AR Plus mode has been discovered in the 0.87.5 APK mine, hinting at a new Augmented Reality mode with special catch mechanics. This page details everything we know about the upcoming AR Plus mode:
- Awareness, proximity and movement
- Nanab Berries during the encounter
- AR Plus encounter Bonuses
What is AR Plus?
AR Plus is an upcoming game mode for Pokemon GO that enables you to catch Pokemon in AR by sneaking up and following their movement in the real world. It’s powered by AR Kit on iOS and AR Core on Android. AR Plus features several interesting mechanics:
- Awareness – indicates how aware a Pokemon is of your presence. Less is better.
- Proximity – the closer you get to a Pokemon, the likely it is you will scare it and it will flee.
- Jumping – Pokemon can jump from bushes, jump away from you and jump away a certain distance
In a nutshell, you need to approach Pokemon without them getting aware. In addition, there special “thresholds” that can’t be broken during the encounter or the Pokemon flees. The following image displays icons that are used for AR Plus tutorial: 
The text behind these steps:
- Tutorial step 0
- “Look around an open area with your device until it recognizes a flat surface.”
- Tutorial step 1
- “Tap the tall grass to find a Pokémon. “
- Tutorial step 2
- “Approach the Pokémon slowly. You’ll get bonus rewards if you catch it!”
AR Plus thresholds
The following thresholds were data mined during our 0.87.5 data mine but were not discussed in the main post for the sake of brevity. Without further ado, here are all the AR Plus thresholds we’ve found.
- Close proximity threshold – you are not allowed to get too close to the Pokemon you’re pursuing
- Awareness Flee threshold – the Pokemon will flee if its awareness goes over a particular level.
- Low awareness, high awareness and awareness penalty thresholds – likely relate to increasing / lowering the difficulty of capturing the Pokemon during the AR Plus encounter
- Instant frighten threshold – as soon as this is reached, all of your AR Plus encounter attempts are used and the Pokemon is gone
- Look at player awareness threshold – you can’t be seen directly for too long, otherwise the Pokemon flees
- Proximity approach per second threshold – if you move faster than an allowed limit during the encounter, the Pokemon you’re pursuing flees
- Turn speed degree per second threshold – it seems like you won’t be allowed to turn your phone faster than a set number of degrees per second
Nanab Berry and AR Plus
A curious field was observed in the 0.87.5 APK, named “Nanab Berry Awareness modifier”. We have nothing more to share about this effect at the moment, but it’s almost guaranteed that Nanab Berries will reduce Pokemon’s movement during the AR Plus encounter.
.NanabBerryAwarenessModifier
