The latest update for both the iOS and Android versions of Pokémon GO follows hot on the heels of the four legendary birds, adding the three legendary beasts of Johto; Suicine, Raikou, and Entei.
Each of the legendary beasts will be available in only one region, for the period of one month. At the end of that month, each of the beasts will move to a new region until players in each region have had a chance to catch each beast. It's a different approach to the one we saw with the four legendary birds, which were globally available for only a specified time - and it echoes the high speed and mobile nature of Suicine, Entei, and Raikou in Pokémon Gold & Silver.
Each of the beasts can be found in the following regions during the period between August 31st and September 30th.
Raikou, an Electric-type Legendary Pokémon, can be battled throughout the Americas. Entei, a Fire-type Legendary Pokémon, can be battled throughout Europe and Africa. Suicune, a Water-type Legendary Pokémon, can be battled throughout the Asia-Pacific region.The second phase will begin September 30th, which each of the beasts moving to a different location until October 31st, until each of them visits their final location for one day only, on October 31st. As with the last legendary Pokémon, the three beasts will only be available during this time - so move fast if you want to grab them.
And Niantic's work doesn't stop here. The same announcement also mentions that the upcoming and enigmatic EX Raid Battles - additional battles created for regular Raid Battle players - will soon be entering beta testing, with players in certain areas receiving special EX Raid Passes for the opportunity to face specially powerful raid Pokémon. Details on the mode are sparse, but it is known that (for now) EX Raid Battles will be invite-only, and sent to players who have participated in Raid Battles recently.
In addition to these major updates, the latest patch also added a couple of quality of life improvements for players, including tweaks to Raid Battles, Pokémon collection searching, and improvements to the Pokémon GO Plus accessory.
You can find the full list of changes on the Pokémon GO Live updates section , but in brief, here's what you can expect when your client updates.
The addition of a player counter to Raid battles should be a big boost to any raiders out there, with the ability to see if any players are queuing to enter a Raid Battle before using a Raid Pass. This is especially pertinent to free-to-play players, who'll likely only have one Raid Pass a day to spend on their precious Raid Battles - and there's nothing worse than realising that there's no-one to help you with a 34k CP Pokémon after using your daily Raid Pass.
Another small improvement is the addition of spinning Gym Photo Disks on the Pokémon GO Plus accessory, rather than having to dive back into your pocket. Again, this change is relatively minor, but it's something that should help the more hardcore players with their Plus accessories and is likely something that should have been in the game beforehand.
Finally, Niantic included a whole bunch of improvements and bug fixes aimed at generally making lives easier, including the ability to search through your Pokémon for specific moves - an element that gets more and more important the deeper into the metagame you go.
More legendaries for Pokémon GO players! This is clearly a massive update, and we're taking it for granted that you're excited about that. But which Pokémon do you want to see next? Where's Ho-oh in all this? Will Ho-oh be making a surprise appearance during this event? Let us know your thoughts down below. And if you're one of the few who hasn't take the plunge, check out our Pokémon GO review to see if it's right for you, or just check out our other Pokémon GO articles for more Pokémon goodness.
