New Changes Tease Pokemon Go's Next Wave of Pokemon

Pokemon Go is making preparations to release another wave of Pokemon.

Two recent tweaks to Pokemon Go's GAME_MASTER file indicate that some more "Gen 3" Pokemon are coming soon. Recently, a popular dataminer that goes by /u/Chrales on Reddit posted about two recent changes to the datafile that defines many of the moves and functions of the game.

Specifically, developers recently tweaked how long Vibrava's dodge animation takes and changed Loudred's moveset by adding "Stomp" and removing "Crunch" from its charge move pool.

Vibrava is the pre-evolved form of the popular Pokemon Flygon, while Loudred is the pre-evolved form of Exploud. Both are among the 60 or so "Gen 3" Pokemon that haven't yet been added to the game.

Pokemon Go hasn't given any official indications as to when they'll be adding more Pokemon to the game, although more are expected in the next month or so. Twenty Water-Type Pokemon were added to Pokemon Go shortly before Christmas and the Legendary Pokemon Kyogre was added as a raid boss earlier in January 2018.

While the tweaks indicate that some more Pokemon could appear in Pokemon Go soon, developers have yet to add image assets to the GAME_MASTER file, which means that they're not quite ready to go yet. That means that players shouldn't expect any new Pokemon to appear as part of the upcoming "Community Day" mini-event on Saturday.

Admittedly, it's a bit surprising that Pokemon Go tweaked Vibrava and Loudred, as neither Pokemon are particularly powerful or expected to get much use in the game. Most players don't use middle evolutions very much in gyms, so we're not sure if these changes will ever really make an impact in the game.

Still, the fact that Pokemon Go developers are prepping more Pokemon for release should excite many players. While Pokemon Go had hoped that players would focus on battling Kyogre for the next few weeks, many players are reporting that raid attendance has suffered as a result of "raid fatigue" from months of attending raids on a daily/weekly basis. Considering that frustration is already high due to the frustrating lack of EX Raid invites, Pokemon Go might need to get more Pokemon ready to help restore excitement to many players.