Hello Trainers!
We have another massive APK update! Mostly focusing on the Route Maker and the announced Referral system. There was a ton of stuff this time around, so we’ll try to cut it down to just the most interesting/relevant things (but it’s still a truckload).
Let’s dive in!
Official Release Notes
You can read the official release notes here (not yet live right now)
Highlights
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Level Up Quests now display on the left
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Also, another QOL that was reported was you can press ‘-‘ when you are at 1 when deleting items from your inventory for it to cycle back around and automatically select the max number in your bag
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Rainy Lure added!
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New Badges for Route Maker, Referrals, and the missing GO Tour badges
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New Referral Quest
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New Search Filter – By Hash Tag
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Additional Map Layers added for train systems
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Route Maker – so much Route Maker
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Very similar to Missions from Ingress (create paths going from Stop to Stop, submit them, then other players can follow them)
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Icons added for Route Maker item and menu button
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Create routes in the app by entering Top View and dragging points between stops and gyms
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Several dynamic map additions to re-adjust the scale and resolution of the map (probably for Top View)
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HDR, MSAA support was also added as part of this
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When creating routes, stops need to be within a certain range of each other and have a min and max stop count as part of the route
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Routes reward items (maybe you even set them when you make the Route but we aren’t sure on that)
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You can give the Route a name and description, and it will get a main image
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Should be able to edit a route once it’s been submitted
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When playing other people’s routes, it shows you the distance you will travel, the time it will take, their rating, how many times it was completed, the route type, and any cooldown times
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When you are doing the route, there will be guides leading you from stop to stop
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There is a Store category for this feature, so we aren’t sure how but it appears it will be monetized in some way
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Referral System
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When people come back to the game, they get a pretty sweet welcome image
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You can invite friends or other people via a new invite button
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You share a code, they enter the code, and viola they are playing PoGo
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There is a grace period to use the code
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There are different types of referees, regular, new, and lapsed (the game keeps track of how long you haven’t played now)
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When people accept, there are milestones to hit for both players
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Miletones reward rewards of some kind and it appears both players can view the milestones
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Level Up Stats and Sharing
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Raids and pokestops visited are shown
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You can show your avatar with your buddy
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You can add hashtags (maybe related to the new search filter?)
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Global Stardust and Candy multiplier for better handling of event bonuses
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Sponsored Ballons
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As previously reported, Balloons will start bringing you gifts
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It appears a balloon can either be a Rocket or an Ad and the Ad will contain a gift
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There are new settings for how Balloons move around on the map
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NOTE: Rocket Balloons are not spawning according to reports in this version, it might be because of the new movement settings not being pushed yet so hopefully that’s fixed soon
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Catan Logo added for Niantic Social
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Some smaller misc things
Level Up Quests on the Left!
leftsideQuestUpdateToastPrefab
Now you can see that level-up quests now appear on the left instead of the right (other quests still appear on the right).
New Lure!
ITEM_TROY_DISK_RAINY
Introducing… The Rainy Lure! Wonder what it will spawn. 😛 It’s very possible it will be used to evolve Sliggoo into Goodra as well.
New Badges
.BADGE_ROUTE_ACCEPTED .BADGE_TRAINERS_REFERRED .BADGE_GOTOUR_2021_GREEN_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2021_RED_TEST .BADGE_GOTOUR_2021_GREEN_GLOBAL .BADGE_GOTOUR_2021_RED_GLOBAL
More on these features below, but two badges, one for the Route Maker feature and one for Trainers referred back to the game.
The rest of the GO Tour badges were also finally added. There were a few different versions of these badges in the game, and the badges currently in the Game Master didn’t actually link to a badge in the APK. This should be fixed now (but you probably won’t notice a difference).
New Quest
REFERRAL_QUEST
This was also added to the Pokemon History feature so you can see which Mons were caught from a referral quest.
New Search Filter
BY_HASH_TAG
This might be related to the social share feature, but weird it’s also a search term. Unclear what this does right now.
Map Layers
KIND_LIGHT_RAIL KIND_PLATFORM KIND_STATION KIND_SUBWAY
A few new map layers were added in this version. These layers might be the changes they mentioned with Seasons of Legends for new spawns.
Route Maker
Alright, strap yourselves in. This was a massive update with a lot added for routes. First and foremost, it appears to be very similar to the way Missions work in Ingress, so this might be worth a read if you don’t already know: https://ingress.fandom.com/wiki/Mission
The key difference we can see though is it seems like you create the Route in the game in PoGo vs Ingress you use a website. We’ll try to break it down as much as we can here how we think it will work for PoGo specifically.
Fun Fact: It appears that this feature was started back before PvP was even added to the game according to the code’s timeline. The more you know!
Let’s start with some fun photos though.
Route Map Button – The button used to open the GUI menu for viewing routes (we think)
Route Maker Item – The item that shows up in your inventory maybe (ITEM_ROUTE_MAKER in the code)
HideDrawer add_IsDrawerOpened remove_IsDrawerOpened RoutePlanPOIListGuiController WalkStateButtonPressed DrawerOpened ModelSize ReorderIndexData DrawerClosed
First up, looks like that button above will be used to open a GUI menu that slides in and out? Might be wrong on the button itself, but there is a GUI ‘Drawer’ at least.
set_RouteCreationSettings routeContent textContainer EditRoute StartDrag StopDrag SET_AS_START ADD_POINT REMOVE_POINT ShowRoutesGui add_PoiTapped remove_PoiTapped add_GymTapped remove_GymTapped add_PokemonTapped remove_PokemonTapped
To create a route, looks like you do it by dragging the route points between different Stops and Gyms. You can add and remove points, as well as set which point is your starting point.
The add/remove PokemonTapped was also added to the map section, but it might not be related to the Route Maker.
RouteTopViewMode StartTopView SwitchToWalkState SwitchToTopViewState RouteCreationState needleWalkViewPosition needleTopViewPosition SetCompassToWalkViewPosition SetCompassToTopViewPosition
There are two views – Walk and Top. Walk could just be what we currently have, and it sounds like Top is like the Rocket Radar view, but specifically, so you can edit Routes.
SetMapIconScale scaleMinDistLabel scaleMaxDistLabel HideToppers setCameraToDefault setCameraToDefaultWithDuration RouteIconOverheadCameraZooming zoomHasHappen maxCameraZoom minCameraZoom iconSizeTransitionCurve remove_AddedCells add_AddedCells add_RemovedCells get_renderingPath get_allowHDR get_allowMSAA get_allowDynamicResolution get_scaledPixelWidth get_scaledPixelHeight
These are all the map updates of relevance in this update. Looks like in Map View, the icons and labels will re-size dynamically allowing you to zoom in and out to view the whole route or just a section of it? Toppers (extra decorations on the Pokestop like lures) look like they will be hidden as well.
The removing and adding of cells could either be Route Maker related or another way to handle the bug from 201.
There were also changes to the general camera to allow and adjust for HDR, MSAA, and dynamic resolutions. Perhaps to help scale down if the game has to load several stops in the Top View.
CANNOT_ADD_POINT ROUTE_DATA_ERROR TOO_MANY_STOPS_IN_ROUTE EXCEEDS_MAX_TOTAL_DISTANCE TOO_CLOSE_TO_LAST_POI TOO_FAR_AWAY_FROM_LAST_POI INVALID_NUM_FORTS INVALID_NUM_CHECKPOINTS INVALID_TOTAL_DISTANCE INVALID_DISTANCE_BETWEEN_FORTS INVALID_DISTANCE_BETWEEN_CHECKPOINTS INVALID_FORT DUPLICATE_FORTS INVALID_START_OR_END INVALID_NAME_LENGTH INVALID__LENGTH TOO_MANY__BETWEEN_FORTS INVALID_MAIN_IMAGE BAD_NAME BAD_DESCRIPTION
Some restrictions on the routes, including a min and max stop count, as well as a distance between stops, need to be within a certain limit.
MinDistanceBetweenCheckpointsM MaxDistanceBetweenCheckpointsM CheckpointRecommendationDistanceBetweenPois
We aren’t sure if checkpoints are different than stops (they sound like the same thing). But there is a min and max distance between checkpoints as well and a recommended distance.
add_ItemsAwarded remove_ItemsAwarded
We aren’t sure if these are rewards the players can set or not, or just rewards tied to the routes automatically generated. There was another section ShowSelectedItemBackground that may suggest you select your own item but there isn’t enough information to go off for that yet.
MaxNameLength MaxDescriptionLength
Routes can have a name and a description to help identify them. And as seen in the other sections, it will have a main image too.
submissionButtonImage routePlanSheetRectTransform enabledSubmissionButtonColor disabledSubmissionButtonColor .get_CreatedTime .set_CreatedTime .get_LastUpdateTime .set_LastUpdateTime .set_Route .get_RejectionReason .get_RejectedHash .get_ShowCreatorName .get_MainImage .get_BadgeVariant IN_PROGRESS SUBMITTED REJECTED ROUTE_SUBMISSION_ACCEPTED ROUTE_SUBMISSION_REJECTED
When you are done with your route, you submit them to be approved or not. There was also a lot of code added for Waypoint Drafts and if you visited them or not.
get_RouteVersion get_UpdatedRoute get_ProposedRouteDraft EditTitleClicked PhotosTabClicked EditDescriptionClicked EditMedalClicked UpdatedRoute ERROR_INVALID_ROUTE ERROR_OLD_VERSION ERROR_ROUTE_NOT_EDITABLE get_ApprovalOverride APPROVE REJECT
After submitting, you should be able to still update your route as it tracks the version and the updates (and if the update is rejected or not).
statusLightText statusBoldText statusInProgressColor statusSubmittedColor statusRejectedColor statusPublishedColor binEnable binDisable routeMakerIcon smallRouteMakerIcon
How you can track your active and submitted routes. All the colours!
.get_Routes .get_Waypoints .get_SubmissionTime .get_RouteDistanceMeters .get_DirectionInDegrees .get_AvgRating .get_RouteType .get_RouteDurationSeconds .get_NumCompletions .get_CooldownFinishMs totalDistanceLabel totalDistanceValue totalEstimatedTimeLabel totalEstimatedTimeValue
But of course, what’s the point of making these things if others don’t get to play them right? When you are viewing Routes to play through, you can see the distance it will take you, how long it will take you to complete, the rating (guess it has ratings, we haven’t seen that elsewhere), how many times it was completed, and if you are in cooldown or not.
SHOW_ROUTE_CONNECTOR SET_ROUTE_STATE SET_FORT_PROTO SET_MAP_POI coinInactiveOutlineColor coinActiveOutlineColor coinCheckedOutlineColor nextIndexText wayPointIndexText nextWayPointIcon checkedWayPointIcon
There will be guides to your next stop as part of the route.
MaxOpenRoutes get_ActiveRoutes ActiveRouteCount
There will be a limit to how many Routes you can have open (when you are actually following someone else’s approved route we think) at one time.
routeLineShader routeLineWidth routeLineColor DistanceToPoiInMeters ConnectRouteToPoi GetRouteFortProto DestroyRoutePoiLine
How the routes will be shown, with lines connecting between the different stops.
TryToShowCelebration
Do we get fireworks when you finish a route? We hope so!
MinPlayerLevel get_EnableRoutes
Like most features, there is a min level as well and a toggle to enable it.
CREATION_INTRO_TUTORIAL THEME_TUTORIAL RULE_TUTORIAL ABOUT_TUTORIAL
This feature seems to have four separate tutorials. Must be hefty to explain.
ITEM_CATEGORY_ROUTE_MAKER IAP_CATEGORY_ROUTE_MAKER
And finally, it appears this feature will be monetized in some way as there is an In-App Purchase section for it.
Referral System
The system was announced yesterday but not a lot of details have come with it. We have a bit of a stronger sense of how it will work from the APK though.
This is the image that will be displayed when a player is welcomed back to the game.
The image used to invite a friend. Note this also matches the unknown badge from before (which makes sense as that badge is now known as the Referral Badge).
ShowInviteButton remove_InviteClick inviteButton inviteFriendText
The invite button to invite people back to the game.
OPEN_INVITE_PAGE TAP_SHARE_CODE TAP_COPY_CODE TAP_HAVE_REFERRAL_CODE INPUT_CODE INPUT_CODE_SUCCESS ERROR_GENERATING_IN_COOL_DOWN
Pretty standard stuff, you get a code, you share the code, you input the code, and then you have great success! Unless you are in cool down. No great success then.
REFERRER NEW_REFEREE LAPSED_REFEREE
The different types of referees. That is an ugly word to type. Yuck. The game also tracks how long you are a lapsed player now as well (added to your Player Stats).
ERROR_INVALID_REFERRAL_CODE ERROR_ALREADY_ADDED ERROR_PASSED_GRACE_PERIOD ERROR_THIS_IS_AN_ALT_NICE_TRY (okay this one is fake, you caught me)
You can have issues redeeming the code though, including passing a grace period to use it.
set_ReferralSettings get_CompleteReferralMilestone get_ReferrerMilestone get_RefereeMilestone get_ReferrerMilestones get_ReferrerMilestonesToMark get_RefereeMilestonesToMark get_MilestoneId referralMilestoneCompleteSprite MilestoneWidget ClickClaim MILESTONE_REWARD_CLAIMED
Looks like there will be different milestones you need to hit with your referee and once they are hit you can claim rewards. And it seems there are also milestones for the referrer (another awful word to type, yuck)?
.get_RecentFeatures .get_AddReferrerGracePeriodMs .get_ClientGetMilestoneIntervalMs .get_MinNumDaysWithoutSessionForLapsedPlayer
These are all the Referral settings. The recent features are interesting because it appears that these will be listed in the Game Master with icons, names, and descriptions. Will be fun to see how often these are updated so we can report on them.
Level Up Stats and Sharing
LEVEL_UP_SCREEN_SHARE raidsCompletedText pokeStopsVisitedText croppedScreenshotCapturer avatarCameraFOVForSharing sharingModeScreenCaptureDelaySeconds playerStatsRectTransformHeightForSharing showRewardsDelaySeconds levelUpAnimator badgeAnimator
The announced Level Up Stats got some extra updates, including showing raids completed and stops visited. You can also share your avatar (which looks like it includes your buddy too based on below).
ShareButtonClicked
The share button itself.
BuddyPositionForSocialShare socialShareNoBuddyRootOffset SetPlayerShadowVisible SetBuddyShadowVisible avatarShadowRenderer buddyShadowRenderers clippingPlaneRenderer get_CustomCameraFOV
Looks like you can share your avatar and buddy too.
hashtagText
And don’t forget the hashtags! Sorry. #Dontforgetthehashtags
shareSelectMessageText
You might also be able to write a custom message too.
Global Stardust and Candy Multiplier
.get_GlobalStardustMultiplier .get_GlobalCandyMultiplier
Subscription Updates
trackAppStoreSubscription trackPlayStoreSubscription AdjustAppStoreSubscription
Not much new with this update regarding subscriptions, other than this to track subscriptions between Google and iOS.
Balloon Ads/Gifts Updates
POI_GIFT BALLOON_GIFT SUCCESS_AD_RECEIVED SUCCESS_NO_ADS_AVAILABLE balloonGiftSettings enableBalloonGift balloonAutoDismissTimeMs incidentBalloonPreventsSponsoredBalloon incidentBalloonDismissesSponsoredBalloon BalloonMovementSettings get_BalloonSafeDistanceBuffer get_BalloonStatus add_IncidentBalloonSpawned remove_IncidentBalloonSpawned IncidentBalloonManager
We have a bit more information on the ads/gifts you’ll get from Balloons. Looks like you’ll either a Rocket or a Sponsored balloon but not both at the same time? Or one can dismiss the other, it’s a little unclear.
There were some new movement settings added though, which set how a Balloon can move around on the map. Specifically how far it can wander off, its max speed, and how often it wanders.
NOTE: From reports, Balloons are not spawning in 0.203.0. Our theory is it’s because of the above and they just need to be pushed but we’ll see.
AD_INHIBITION_DISABLED_IN_GMT AD_INHIBITION_PLAYER_OPTED_OUT_OF_ADS AD_DISMISSAL_NEW_AD_BALLOON_DISPLACES_OLD AD_DISMISSAL_AD_BALLOON_AUTO_DISMISS AD_DISMISSAL_PLAYER_OPTED_OUT_OF_ADS
You can also opt-out of ads so you don’t see the Ad Balloons, among some other errors why they may not appear.
Catan Logo
This is most likely for Niantic Social (Ingress and HP have their logos in the game too).
Content Card
ContentCard .get_Expires .get_Dismissed .set_Dismissed .get_Removed .set_Removed .get_Pinned .set_Pinned .get_Dismissible .set_Dismissible .get_UseWebView .set_UseWebView .get_JsonString
Maybe related to the News section, but it’s a new type of card to display… Something.
Misc.
There was a change to the fade-in time during gym battles when time is up.
get_TargetPokemon was added to the PvP combat camera.
get_PokeballInPlay added to the catching mechanics, but not sure what it’s for.
get_IsPopUpMenu was added to the PvP switching menu, and add_OnChargeAttackAnimationActiveChange (and a remove) was added to PvP as well.
There are some changes to the way texts/translations are handled with older texts copied over to a separate file (English only right now).
get_RefreshOfflineFriendsModulus and get_RefreshNonEventFriendsModulus were both added to the Timed Group Challenge (the global challenges for things like GO Fest).
Several backend libraries were also updated including Firebase, SafetyNet, Android X, GMS (including an Ad library from Google).
Credits and disclaimer
Please be aware data miners have publicly reported everything in this article (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.
