Pokemon Go Shakes Up Metagame By Adding New Moves

Pokemon Go has made some potentially huge changes due to the addition of a few moves and some changed movesets for a few key Pokemon. Yesterday, Pokemon Go announced that it was adding two new moves to the game: the Fast Attack Charm and the Charged Attack Skull Bash. Players are especially excited about Charm, a Fairy-type move that's available to Pokemon like Gardevoir, Gallade, Togekiss, and Wobbuffet. Previously, Fairy-type Pokemon didn't have a Fast Attack with STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus), so the move makes Pokemon like Gardevoir a lot more usable in gym battles and raids.

In addition, Pokemon Go also announced that a handful of Pokemon would be getting new moves to their movesets. Some of the big changes include the addition of Rock Throw to Aerodactyl and Wing Attack to Moltres, both of which should give these Pokemon a lot more relevancy in the game's metagame. For instance, Aerodactyl is now more useful as a Rock-type attacker than Golem (a perennial favorite in Legendary Raids), while Moltres is now the top counter against Machamp Raid Bosses. A lot of the changes will affect PvP battles, and are designed to give players more options when picking out their teams.

In total, 13 Pokemon had moves added to their moveset and 15 Pokemon have access to either Charm or Skull Bash. The new moves mark the second time that Pokemon Go has shifted around movesets in an attempt to keep PvP more exciting and relevant to players. With a possible Team Rocket invasion event centered around PvP coming soon, these changes were needed to keep players engaged and using one of the game's less used features.

The new moves went live yesterday, and a full list of changes can be found here.