In the midst of their Thanksgiving promotion, which rewards players with double the XP (quadruple with a lucky egg, by the way) and stardust for every in-game action, Niantic has quietly made some other adjustments to Pokémon GO. Not only have they expanded the test group for the new tracking feature to a larger portion of players, but there’s a new Pokémon hiding out there in plain sight!
According to Niantic, the tracker guinea pigs now include anyone living in an area of the United States west of the Mississippi river; Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the western half of Ontario; and all of Australia. The improved system is an updated version of the one previously shown, which indicates which Pokéstop a Pokémon is closest to. According to Cnet, selecting an individual Pokémon displayed on the tracking screen results in more direct tracking, with the return of the footstep icons.
Of course, this system works best in areas with lots of Pokéstops, but Niantic’s post also mentions that they’ve revamped the functionality of the “sightings” tab, as well, which is the current system most players are used to seeing. They weren’t specific, though, so if anyone in the test area has any feedback on how the new sightings functionality works, let us know! It seems like only a matter of time before the rest of us finally get access to an improved tracker.
We do have the specifics on the first new Pokémon to be added to the game, though: Ditto! When battling at gyms, it’ll copy the first Pokémon it encounters and remain in that form for the rest of the match. Judging by this video, its combat power also increases, though not to an identical level with its opponent. (Perhaps its combat power raises to match that of the opposing Pokémon’s species, proportional to the Ditto’s progress along the CP arc? Seems about right based on the Ditto’s CP in the video and my own Kinglers’ CP levels.)
Players who previously theorized that the shapeshifting Pokémon could already be hiding out there in the wild weren’t entirely wrong—the goopy purple monster does, in fact, masquerade as other Pokémon until it’s caught, so the only way to find one is to catch each and every Pokémon you come across and just cross your fingers.
However, the uncle of one of our staffers works at Niantic, and we’ve heard that shaking your phone in time with the Pokéball’s wiggling animations might increase your chances of catching a Ditto.
(image via Niantic)
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