart from being able to raid from home, there are more good news to be excited about. For the daily bonus Field Research task, you’ll be given simple tasks that you can easily do at home — like probably evolving X number of Pokémon or something similar — so you wouldn’t have to go out to reach a Poké Stop. This way, you can keep your streak for daily tasks when no available Stops are around.
Buddy to the rescue
Another feature to look forward to is having more to do with your Pokémon buddy. No matter your friendship level, as long as you run low on gifts, your buddy will start going to nearby PokéStops to get more for you. Although, they didn’t specify how near should the Stops be for your buddy to be able to go to it.
Powering up made easier
We’ve all powered up one or two of our Pokémon to the max and you know how long it took and how tedious it was to do the same thing repeatedly. This will all be a thing of the past as the ability to power them up to your desired CP will be available in just a few taps.
Stacked effects
For items with timed durations like Lucky Eggs, Star Pieces, or Incense, players will be able to activate more than one at a time and stack its effects. The maximum number one can activate is 200, and once these items are activated, they’re no longer in the Item Bag.
Better interface
In addition to all those, the company will also be rolling out updated interface specifically for battle screens. HP bars are said to appear more consistent throughout and Pokémon types will be indicated on the screen.
These are major changes that in themselves, are fun for players. Although at the same time, it encourages them to stay at home and minimize the risk of spreading virus.
We will be following the upcoming updates so stay tuned as we hear more from the Pokémon Go team.
