Pokemon Go: Beta Tests Show Changes to Evolution and Training

With beta tests now underway in the US, Japan and Australia, information about Pokemon GO! has [...]

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With beta tests now underway in the US, Japan and Australia, information about Pokemon GO! has slowly leaked out on the Internet at a pretty steady pace. The "augmented reality" mobile app will allow players to catch and battle Pokemon in the real world, although some fans are upset with changes the game has made to Pokemon's standby mechanics. One of the mechanics under the most scrutiny is how players evolve their Pokemon in Pokemon GO. While Pokemon in the normal Pokemon games evolve typically by leveling up, early versions of Pokemon GO used "evolutionary shards" that could only be collected by catching more Pokemon. However, a new update on Reddit has revealed some major new changes to the much criticized system.

Pokemon Go's "evolutionary shards" have been replaced with "candies" (like Rare Candies) that can be used to evolve specific Pokemon. Candies are specific to an evolutionary line, so a Charmander candy can be used to evolve Charmander to Charmeleon and Charmeleon to Charizard. While it's similar to the evolutionary shard system, testers claim that the new system will make it much easier to evolve a Pokemon than before.

That isn't the only big change in the update. Players can now train their Pokemon using a new item called "Stardust", increasing their strength and HP. The training aspect of Pokemon GO was missing in early beta tests, meaning that players basically had to grind and catch Pokemon constantly in order to find the strongest Pokemon available. For fans worried that "Stardust" is a dreaded in app purchase, beta testers have confirmed that you collect the item with every Pokemon you catch or hatch. In addition to training Pokemon, players can also give their Pokemon nicknames, just like in the main Pokemon games.

More information on Pokemon GO should be available on June 15th, when Nintendo hosts a question and answer session about the game during E3.

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