Yes that’s right, last weekend saw the first snow for most regions in the UK and the lowest daytime temperatures, and the Hoenn Pokémon chose this time to make their appearance. A few of species from Hoenn were released for the Halloween event, but last weekend saw the addition of 50 more Pokémon, including the region starters.
In addition to the new Pokémon, the game also received a few new features including dynamic weather and battle parties. The dynamic weather seems to be having a few teething problems. It’s supposed to mirror the weather in the real world in game, but 4 inches of snow seemed to show up in game as rain and cloud then on Monday, after it had stopped snowing, it showed snow. However, I’m sure the feature will get more accurate over time.
The new weather feature isn’t just aesthetic but also is reported to change the types of Pokémon that spawn, with each weather effect attracting different elements. However, while the rain effect did bring out more water Pokémon the other weather types I’ve encountered, so far, doesn’t seem to make much impact with the regular biome spawns remaining pretty much as usual. Again, I’m sure Niantic will rebalance these over time.
There are also weather boosts to moves that match the element the weather favours and Pokémon caught of those types can be up to level 35 instead of the usual cap at level 30. This could be great feature for catching those legendries.
Another feature added is battle parties. Players have long complained about having to rush to select a battle party when joining a raid in sometimes as little as 10 seconds if you’re unlucky and finally Niantic have listened and added battle parties which allow you to create pre chosen parties, of up to six Pokémon, to select in one click when starting a raid. The maximum Pokémon capacity reachable by the storage expansions in the shop has also been raised 1500. However, if like me, you haven’t fully expanded your storage yet anyway then this increase will likely not be noticed.
It’s worth also mentioning that the Ho-Oh legendary raids have been extended until the 14th of December, due to a bug that prevented many players catching him on the first weekend, so if you haven’t caught him yet, there’s still so time left. Make sure to wrap up warm if you do.
