Pokemon Go just changed battles for the better
The damage of each Pokemon's attacks has changed, rebalancing the game's Gym battles.
Tired of seeing the same six Pokemon dominating your local gyms? Annoyed that the only way to win battles is tap-tap-tapping your quick attack? Not anymore: Pokemon Go developer Niantic just rebalanced the entire game.
Yesterday, the Pokemon Go community noticed something strange: every single attack for every single Pokemon had changed overnight. Previously powerful Pokemon like Vaporeon do less damage now, while weaker ones like Parasect do more.
And while previously, it made more sense to rapidly spam a Pokemon's fast attack because it would do more damage than a charge attack, quick attacks are now weaker and charge attacks are now stronger across the board.
The new hierarchy of Pokemon Go attacks.
The strongest attacks, like Solar Beam, have a power level of 120 now. Previously, the strongest attacks maxed out at 70.
Those aren't the only changes to the game, either. There's a new version of the Pokemon Go app rolling out on Android right now with some other differences too, including totally removing the buggy "footprints" feature that was supposed to let players see how far wild Pokemon are from their location.
Update, July 31:Some players aren't too happy with the tracking changes -- particularly since Niantic also seems to be cracking down on third-party Pokemon tracking apps.
Here's the full changelog:
- Avatars can now be re-customized from the Trainer profile screen
- Adjusted battle move damage values for some Pokémon
- Refined certain Gym animations
- Improved memory issues
- Removed footprints of nearby Pokémon
- Modified battle damage calculation
- Various bug fixes during wild Pokémon encounter
- Updated Pokémon details screen
- Updated achievement medal images
- Fixed issues with displaying certain map features
- Minor text fixes
For more Pokemon Go protips, check out our advanced guide.
