The 0.145.0 update for Pokémon GO is slowly rolling out on Android and iOS, bringing a new wave of well-deserved excitement. On the surface, 0.145 is just a “bug fix” release, but data miners have found some pretty exciting additions under the hood. Spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.
Before we continue with the article, we want to reiterate that nothing written here is endorsed, confirmed, or shared by Niantic. These are reports found by various data miners on the Internet, and they are subject to change. Keep that in mind and read with a grain of salt: Niantic can switch / cancel / change anything written here at any moment.
TLDR version (we love you too):
- Jirachi encounter has been found in the APK. A lot more details below.
- Two new moves have been added:
- Charm Fairy (fast)
- Giga Impact Normal (charge)
- Dynamic event badges are now supported, but it’s unclear what they’re used for
- Samsung Galaxy Store is officially supported in the APK
Jirachi Encounter
Jirachi
Jirachi has been long speculated as the next special research / special encounter Pokemon, and it seems those speculations have been correct. The 0.145.0 APK straight up mentions and describes the Jirachi encounter in painstaking details:
.JirachiEncounter .AddBGPokemon .EveryoneSing .EveryoneLeave .WakeUpJirachi .singingPokemonIds .singingPokemonAnchors .singingPokemonDurationSec .wakeUpWaitingSec .minimumFleeTimeSec .maximumFleeTimeSec .jirachiIsAwake .musicFx .pokemonAnimator .singingPokemon
The fact that the encounter depicts a sleeping Jirachi is a genius move on Niantic’s end, as the official Pokemon lore says this about Jirachi: “Jirachi will awaken from its sleep of a thousand years if you sing to it in a voice of purity. It is said to make true any wish that people desire.”
We’re not sure if the encounter involves a mini-game with singing Pokemon or is the scene purely cosmetic, but in any case, we’re in for a treat and an exciting quest line once again.
Charm and Giga Impact
.V0320_MOVE_CHARM_FAST .V0321_MOVE_GIGA_IMPACTFairy type aficionados, rejoice, you’re finally getting a Fairy-type fast move – Charm has been discovered in the APK! In addition to Charm, Giga Impact has also appeared in the code base, although both moves’ assets are still missing from the client. Maybe next release?
In our mind, both moves are equally interesting, as Charm has the potential to revolutionize Fairy-type raiders and Giga Impact hints at some potential future Pokemon. Here are some notable Pokemon that can learn these moves by leveling up in the main series games (we’ve excluded a lot of them, as the list would be huge otherwise):
| Charm | Giga Impact |
|---|---|
Togetic
|
Tauros
|
Granbull
|
Aerodactyl
|
Ralts
|
Snorlax
|
Kirlia
|
Donphan
|
Plusle
|
Tyranitar
|
Minun
|
Electivire
|
Illumise
|
Regigigas
|
Luvdisc
|
|
Latias
|
|
Pachirisu
|
|
Lopunny
|
|
Purugly
|
|
Mesprit
|
|
Manaphy
|
Of course, players are speculating like crazy about these two moves, but the general feeling is that Charm could become Ralts (and the Ralts family line) Community Day exclusive move, while Giga Impact is speculated to become Slaking’s Community Day exclusive move, which we find weird, but interesting at the very least.
There’s another complication, and that’s the fact that Charm is a non-damaging move in the main series games, so it remains to be seen what Niantic is going to do with it: “Charm is a Normal-type move. It lowers the Attack stat of the target by two stages.”
Dynamic Event Badges
.BADGE_DYNAMIC_EVENT_MIN .DynamicEventBadgeData .settingsStrings .BadgeType .FrameIndex .PinIndex .pinAnchorX .pinAnchorY
“Ticketed Events” have been renamed to “Dynamic Events” in the new APK, and a lot is going on here. The new “dynamic event” badge seems to be a new effort to group similar event badges into one UI element. Each dynamic badge the following properties connected to it:
- a special frame – likely just a background image that holds the badge’s icon
- a dedicated sprite – badge icon
- several pins attached to it – probably years attending the event?
- several images attached to it – probably various yearly event logos?
- several lines of text – probably explanation for each pin?
We’re quite interested to see how this feature turns out, as it could be a handy way to avoid badge tab clutter and it provides a nice UI for badge collectors.
Samsung Galaxy Store Support
.STORE_UNSET .STORE_APPLE .STORE_GOOGLE .STORE_SAMSUNG
A minor change, but Samsung Galaxy Store has been added as a standalone store in the 0.145.0 APK. It’s not clear how (or if) this will affect players downloading the game from Samsung’s store, but at least there’s support for it directly in the game client.
Parting Words
And that’s all folks! Just kidding. 0.145.0 is poised to fix several stability issues, such as Adventure Sync problems (confirmed by Niantic) and the bizarre 3-balls-to-catch-sleeping-Snorlax situation (now takes only one ball, he’s asleep after all). With Jirachi, Charm and Giga Impact, we’ve received more information than we expected, but we’re not going to complain about it – there’s a lot to look forward in the weeks and months to come.