Pokémon Go wants to get you outside this spring with some quality updates

Pokémon GO is starting to get old in game years, but despite this fact, there is still a thriving community surrounding it. There are numerous Facebook and Discord groups around the world that exist solely to organize in-person gatherings and facilitate trades. Similar online communities have set themselves to the task of peeking behind the curtain of the game to suss out all of its secrets. Even so, the one-time jewel in the Pokémon game line-up is starting to lose players and cultural relevance. In order to stem these losses, Niantic is pushing out a series of quality-of-life updates over the next month that it’s calling “Rediscover Pokémon GO.”

What can players look forward to

Some players (myself included) have already seen some of these updates as part of Niantic’s A/B testing, but if you’re not one of them, you can expect to eventually see updates to the world map, encounter screen, and battle screen that basically boils down to more diversity and more detail. There are also updates incoming to the avatar creation menu that give you much more control over your in-game appearance. Finally, you’ll soon be able to take an AR photo of up to three of your Pokémon.

Further down on Niantic’s announcement page, it gives a rough timeline of when these changes should be available for everyone. Rediscover Yourself begins on April 17 and will be the avatar customization upgrades. April 22 is Rediscover Your World, and there will be visual upgrades to the world map and encounter/battle screens. Also on April 22 is Rediscover Kanto, a new event featuring first-generation Pokémon from the Kanto region. On May 7, the updated GO Snapshot capabilities will be released in Rediscover Your Reality.

Gotta catch ‘em all, again

All of these updates are pretty cool, and having seen the visual changes for the past month, I can say it’s a welcome addition to the game, even if it doesn’t change how it’s played. What has many Pokémon GO fans excited is the prospect of potentially having a higher chance of finding biome-specific Pokémon in their proper biomes as implied by Niantic in its announcement for the Rediscover Kanto event. More details will drop as these dates come, so look for the first update this Wednesday. And while you wait, check out our guide on how to get PokéCoins.