In Pokémon GO players can catch big and small monsters, but in essence, size doesn’t matter much. That might change.
An XXL Snorlax, an XXS Pikachu, a gigantic Rattata, and a mini Gyarados: While players have long been able to catch Pokémon of various sizes, primarily they serve a collector’s effect.
So far, a monster’s size hasn’t really brought anything, aside from leveling corresponding medals with such catches.
However, that seems to change now. The Pokeminers have once again searched the code of Pokémon GO and found new details about two fresh features: Contests and Routes.
Update from June 17, 2023: The new feature related to contests has now entered the testing phase, and some players can try it out. We show you their impressions of the competition feature here.
What are these features?
You should consider this: The findings are data mining, that is, leaks. Whether and when the features will be introduced into the game is open until Niantic makes an official announcement. However, the Pokeminers have established themselves as a reliable source for early leaks in the past.
What was found? More details have been found about two features that have been discussed for some time.
The first are the “Contests,” which are expected to be “Contests” in German. They first appeared in January 2023. Now the Pokeminers found new clues in the code about how these contests are supposed to work. And here, size might become important (via pokeminers.com)
Currently, players must travel to a PokéStop where a contest takes place. There, they can then submit a Pokémon to participate. Only one monster can be in the race per contest.
Currently, there should only be one type of contest: namely, who has the largest Pokémon.
Additionally, the Pokeminers explain that players can only participate in a new contest if they have claimed the rewards from a previous one. Furthermore, a monster cannot participate if it has just won another contest. Recently traded monsters are also not allowed to participate.
Moreover, players should be able to earn ranks and points in competitions, as well as rewards. So it might be worth it to collect particularly large monsters and not just send them away because they do not belong to the best attackers in Pokémon GO.
What is the second feature? This concerns the “Routes,” which have also been discussed for a long time. Here, the Pokeminers also found new details.
Players will be able to create routes by choosing start and end points and walking them. They give them names and descriptions, and they can be between 500 meters and 20 kilometers long. Pins will be placed along the route.
Interestingly, the routes apparently need to be checked by Niantic, unlike the PokéStop system, which operates through Wayfarer. However, it is still unclear what exactly the routes will bring.
For now, we will have to wait and see. However, it seems that Pokémon GO might receive two new features – at least in the long term. Because when and in what form the features will come is still uncertain.
In the short term, the “intuitive hero” event just ended in Pokémon GO. This, however, caused some trouble, as the most exciting monster in the event is extremely rare.
