Pokemon Go Gets a Big Update Ahead of Fest Events

Niantic, developer of the smartphone game Pokemon Go, announced a update for the game ahead of the Pokemon Go fest being held to mark the game’s first anniversary. This update adds several small but useful features to the game. The update should be available for both Android and iOS before the fest begins this weekend. The latest update to Pokemon Go is labelled version 0.69.0 on Android and 1.39.0 on iOS. As always, the developers have released some information about the update on Pokemon Go’s website and enthusiastic players have already begun an APK teardown to see what else is there in the update.

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According to the developers’ release notes, the new version of Pokemon Go allows trainers to spin the photo disc at a gym after completing a Raid Battle. This gives you the opportunity to collect items from the gym immediately after a Raid Battle — in case you didn’t do so before the battle.

If your Pokemon are defending gyms, you can now send them some Berries even if you’re not near the gym. This can be done through the info screen, but remember that this method isn’t as effective at raising the motivation levels of your Pokemon as giving them Berries while you’re physically present at the gym. You can also give Pokemon Berries even if their motivation meter is full. That’s an alternative way to dispose of your Berries instead of just throwing them away if your bag is full.

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Other minor features include new icons that show how the Pokemon was caught — this will let you see if you caught the Pokemon via a Raid Battle, while exploring, or via an egg. The search functionality has also been improved on the Pokemon Collection screen.

There are several bug fixes as well in this update. Issues such as Pokemon not being returned properly after defending gyms and trainers being unable to complete Raid Battles that were begun before the time expired on the map view, have been fixed.

We spoke about Pokemon Go and how the game has evolved on Transition, our weekly games and pop culture podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below.