Hello Trainers! Pokémon GO 0.169.0 is slowly rolling out through the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. In addition to the update, a few smaller things were pushed to the Game Master File as well. There is a lot to cover in this one from: new searches, new costumed forms, to more code for Elite TM’s and more!
🚨⚠️ Disclaimer ⚠️🚨
Please be aware that everything posted here has been publicly reported by data miners (PokeMiners). Information shared through these channels is not affiliated nor approved by Niantic, and is always subject to change. Do not take it for granted, features change and get scrapped all the time. It is very important that you are aware that these things CAN and WILL CHANGE. Additionally, this article contains my thoughts and opinions in regards to the code that was shared online – all of these should be treated as conjecture, not as hard statements. If you’re OK with that, feel free to read further. Potential spoilers ahead.
You can find the official release notes here.
With that said, let’s get into it!
Elite TMs
Code involving the much anticipated Elite TM’s has been discovered. It appears they will work like everybody assumes they will, use the TM and pick the move you want.
elite_tm_move_unselected_teach_button elite_tm_move_selected_teach_button elite_tm_reroll_fast_move_gui_title elite_tm_reroll_charged_move_gui_title move_reroll_confirm_desc_no_move ITEM_MOVE_REROLL_FAST_ATTACK ITEM_MOVE_REROLL_SPECIAL_ATTACK ITEM_MOVE_REROLL_ELITE_FAST_ATTACK ITEM_MOVE_REROLL_ELITE_SPECIAL_ATTACK move_reroll_confirm_desc_no_move elite_tm_reroll_confirm_message tm_reroll_success_message
New Searches
filter_key_age filter_key_year filter_key_evolve_to_new
evolvenew
The search term evolvenew will show you all Pokémon that you can evolve into a Pokémon you haven’t encountered yet.
age#
You can now search for Pokémon you caught a specific number of days ago. This has multiple uses.
age# shows you Pokémon from # days ago
age-# shows you everything you’ve caught the last # days
age#-# shows you everything you caught between # and # days ago
age#- shows you Pokémon that are over # days old
year####
You can search for Pokémon by year now. For example, year2016 will show you all Pokémon from 2016. At this time you cannot use year2016-2017 to search for everything from 2016 & 2017 though. That can be accomplished with the age# search, and a little bit of math (or trial and error.)
News Filters
It appears news will be able to be filtered?
news_today news_yesterday news_days_ago
New Forms
3 new costume forms have been found, Dragonite, Onix and another Pikachu.
Crystal Onyx?!?!
DRAGONITE_COSTUME_2020 PIKACHU_COSTUME_2020 ONIX_COSTUME_2020
Also, some forms that don’t evolve and… some forms not for release?
SPRING_2020_NOEVOLVE SUMMER_2020_NOEVOLVE FALL_2020_NOEVOLVE WINTER_2020_NOEVOLVE NOT_FOR_RELEASE_ALPHA NOT_FOR_RELEASE_BETA NOT_FOR_RELEASE_GAMMA NOT_FOR_RELEASE_NOEVOLVE
New Move
Aeroblast has been added to the game in anticipation of Lugia’s weekend. No stats yet, we’ll keep you posted.
V0335_MOVE_AEROBLAST
New Text when TMing a Move
Niantic has updated the text you see when you TM a new move onto one of your Pokémon, a nice throwback to the main series games.
Safari Zone Badges
New badges for the St Louis Safari zone which was just postponed. You can read more about that here, and the Liverpool Safari zone. (There are badges for every day)
.BADGE_SAFARIZONE_2020_STLOUIS_DAY_00_GENERAL .BADGE_SAFARIZONE_2020_STLOUIS_DAY_00_EARLYACCESS .BADGE_SAFARIZONE_2020_LIVERPOOL_DAY_00_GENERAL .BADGE_SAFARIZONE_2020_LIVERPOOL_DAY_00_EARLYACCESS
Egg Hatch Animation Updates
New hatch animations for Pokémon that are considered “Costume” Pokémon.
IsCostume StartPostHatchSequence DisablePreHatchGraphics PlayCostumeHatch SetCostumeHatchVFXPosition
Evolve Animation
The animations for evolutions were updated as well.
New Buddy Tutorial Icons
A couple of new icons were added to the buddy tutorial, they are on the first screen.
Go Battle League Updates
Additional Battles
Probably for easier handling of awarding extra battles for events and such.
.get_AdditionalBattlesGranted .set_AdditionalBattlesGranted
Battle Party Refresh
Looks like a fix to the battle party’s refreshing unexpectedly.
CombatPartyUpdated RefreshAllParties combatPartyGroups
Best Buddy Refresh
Code for when you add a best friend back as your buddy?
.get_BestBuddiesBackfilled .set_BestBuddiesBackfilled
Unova Dex Count
Chances are this is for a future special research quest that will require a gold Unova badge.
.get_UnovaDexCount .set_UnovaDexCount
Apple ID log in
More code for the Apple ID log-in.
CLICK_APPLE COMPLETE_APPLE CANCEL_APPLE
Messages
Probably for easier handling of the messages we see in-game.
ShowDialogWithTitleAndLongMessage ShowDialogWithOpaqueBackground
POI Updates
Not sure, however, this looks like it will hide the edit button on Pokéstop’s and gyms if you are out of edits.
MaybeShowEditButton
Zenject Injection
There was a lot of code added surrounding injections, pooling and asset components. The code will allow Niantic to better compartmentalize their code to make it easier to troubleshoot bugs and develop new features without them impacting existing features. Essentially this is a behind the scents QoL update.
Zenject.InjectableInfo
Asset handling
It would appear that updates to the way assets are handled in-game in relation to the game master file. This is a good news/bad news deal. The good news is this may make for a smoother, speedier game. The bad news is that this new system may prevent data miners from discovering new quests and game texts ahead of time.
From the … “wha?” Desk
Project Vacation
Does Niantic need a vacation? Is that why we got two months of constant events? Are they taking April off? No. But seriously, no clue.
ProjectVacationProto .get_Enable2020 .set_Enable2020
Professor Computer
Is Professor Willow getting a new computer?
professor_computer professornpc_professor
Game Master Updates
As mentioned at the top, there were some updates to the Game Master file as well.
Abra Community Day
Tickets for the Abra Community Day paid event will go on sale on March 14th at 8 am, and it will run from 11 am until 6 pm.
+ event_start_time: "2020-03-15T11:00:00" + event_end_time: "2020-03-15T18:00:00" + client_event_start_time_utc_ms: 1584270000000 + client_event_end_time_utc_ms: 1584295200000 + template_id: "general1.ticket.2" + iap_item_display { + sku: "general1.ticket.2" + category: IAP_CATEGORY_GLOBAL_EVENT_TICKET + hidden: true + sku_enable_time: "2019-03-14T08:00:00" + sku_disable_time: "2019-03-15T17:00:00" + sku_enable_time_utc_ms: 1552550400000 + sku_disable_time_utc_ms: 1552669200000
Item Drop Levels
The item drop level for the below items was reduced from 100 to 1, meaning that Niantic can now flip the switch to have them drop from Pokéstops or add them as research rewards.
item_id: ITEM_INCENSE_ORDINARY item_id: ITEM_INCUBATOR_BASIC item_id: ITEM_INCUBATOR_SUPER item_id: ITEM_LUCKY_EGG item_id: ITEM_STAR_PIECE item_id: ITEM_TROY_DISK item_id: ITEM_TROY_DISK_GLACIAL item_id: ITEM_TROY_DISK_MAGNETIC item_id: ITEM_TROY_DISK_MOSSY + drop_trainer_level: 1
Premium Battle Passes now droppable?
Chances are this is to do with the Go Battle League event, if you win all 5 of your battles on the Premium track you will get your Battle pass back.
item_id: ITEM_PAID_RAID_TICKET item_type: ITEM_TYPE_RAID_TICKET category: ITEM_CATEGORY_RAID_TICKET - drop_trainer_level: 100 + drop_trainer_level: 1
Conclusions and Speculation
Looks like some really cool things are being added to the background of the game to make it run smoother, and not only help Niantic catch and squash bugs that pop up but prevent them in the future. So that’s good.
It also looks like we’re getting costumed Pokémon for every season this year, does that mean we’re getting more events with Kanto starters wearing hats?
The new search filters are fun, being able to filter by year or how many days old is neat. I’m sure there’s some use for them, probably around trading and trying to get lucky trades with older Pokémon.