Pokemon GO launched earlier this year and since then the way that you can track where Pokemon are in relation to you has been extremely hit or miss. At first, there was a footprint tracker, then it was removed, which led to tracking websites appearing, which were then taken down by Niantic, and now Niantic has been testing a new tracking system in San Francisco. The ability to track Pokemon successfully has been a large point of contention for a lot of players and Niantic is hoping that their new system will help players continue on their journey to become Pokemon masters.
The new "Nearby" feature tells players which Pokestop each Pokemon is closest to and once you have a Pokemon selected on your tracker you will get a waypoint on your map that can guide you to the Pokestop. In a recent post on the official Pokemon Go website Niantic had the following to say about expanding the area that they are trialing the new tracker in:
After reviewing your feedback, we have made some changes to the Nearby feature we were originally testing in San Francisco, California. We have changed the feature to only show the Nearby feature if a PokéStop is close to your location. In addition, we have also made changes to the way Sightings now works.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z65GaP04lOQWe will be expanding the ability for Trainers to test this updated version of the features and provide us with feedback. Starting today, Trainers in the following areas will now be able to use the new Nearby and Sightings functionality:
United States of America: All states west of the Mississippi River (except Hawaii and Alaska)
Canada: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the western half of Ontario.
Australia: All states and territories
Another new addition to Pokemon GO is that it is now possible to catch wild Ditto, but it's a bit different from what you would expect. As you walk around catching different Pokemon there is a chance that after catching the Pokemon, but before seeing its stats an "Oh!" will appear, much like it does when you hatch an egg. The difference will be that instead of something hatching the Pokemon that you've caught will revert back to its original form as a Ditto. This means if you're just catching another Rattata or manage to find something rarer there's now a chance that it will turn into a Ditto. If you take a Ditto into a Gym and use transform you will turn into the opposing Pokemon for the duration of the gym battle, learning their attacks and gaining their base stats. This means that if you have a Ditto that has had its stats put up to 100% then more often than not when you enter gyms your version of the Pokemon will be stronger than the one you face.
The final piece of Pokemon GO news is that over the weekend of Thanksgiving Niantic is rewarding players with double EXP and Stardust for all EXP rewarding activities including catching and hatching Pokemon, as well as catching your first Pokemon and hitting your first Pokestop of the day.
Are you excited to hear about a new tracker coming to Pokemon GO? Are you wanting to go out and catch a Ditto? or do you still think work needs to be done before you'll go back to playing?
