We are closing 2019, and what a year it was for Pokémon GO! We had a bunch of new events, the long-awaited Jirachi (released in this year’s Pokemon GO Fest) a new generation of mons (The 5th Gen to be exact), and even some Team Rocket Invasion featuring Shadow Pokemon!
Now, with December Community Day just gone and with a few hints on what’s to come, it’s time to welcome 2020 and see what may be in store for us this year.
Please note that these are things we would love to see in 2020, but by no means are 100% confirmed. These are only speculations based on what has been achieved in the game so far. Also, it is what communities all around the globe has been asking lately.
With that being said, let’s begin with the things that are coming and what may come in the future.
GO Battle League
On October 21th, Niantic announced the Go Battle League, a brand new way of doing PvP in Pokémon GO. GO Battle League will feature ranked tournaments (finally) for all three leagues, Super, Ultra and Master.
This ranked PvP system will be available in early 2020, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to do some preparations beforehand, as you will need at least one different team per league. GO Battle League will revolutionize everything in PvP, giving us a system we will never experienced before.
Maybe is time for Niantic to expand the maximum of Pokemon in our party to six instead of three, just like the original games. Or maybe only three may participate in the battle, but you have another three in the bench, just like other games of Pokemon.
Either way, this would give endless possibilities and a whole lot of new strategies to make. Can you imagine battling with six Pokemon? It would totally break the actual balance in the game and add some new Pokémon in meta-gaming.
Despite one of these things being applied or not, players and communities all around the world are preparing for this massive PvP System Update.
So… Are you ready to battle in this new ranked system PvP?
New Buddy System (Friendship level)
In the past days, Niantic just announced the Adventure Buddy System, wich will allow you to take your Pokemon for a walk-literally- and earn friendship level.
This reminds us of Pokemon Let’s GO Pikachu and Eevee, where you have the chance to actually interact with your Buddy in order to increase its friendship level.
This feature is set to be released in earlier 2020. But also, this mean we can get a new way of evolution in some time, just like the original games where you have to be on a certain friendship level to evolve your Pokémon.
We shall wait and see what interesting stuff we can do with this totally new Adventure Buddy System.
Sixth Generation? (speculation)
Earlier this year we had the launch of an entire new generation in Pokemon GO. The fifth generation now is among us, and even if there are a lot of Pokémon from the Unova Region yet to be found, it is likely the sixth generation shall be available sometime in 2020.
This is considering the timing Niantic has to release new gens. Maybe in the middle of the year we could have news on the Kalos region.
The launch of a new generation should bring some interesting Pokémon to the table, like Xerneas, the Life Pokemon, or other interesting choices for the meta-game, like the long-awaited Greninja or even Hawlucha.
Most important is that we could finally have the Mega Evolutions, giving a huge boost to some current Pokémon. Interesting, indeed.
Gym Leaders as NPCs (speculation)
At Pokemon GO Fest, we got introduced to the the first NPC’s (Non Playable Characters) in a long time. Team rocket started to invade Pokemon GO slowly, first with Rocket Grunts in every Pokestop waiting to challenge us.
Late in this year, we got the Team Rocket Leaders Arlo, Sierra and Cliff. And among them, none other than the Team Rocket Boss himself, Giovanni. Have you battled them yet?
Surely, that’s a bunch of new characters! Finally characters from the games are starting to rollout in Pokemon GO, which make us wonder who will be next
According to the immensity majority of Pokemon GO communities around the globe, the next NPC’s to arrive in the game should be the Gym Leaders. Of course, this would need a complete gym re-work.
But given the actual gym system is more than 1 year old, we believe is a good time to rework on these and add Gym Battles, with the Gym Leader being the final step to conquer the Gym. It would be a good way to support more Gym battling.
Start button on Lobby Raids (speculation)
It’s about time we get this. Back when interesting raids were only T4 or T5, there was no choice but to wait for a group or a nearby friend to raid with you in order to get that Pokemon you wanted. Now, with five generations and many Pokemon from them being in raids, soloing have become a thing, and a very common indeed.
That’s why if you are doing a raid solo style, you won’t want to wait 120 seconds for a group to come – you can do it by yourself!-. If you are in a rush to work or someplace else, this is specially true. No one is willing to wait that long, and many raid passes have gone lost simply because of this. With a “Start” button next to the timer in the raid lobby, things would go much faster.
If you are just by yourself doing a T1, T2 or even T3 raid in some cases, you can simply skip the time and start battling immediately. If you are doing T4 or a T5 raid instead, you just wait skipping the “Start” button. So in the end, everyone wins.
These are quite some interesting things Niantic could do to improve the game in 2020. Again, take note that this is just thoughts from players. It may or may not be happening.
We surely can’t wait for all these things to arrive in the game. But in the meantime, we are strongly looking forward to 2020, and what lies ahead for Pokémon GO next year.
