Let's Talk About the Pokemon Go Update

On February 16, 2017, a new update for the popular augmented reality game was released. This update was highly anticipated, as Niantic had finally put (non baby) Generation 2 Pokemon in. I was able to update the day of and right away I was finding even more of the Pokemon I knew and loved growing up.

The Good

More Pokemon!

More than 80 species of Pokemon are available, including the starters from Gold and Silver.

Eevee down to a 5K and evolutions

Eevee has gone from the 10K egg down to the 5. This makes Eevee much easier to obtain. Speaking of Eevee, Generation 2 evolutions Umbreon and Espeon are available and the naming trick still applies. To evolve your Eevee into Umbreon, simply name it "Tamao". To evolve your Eevee into Espeon, name your Eevee "Sakura"

In between
Evolution items

Certain Pokemon require items in order to evolve. For instance, to evolve Onix into Steelix or Scyther into Scizor, you will need to Metal Coat along with the required number of candies. To evolve Slowpoke into Slowking or Poliwhirl into Politoed, you need Kings Rock. There will also be the upgrade to evolve Porygon into Porygon 2. The Sun Stone (like in the old games) will evolve Sunkern into Sunflora and and Gloom into Bellossom. These items will be available in the Pokestops, so you will unfortunately need to be in a Pokestop dense city.

The Bad

Microtransactions have gotten MUCH worse

In the previous version of the game, you could go to the shop and get coins in order to get Pokeballs, incense, lure modules, etc. Now this is so much worse. In the style option of customizing your avatar, you can get a wide variety of hats, shirts, etc.....for some coins.....such as a top hat for 800, a fedora for 180. If you don't readily have coins at your disposal and you want to be able to upgrade your trainer well be ready to pay for it.

If you have stopped playing, I highly recommend that you check it out again or if you have yet to experience this game, go to the Apple Store or Google Shop, download Pokemon Go, grab some friends and (safely and responsibly) venture through your world.