Pokemon Go Adds New Appraisal System, Changes PvP Battles

The newest Pokemon Go update provides a huge quality of life update for trainers, along with a whole new way to battle other players. Earlier today, Pokemon Go started its rollout of Version 0.149.0, which introduced two noticeable changes. The first is an overhauled appraisal system, which tells players about a Pokemon’s Individual Values stats (or IVs for short). Each Pokemon has unique Individual Values stats ranging between 1 and 15, which determine a Pokemon’s relative strength compared to other Pokemon of the same species and strength.

While IVs don’t make a huge difference in an individual attack’s strength, they can make a difference if a player is trying to complete a raid on their own or as part of a small group. Previously, a player could only get an idea of a Pokemon’s IVs through Pokemon Go’s appraisal system as it used text-based cues instead of giving specific stats. While the new appraisal system doesn’t provide numbers, it does feature a graph with three bars that help players tell whether their Pokemon is above average or below average.

The second part of the update adds a new swiping action when using charged attacks in PvP battles. Pokemon Go‘s PvP system previously had players quickly tap on their screens to “charge up” their charge attacks and increase their damage, but now players will need to swipe their screens to hit various symbols. Not only does this make battles more engaging, it also adds a secondary skill-based mechanism to PvP battles. The mechanic can be viewed in the preview video below:

The new update will be available on the Android and Apple App stores in the coming days.