Hello Trainers! 0.261.0 is rolling out to a device near you and it brings lots of bugs, a ton of new assets for Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, Gimmighoul and Gholdengo, some new stuff for Hoenn Go Tour and more.
Please read through all of this with a grain of salt – we often post data mining reports which end up taking months to release, and we don’t want our readers to be disappointed. Be smart, read this like speculation, and be happy once it goes live.
💡 Disclaimer: You know the drill by now, everything in this article is data mined, and therefore subject to change or not even being released at all. All of this information is publicly provided by the PokéMiners and includes some of my commentaries.
The Bugs
Niantic broke some pretty important stuff in this update.
Raids
Two things have been broken with raids, one Pokémon’s second charge moves aren’t charging. Two, raids are just flat-out becoming unresponsive.
Research Progress
Friends List Issues
The friends list in this version looks wonky, with friends’ profile pictures looking like their rendered twice.
New Assets
Here are all the new assets in 0.261.0 including a picture of Las Vegas for the Hoenn Go Tour, lots of assets for Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon, and some menu icon updates.
The Paldea Region
get_PaldeaDexCount .BADGE_POKEDEX_ENTRIES_GEN9
The Paldea region is coming, a method to count the number of Paldean dex entries and a badge to accompany that count.
Gimmighoul and Gholdengo
V0999_FAMILY_GIMMIGHOUL V0999_POKEMON_GIMMIGHOUL V1000_POKEMON_GHOLDENGO GIMMIGHOUL_NORMAL GHOLDENGO_NORMAL
The Gimmighoul family was added. Looks like there are plans to actually add them into the game sooner rather than later.
Hoenn Tour Latias and Latios
LATIAS_S LATIOS_S
New forms of Latias and Latios were added. Likely for the Hoenn Tour Snapshot/Encounter feature that was recently announced.
Pikachu Costumes
GOTOUR_2023_BANDANA GOTOUR_2023_HAT
Speaking of the Hoenn Go Tour, Bandana and Hat Costumes. This is likely actually Brendan’s hat and May’s bow (Bandana)
New Moves
.V0380_MOVE_BOOMBURST .V0381_MOVE_DOUBLE_IRON_BASH
2 new moves, Boomburst for Noibat Community Day, and Double Iron Bash. Double Iron Bash is a Steel-type move introduced in Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! and is the signature move of Melmetal.
Team Go Rocket
Special Guest
SPECIAL_GUEST_EXECBLUE SPECIAL_GUEST_EXECRED SPECIAL_GUEST_EXECYELLOW
Three special guest NPCs were added, likely for the Go Rocket Leaders
Conversation Settings
The PokéMiners also indicated that some new conversation settings were added. It’s possible that the Team Go Rocket leaders are going to be able to talk to you when you’re evaluating your Pokémon. Perhaps when you’re evaluating Shadow Pokémon?
Haptics
For those who don’t know, Haptics is essentially the use of jitters and shutters of a device to make the user experience tactile effects in video games or AR.
A new ‘Petting Haptics’ feature was added to the buddy system. There is a delay when your buddy spawns in as well, so it looks like your phone will vibrate when you pet your buddy.
They also added a library for human hand tracking, which may be unrelated to the above… but it kinda seems to make sense.
Are we going to be able to pet our buddies in AR mode?
Go Tour Badges
.BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_RUBY_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_SAPPHIRE_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_RUBY_GLOBAL .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_SAPPHIRE_GLOBAL .BADGE_GOTOUR_LIVE_2023_DAY_00 .BADGE_GOTOUR_LIVE_2023_DAY_01 .BADGE_GOTOUR_LIVE_2023_DAY_02 .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_HATCH_ADDON_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_RAID_ADDON_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_HATCH_ADDON .BADGE_GOTOUR_2023_RAID_ADDON
New badges for the Go Tour, Global and Las Vegas.
Location Card Backgrounds
LOCATION_CARD_UNSET LC_2023_LASVEGAS_GOTOUR_001
This is a special background for Pokémon based on where you catch them, and for the moment it looks like they are planning to debut it at the Las Vegas Hoenn Go Tour event.
Primal Raids
RAID_LEVEL_PRIMAL RAID_VISUAL_TYPE_PRIMAL
Details for the Primal raids that are coming for the Hoenn Tour
New Rocket Type – Pokemon Contests
POKESTOP_CONTEST
It’s Rocket type number … counts on fingers … six? seven? Who even knows anymore?
This is the speculation so far:
- Contests will apparently be exactly what they sound like, a contest for one of your Pokémon.
- You’ll submit your Pokémon for the contest, and it will remain in the contest, and your pokémon can only be in one contest at a time.
- Contests have two ranking systems – Min and Max. This suggests that the criteria for judging the Pokémon in the contest will be their size, so hang onto those record-sized Pokémon.
- There is a limit to the number of contests you can do.
- Contests have a unique style on the map, like Rockets and Rocket Victories and you’ll have to be close enough to the stop to participate.
- When you leave your Pokémon in the contest it remains there, and then someone can come along and try and beat your Pokémon with one of their own. IE: Heaviest Snorlax, or Lightest Pidgey
- When the contest ends whoever’s Pokémon remains as the leader of the contest is the winner, and the owner can go and collect their rewards at the stop.
Buddy Rewards
It would seem that your buddy can now bring you items from the loot table.
VPS Events
VPS stands for Visual Positioning System, and it allows developers to accurately determine player position and orientation, going far beyond the usual constraints of GPS and similar geo-positioning systems.
Two Types
SLEEPING_POKEMON PHOTO_SAFARI
There are two types of VPS events, Sleeping Pokémon which they used for Snorlax and Photo Safari which is likely for the Hoenn Tour
VPS events have a Pokestop/Gym ID, a start and end time, and then the VPS details. Speculation is that these are Pokéstop events for Hoenn Go Tour.
Gimmighoul and the transfer to Scarlet and Violet
There have been references to something called code name Saturday in the code for a few months and the PokéMiners are saying it’s essentially the same system that was used for Meltan, but for Gimmighoul and with some additions.
There is a limit to the number of times you can send to your switch and a goal for doing it daily. The speculation is the sparkly incense will give you a greater chance to get gold coins and the thing you’ll be able to transfer is those coins.
There’s a LOT we don’t know about this, so take all of that for what it’s worth.
That’s all the meaty stuff for now Trainers, stay safe out there.