‘Pokemon GO’ Gen 2 Update Code Hack Reveals Big Secrets About What’s Next

For the past few hours, the internet has been on fire with news of today’s Pokemon GO generation two release. The 80+ new Pokemon and the new features the update introduced, which are covered in more depth by another article from the Inquisitr, are certainly exciting, but hardcore Pokemon GO fans have something else to be excited about, too: the huge secrets, including unreleased items, events, and cryptic phrases that could be anything, that were found in the update’s code.

Pokemon GO Valentines Day event: next Gen 2 release revealed in APK mine https://t.co/qTITTQJzru #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/QBR5GgKz2L

— Pokemon GO (@teampokemongo) February 10, 2017

Go-to Pokemon GO news source the Silph Road had its hacking team dig into the APK file of the update and pull out any interesting-looking lines of code they found. Some of them probably mean little, but some are clues to future GO items and events that could very well be game-changing.

For example, a lot of things about actually throwing Pokeballs to catch new Pokemon looks to be about to change.

Firstly, the physics of how a Pokeball (or Great Ball or Ultra Ball) is going to be different. Two lines of code reading “PERFECTLAUNCHSPEED” and “LAUNCHANGLE” that were not found in any previous update codes suggest the exact release you give to each ball will be even more meticulously recorded and calculated, and it may have some effect on catch rate.

Secondly, several lines of code regarding the “critical catch” mechanic appeared. Mention of the mechanic has been made in previous Pokemon GO update codes, but this is the first one in which it is fleshed out at all. Lines of code reading “CRITICALSHAKE,” “CRITICALCLICK,” and “CATCHSUCCESSCRITICAL” were found. A “critical catch” is a mechanic already in the main series Pokemon games in which a Pokeball is more likely to, when thrown at a Pokemon, give a special kind of shake and give off a loud click once the Pokemon is captured inside. This event is known as a “critical catch,” and it has a 100 percent rate of catching the target Pokemon when it occurs. It is more likely to happen the more of the Pokedex the trainer throwing the ball has filled, and it looks like it is a feature making its way to Pokemon GO.

Perhaps the most exciting news the code revealed is that shiny Pokemon are definitely coming to the game soon. Several lines of new shiny-related code, “SHINYSPAWNFX,” “SPARKLYFX,” “SUPPORTSHINY,” and “PLAYSHINYFX,” support this assumption. For those unfamiliar with the Pokemon handheld games, shiny Pokemon are versions of the normally found Pokemon that have a different color palette but are much rarer. In fact, only one out of every 4,096 Pokemon encounters is shiny.

The great thing about adding shiny Pokemon to Pokemon GO is that it will give players who have completed the Pokedex a reason to keep playing. Countless hours could be dedicated to finding shiny versions of all the Pokemon, and Pokemon GO really needs something to get masters to continue playing.

The code also shows that a new event called “ANNIVERSARY” is set to be activated in the future. There is no indication of what it might be celebrating, but a good guess is that it will be used on July 6, the one-year anniversary of Pokemon GO’s release.

Another part of the code reveals there is an in-game Pokemon GO news feed in development, meaning players will no longer need to scavenge the web for official tidbits about the game.

It confirmed that there is, sadly, only one new move being added with this generation of Pokemon GO: hidden power, which has not yet been implemented but which will be the signature move of Unown, one of the app’s newly introduced Pokemon.

And then there are some lines of code that, while obviously significant, are a bit cryptic and confusing. One such line reads “MUFFINTIN” and another reads “SCOOPER.”

One theory as to what these mysterious words could mean is that they don’t actually mean anything, and are just placeholders for features to be added into Pokemon GO later of which Niantic does not want to reveal the names. Maybe the odd names found are just placeholders, in other words.

Another possibility is that they will be two totally new items added into Pokemon GO to improve on some of the game’s issues.

It must not be too flawed as is, though, because, according to Forbes, the sheer volume of people who booted up the game immediately after they heard the news of the new update are really straining Niantic’s servers.

Of course, most of the update code refers to changes that can already be seen in the update, which is already live on Android and iOS all over the world. The rest, however, reminds those flocking back to the app that there is much more to look forward to in the coming months!

[Featured Image by Niantic and vgajic/iStock]