One of gaming’s great success stories during the pandemic is how Niantic managed to transform Pokémon Go from a social game into a distanced one. Yes, you can still play it with other players, but most of the game’s content can now be experienced without leaving the safety of your home.
Following Pokémon Go’s launch on July 6, 2016, we’ve seen a number of significant things get added to the game, including trading and raiding. On November 30, Niantic will release Pokémon Go’s biggest update yet. Titled Go Beyond, this update affects almost every area.
The most noteworthy change is the long overdue level cap increase, which will now allow players to reach level 50. Grinding out experience points is only part of what is required to move beyond 40 – you’ll also be asked to complete a number of missions for each additional level.
For level 41, the player is required to earn six million experience points, and complete four missions. Two of these missions are power up a legendary Pokémon 20 times, and win 30 raids. Moving from level 43 to 44 pushes the player to earn 11,000,000 experience points, unlock 30 platinum levels, and defeat 30 trainers in Great league, 20 in Ultra league, and 20 in Master league. Needless to say, it’s going to take a long time to reach level 50. Achieving new levels brings huge rewards like items and new avatar gear such as a Gyarados hat.
All of your fully maxed out Pokémon can get a little bit stronger in Go Beyond, not through CP rising with the level cap, but a new item called XL candy that gives your critters permanent CP bumps. XL candy will be hard to come by, and will likely be tied to some of the new levels.
Even though we still haven’t seen all of the Pokémon from previously released generations yet, Niantic is introducing Kalos region Pokémon on December 2. Along with the starters Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie, you’ll be on the look out for a handful of others, including Pyroar and Fletchling.
Go Beyond also introduces the concept of seasons, which Niantic says are approximately three months each. In one season, Rattata may be easy to find, whereas you may not see him hardly at all in the next. We’ve experienced Pokémon rotation before, but it now sounds like it is themed to the seasons. Players in different hemispheres will see different spawns and most events will be themed around the season of note. During limited windows of time in a season, Mega Pokémon are boosted in power. Niantic wants players to use them more, and while this boost helps, Niantic still hasn’t figured out the perfect solution yet, and is listening to player feedback to help find the answer.
Go Beyond doesn’t introduce new concepts, but does give trainers plenty of stuff to do, the most exciting of which is the addition of the new region.
Are you still playing Pokémon Go? If so, what do you think of the proposed update?
