Looking into our crystal Pokeball.
Dataminers have discovered a host of new features coming to Pokemon Go secreted amongst the codebase of its newest update..
Some pertain to the addition of new Pokemon we expect to be announced next week, while others add features familiar to players of the main game series.
But for fear of spoilers, I’ll give you one last chance to turn back from whence you came.
The good people at The Silph Road (who originally discovered the expected addition of Gold/Silver-era Pokemon to the mobile sensation) have looked into the Android v0.49.1 update, and found evidence of several incoming new features:
- Sound files for 100 new Pokemon (Gold/Silver added 100 new species)
- Shiny Variants – highly rare, alternate colour schemes for Pokemon have existed since Gold/Silver, and seem to be in the offing for Go
- Pokemon genders
- Player avatar customisation – includes mentions of hair, shirt, pants, hat, shoes, eyes and backback
- Possible microtransactions and in-game unlocks for customisation items
- Pokemon costumes – the code points to special Holiday-themed clothes for your captured monsters
These come alongside some smaller tweaks, including a new stance for buddy Pokemon, placeholder names for sponsors, and further tweaks to the Nearby systems.
It’s worth bearing in mind that these are changes to the code to allow for the addition of new features – it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be added anytime soon (some evidence of shiny Pokemon has existed in the code for some time, for instance).
Between a host of new Pokemon, and super-rare variants, it seems developer Niantic is focusing on beckoning players back to its game with further ways to get addicted to catching ’em all.
We’ll likely hear confirmations for at least some of the above when Niantic details the addition of new Pokemon to the game next week, December 12.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s UK News Editor, and he’ll die looking for a shiny Wobbuffet. Follow him on Twitter.