Pokemon Go

The official site says "later this week," and nobody I've seen has caught a Gen 3 'mon outside of the ghosts from Halloween yet. That said, I'm used to PoGo updating such things at around either 1 pm local or 6 pm local (I remember exactly when Gen 2 launched in full - I was about to pick up my kid from daycare when the spawns suddenly blanked out, then a whole bunch of Swinub started spawning near me).

The official site also says that more than just rarities will shift with the weather. CP will also be higher for 'mons that favor particular weather types (so Water-types are more likely to have higher CP when it's raining), and weather is going to affect certain attacks (fire and water are the two most obvious examples, but it wouldn't surprise me if Solar Beam and Thunder are among those affected).

Oh, and for those curious as to what's in the official launch banner:

• Treecko
• Mudkip
• Torchic
• Slakoth
• Absol
• Wurmple
• Cascoon
• Beautifly
• Zigzagoon
• Seviper
• Skitty
• Plusle
• Minun
• Mawile
• Ralts
• Gulpin

Also, while I wouldn't say this is confirmation, but the pics of the weather system show a nearby silhouette that looks like it could be Zigzagoon (which I was expecting to be one of the earlier Gen 3 'mons anyhow, and I doubt I'm alone there). The official launch trailer also has a few more (Salamence, Ludicolo, Shiftry, Aggron, and a level 5 egg hatching into Groudon), though I wouldn't be surprised if that's more "Gen 3 hype" rather than what's going to be available in the next couple days.

Moving what I edited into my last post to here: Here's the official announcement, and it is later this week, probably not today. Also has a list of all the weather conditions. Sunny, Rainy, Snowy, Foggy, Partly Cloudy, and Windy.

Weather increases spawns, seems to give a 20% power boost to both fast and charge move (not sure if that means pokemon of that type regardless of what it's using or moves of that type regardless of what's using it, I'd guess the latter), and gives a stardust bonus for capture (either a flat 25 extra dust or a 25% boost) of the following types:

• Clear/Sunny: Fire, Grass & Ground.
• Windy: Dragon, Flying & Psychic
• Rain: Water, Electric & Bug
• Snow: Ice & Steel
• Fog: Dark & Ghost
• Cloudy: ??? (Normal, Fighting, Poison, Rock and Fairy haven't been mentioned)

It seems that the new pokemon will be added first, with the weather system going online later in the month.

In addition, someone on Reddit looked through a few sources and came up with a complete list of the 50 pokemon that are being released.

edited 6th Dec '17 9:01:27 AM by Anura

So the new version has some new stuff found:

• A new item, Star Piece, will soon be added to the shops. It's believed to be a Lucky Egg for Stardust at the moment.
• You can now set up Battle Parties. Unfortunately the feature seems incomplete, and you can't load these parties.
• The Battle UI has been changed. Messages are now placed in a log instead of popups, which makes it easier to notice those "Super Effective!" messages. In addition, charge moves are now executed by pressing a button. This means you can tap the screen where the charge button appears to never have to long tap. It also makes it very easy to add multiple charge moves to a single 'mon in the future.
• Weather stuff:
  • There seems to be two versions of cloudy weather: Partly Cloudy and Overcast.
  • Cloud, Rain, Wind and Fog have 4 different levels. It's unclear what this means, whether it affects the bonuses or just the appearance of the weather onscreen.
  • The game also has Severe Weather Alerts; if the weather is dangerous, the bonuses will be disabled and the game will warn you not to go outside.
• Present has been added to the game as a fast move. This probably means that we'll be seeing Delibird for Christmas.
• The game now fades between night and day instead of instantly switching over. There were concept pictures of a sunset, so stuff like that is probably in the works too.

Niantic has posted another developer's notes. It seems that weather will also boost the IVs of affected types. Also, for the release of Gen 3, the max storage for pokemon will be increased to 1500, and everyone will get 50 storage for free.

Gen 3 is live.

There have also been some moveset changes. For example, Gyarados now has Waterfall as a quick move, making him the new best Water attacker with that and Hydro Pump. Dragon Tail is now a legacy move.

Mawile and Absol have been spotted in raids.

edited 8th Dec '17 1:24:04 PM by Anura

All 50 shinies are alive on the niantic server: some people already claim to have found shiny mawile and absol!

I noticed that there now seems to be a "Party" section in the Pokémon menu that can have up to 5 mons.

It's actually 5 parties of 6 pokemon each. Press the button at the bottom of the menu to make a party.

I can confirm that Mawile is a level two raid. I solo'ed it, but not without losing 3 (!) of my team.

If you're wondering how I could lose 3 one a tier 2 raid, two things. One, notice of the charge move is now in small text on the lower right. I didn't realize this until I lost my second Flareon.

The other is that the computer benefits from weather, too - cloudy skies power up Fairy moves (as well as Fighting and Poison), and in a raid, you'll feel it (got nailed hard by Play Rough). Even if you resist it.

That said, you know how weather affects the max CP of what you find, as per dev notes? That includes raids. When I caught the Mawile, it was at 4000/4 stardust/candies to power up, compared to the 2500/2 I'm used to seeing at raids. I don't know what the limit is on raid catches, but I have run into Bellsprouts needing 8000/10 in the wild.

Moves get a 20% boost, which is the same as STAB; the two combined give a 44% boost. And yeah, raid bosses caught in the right weather are level 25 instead of 20. I'd guess that the weather boost is 5 levels, so the weather raises the wild cap to 35.

edited 8th Dec '17 3:13:22 PM by Anura

The new regionals are Plusle & Zangoose for half the world, and Minun and Seviper for the other half.◊

Have I ever mentioned that I HATE the regional exlcusives?

Because I HATE the regional exlcusives.

Bummer. I really would have liked to have been able to catch Seviper. It's one of my favorite Poison-types. Oh well, I guess we can hope for them to either switch the exclusives around down the line (the Plusle/Minun and Zangoose/Seviper distribution looks like it would be easy to switch around) or a promotion like the Farfetch'd/Kangaskhan one.

Anyway, specifically went after Gen 3 mons when I was out today. Gulpin seemed extremely common. Also found Wurmple, Seedot, Poochyena, Makuhita, Roselia, and a Plusle. I saw a Zangoose show up on the tracker, but I was in a moving vehicle at the time and couldn't go after it.

Also, the weather-effects are something else. You can catch Pokémon with their arches completely full! No Stardust necessary.

I also noticed that a lot of Gyms in the places I went today already had a Hariyama in them. Either people are cheating or there's a haven for Makuhita in my neck of the woods that I've been missing. In any case, looks like Hariyama might be the new Dragonite or Chansey.

edited 9th Dec '17 8:00:22 PM by kablammin45

You can catch pokemon up to 5 levels above your own in the right weather, capped at 35. Since I'm level 37, I can't get completely powered up pokemon.

The new top defender to watch for is Slaking. He has the highest CP in the game, including legendaries, combining Mewtwo's attack with Snorlax's bulk. That said his only fast move is Yawn, which has 0 power. Metagross is also good; his moveset is pretty crap but good stats and Steel/Psychic type make him hard to kill; Fire is going to be a lot more popular very soon. Hariyama is mostly useful as an easier to get but slightly weaker version of Machamp, which will be useful for fighting Slaking.

Anyway. The following pokemon are now legacy, so hold on to them if you like collecting stuff:

• Megahorn Rhydon (replaced with Surf)
• Poison Jab Seaking (replaced with Waterfall)
• Dragon Tail Gyarados (replaced with Waterfall, making it the new best Water attacker with WF/HP)
• Ice Beam Lapras (replaced with Surf)
• Water Gun Feraligatr (replaced with Waterfall)
• Earthquake Politoed (replaced with Surf)
• Water Gun Kingdra (replaced with Waterfall)
• Hidden Power Suicune (replaced with Snarl)

So if I want a Minun, I gotta book some tickets? Eff that. I get that the game wants you to get up and go out there, but that's pushin' it.

In any case, ever since the update I snagged so many Gulpins in such a short timeframe I now have a Swalot. Also Tangela has been putting in serious work mopping up Gyms. It helps that Tyranitar was a popular choice.

Also, I've noticed a LOT of Pokestops in my neighborhood are churches. And a good handful near work are murals. One of them being a Pikachu with Homer Simpson's Mr. Sparkle face.

Well, if you are European, you can get Plusle, Zangoose and Corsola without leaving the EU, by going to the Canary Islands (not sure if Madeira or Açores count, but the Canary Islands are in the other side of the line).

Also, the lack of Feebas is disappointing. The lack of a complete new gen is ridiculous, one can say.

I'd rather not have everything in a month and then not play for another year.

Quite absurd argument: There would be still 400 species left to add to the game if the whole of gen III was released at once, and you wouldn't really get everything in a month unless you played the hell out of the game.

A couple other things not mentioned:

First off, "Extreme weather" sucks. It doesn't quite stop spawns, but it really sinks their rate. It feels like it's Niantic saying "Get your streak and get back inside. We're not encouraging this and will not be held liable for you staying out there." The frustrating part for me was that the impetus locally for the weather warning was just that we were expecting 6 inches of snow spread out over a 24-hour period. There were remarkably still winds, and given how slow the snow was falling (it basically took all 24 hours to get said 6 inches), it was remarkably easy to play in, so long as you tilted your phone away from the falling snow.

Second, when things switch, the game is remarkably on the ball about changing things over. I was in the middle of a gym takedown when the weather went from clear to partly cloudy... and nothing is quite as fun as seeing the notification that your best Rhydon is suddenly getting a boost to Stone Edge's power (let me say, the oncoming Dragonite was suddenly not as much of a worry).

Third, related to weather bonuses - I can confirm that the bonus for catching something in their weather boost is +25% stardust, not a flat +25 stardust. Thank you, Skiploom and Parasect, I very much appreciated that extra 75 stardust each. It's a shame that it was only partly cloudy when I ran into a wild Crobat.

Fourth, check your local spawns. There's been a distinct overhaul in many spawning locations, and it's not just that they now have Gen 3 'mons in the mix. Spawn rates seem to be adjusted across the board for Gen 1 and 2 as well. The ones I've noticed most distinctly are Vulpix (which went from "only when they rotate into a local nest" to near-common even outside of favored weather), Machop (from one every other week to two-three a day of light play), and Bellsprout (from one a week to super common). I seem to be getting fewer Nido spawns (though I still see plenty of those) in response. I suspect that they made it so that at least one of every type (except maybe Dragon, because, well, we all know) is now semi-common in each biome so that they will become very common when the weather favors that type.

Fifth and finally, managed to get in an Absol raid along with Mawile, so I now have the two that are, if rumor is to be believed, only found in raids. I find the two oddly mirroring each other. Mawile is only a level 2 raid, and not too tough (especially if the weather isn't favoring it, per my previous comments). That said, actually catching it is somewhat tricky - the circles aren't favoring an easy catch. On the flip side, Absol is a level 4 raid (albeit perhaps the easiest I've seen at level 4, especially if you're able to tank or dodge its charge attack), but once you beat the raid, you're almost guaranteed to catch it if you connect with the ball (even without giving it a berry, it had a green catch circle).

As a minor question - for those who do gym takedowns regularly, did they do a silent nerf on Blissey, or is it just me? Since the update that launched gen 3, Blisseys seem easier to take down.

The spawns being affected by weather is a welcome and highly overdue change. About time that people who don't live in city centers get a shot at acquiring other types than the standard Normal rodents and Normal/Flying birds.

I'm a bit confused about what constitutes extreme weather. It didn't get activated the other day while it was snowing heavily here, but it did this morning for no apparent reason.

@2197 From what I understand, the trigger for the Extreme weather tag is that your regional/national weather service puts out a severe weather warning for your area. I see a couple of issues on a gameplay perspective for that.

1. Because of margin of error, the range for the warning is wider than what is actually dealing with extreme weather.
2. There are different levels of warning from weather services, and not all of them are extreme conditions (see my previous "6 inches of snow in 24 hours" issue).
3. Weather services typically start the extreme weather warnings well ahead of the arrival of the weather to give people fair warning. Great for their actual purpose, but once you're ready, it kills any PoGo chances while you wait for whatever nature throws at you.

I appreciate the existence of the Extreme tag, but I think there are some implementation issues.

Groudon's up and at 'em. He'll be in raids until January 15th.

IGN tried a new Apple-product exclusive "approaching" feature that enables you to actually approach a Pokémon in AR mode (and gives you bonuses based on how well you do so). Approaching too fast can scare the mon off while an "Expert Handler" notice appears if you approach carefully enough.

Of note is the fact that IGN's guys were able to find and catch yet to be available Pokémon while testing this feature, specifically mentioning Spheal, Barboach, and Carvanha. Furthermore, Delibird was able to be caught too! News on when these mons would be officially added to Go, as well as a holiday event, should be expected very soon, according to what a Niantic rep told IGN.