Pokemon Go continues to evolve and become a more involved game than it was. It has been over a year since its release and Niantic is trying to keep the interesting and adding in new mechanics. The game also just saw the release of the Pokemon from the Hoenn region. This adds in another 100+ Pokemon into the game in addition to 2-3 more Legendaries that will become available at a later point.

First, the biggest change to the game: the Weather System. This makes a lot of sense to introduce with Pokemon Go's Hoenn update. Groudon and Kyogre are known for their weather abilities, introducing indefinite Harsh Sunlight (Drought) or Rain (Torrent). This weather system, in Pokemon Go, augments particular Types depending on the weather itself. This weather also effects spawn rates, with some Pokemon that will open appear when the proper weather conditions occur. Specifically, moves will receive a 20% boost to their power when used in favorable weather. Pokemon will give 25% extra stardust when caught (those with that bonus have a circle at their feet).

Sunny – Fire, Grass, Ground

Light Clouds – Normal, Rock

Rain – Water, Electric, Bug

Snow – Ice, Steel

Fog – Dark, Ghost

Windy – Dragon, Flying, Psychic

However, this weather system does have a few bugs. There are times when a drizzle or light rain will be categorized as a much heavier occurrence than it actually is. If the weather is too severe then Pokemon will not appear. Likely this will be resolved with a patch in the future or simple adjustments made to the servers later on.

The Hoenn region added 135 Pokemon into the roster, marking the biggest addition in a single generation at that point. Because of this, Niantic is doing a staggered release of the Pokemon into the game. The first 5 of the Hoenn Pokemon were introduced in the 2017 Halloween event, adding in Sableye, Duskull, Dusclops, Shuppet, and Bannet. 50 more were added to the game with the most recent update. The remaining Pokemon will be released into the game world over the course of the year. It will do well to keep interest up in the game.

There was a big change to the battle interface. Now, when attacking Gyms or in a Raid Battle, there is a button to hit to trigger your Pokemon's charged attack. This does make it much more reliable to trigger the attack when you want to. It is a vast improvement over the original system where you had to hold your finger on the screen to trigger that attack.

In the meantime, there have been some Pokemon added to the game that are pre-evolutions (baby forms) of Pokemon that already within the game. At present that is the Wynaut, a pre-evolution form of Wobbuffet and Azurill for Marill. More will be added with the second Hoenn update.

The regional exclusives include Plusle, Minum, Zangoose, and Seviper. You can find Plusle and Zangoose in the Americas and Africa. Minun and Seviper can be found in Europe, Asia, and Australasia. All of them are fairly uncommon spawns in the areas that they are available. It can take some walking around to find proper places.

Finally, added via Raids, you will have Mawile and Absol. These are only available for those who participate in raiding. Mawile is only a difficulty 2 raid, making it very possible to solo. The Absol, however, is a difficulty 4 raid. You want at least 1 other person, if not 2-3 more to ensure that you will be able to defeat and have a chance of it.

There are also a few Pokemon which are going to take some time to learn about. First, there is Wurmple with its dual evolutionary path of Cascoon and Silkcoon. From those, it will evolve into Dustox and Beautifly respective. At the time of writing, there is no known way to control the evolution and force it to become one or the other. There is also the question of Feebas becoming Milotic. It is likely to follow what it did in later games after the Beauty mechanic was removed, and evolve using the Prism Scale and an unknown number of Candies. This is also likely to be the case for Clamperl. The Clamperl also has 2 evolutionary paths it can take. But this one is controlled by what item it was holding when it was leveling up. Likely this will maintain in Pokemon Go as well.

Finally, there are the legendary Pokemon found in Generation 3. Before, we only got a few added per game with the Legendary Birds, Dogs, Mew, Mewtwo, and Celebi. When it came to Generation 3, 10 Legendary Pokemon were added: Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Latias, Latios, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, and Deoxys. This will give Niantic even more Pokemon to add into EX raids if they are so inclined. Possibly they could boost the drop rate for EX Passes so more raiders can participate in them to hunt for these Legends.