Over the weekend, the creators of the smartphone game Pokémon Go are organizing a spring event: From 5 to 8 May, more grass Pokémon will haunt the AR world. Nagger likes to make fun of it, killing the AR game Pokémon Go. The hype game of summer 2016 has lost a lot of players, but enough people are still running around catching monsters and taking over arenas – and when the weather improves again, more new ones are likely to be added.
So that the players are not always satisfied with the same Pokémon, developer Niantic has refreshed the monster menu several times with one-week events. At the Water Festival in March, Water-type Pokémon materialized more and more in front of the player, while at the Egg Festival at Easter, rare monsters slipped out of eggs. Niantic has been hosting its shortest ever event since Friday night, with Pokémon of grass-type appearing on Monday. Also, lock modules for Pokéstops work for six hours (instead of the usual 30 minutes).
In the US, the Pokémon Go makers are experimenting with an even shorter event this weekend: In Charlotte, North Carolina, a city-appointed route on Sunday is increasingly populated with rare monsters. The event, organized with the Knight Foundation, aims to get people out on the streets. Also, the game has laid the foundation for “promo codes” that unlock items in the in-game shop. In the US and Korea, the first promo campaigns are already taking place, rewarding customers of certain services with incubators and poke balls. So far, the promo codes only work on Android. Don’t forgot to check our new D&d Beyond Coupons
In interviews, the creators have announced further innovations: So the arena fights are to be significantly revised. Among other things, there was a stronger emphasis on cooperation within the own team; but also a re-evaluation of existing combat techniques for balancing the monster strengths is expected.
Niantic has confirmed that it will continue to make the long-awaited exchange system. But before that, you want to put a stop to the cheaters who, with their bots, scanners and fake GPS coordinates, hoard a large treasure trove of rare and powerful Pokémon. First steps against the cheaters have already been made: In March, a Google security update for Android 7 stuffed a gap that GPS spoofing apps had exploited to fake the wrong positions. Also, Google threw several spoofing apps from the Play Store and warned users with older Android versions; these apps would endanger the system security.
Other anti-cheating measures take place on the server side: Previously it was the case that a Pokémon could be captured by all players with the same base values (IV). Now, for players with a progress level, the servers spend under 30 random IVs, which is supposed to upset the bots of scanner services. Concrete dates for the Arena innovations and the exchange function, however, Niantic has not yet called – so it is time to wait and enjoy the events until then.
