‘Pokemon GO’ update: Trackers & Evolution items explained; Gen 2 patch removes beta trading features

Niantic, via the “Pokemon GO” Gen 2 update, has removed the leftover code from the beta tied to trading. This may again be included in future. This won’t have any effect on the game’s current features and will help in general game performance.

The entire set of protobuf (*) messages related to trading has been removed. This also includes the overall mocked infrastructure for trading. Niantic is working to optimise the game from both the server and client sides. Trading-related features will again come back, but it will be vastly different from the beta.

“Pokemon GO” official Twitter account tweeted on Friday that trainers can now find more Candies after catching evolved Pokemon such as Pidgeotto in the wild. CEO of Niantic John Hanke told Waypoint earlier that he would soon be bringing trading and PvP battles to the game. Niantic has very different plans when it comes to Pokemon trading. Meanwhile, Kotaku has compiled a list of third-party Pokemon trackers for those who are still unsatisfied with the game’s in-game tracker.

Until the time Niantic introduced the “Sightings” or “Nearby” features, the in-game “Pokemon GO” tracker was considered garbage. Now, Niantic has also introduced a PokeStop-based tracker. However, players still look at third-party apps for a more targeted tracking option as they target players to specific locations for specific Pokemon. Some of the trackers that are still functional stay away from the Pokemon IP. The trackers are PokiiMap (Android), PokeSensor (Android and iOS), PokeTracker (iOS) and PokeWhere (iOS).

One of the new features introduced by the “Pokemon GO” Gen 2 update are the evolution items. These items help trainers evolve certain Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon after combining certain amounts of Candies. According to CNET, the evolution items are Sun stone, King's rock, Metal coat, Dragon scale and upgrade-items. The only way trainers can get the evolution items is by spinning PokeStops. Trainers may spin a lot number of times before getting an evolution item. They are rare unlike the Balls and Razz Berries.

The Pokemon that could be evolved using Candies combined with evolution items are Gloom (one sun stone and 100 candies), Sunkern (one sun stone and 50 candies), Poliwhirl (one king's rock and 100 candies), Slowpoke (one king's rock and 50 candies), Onix (one metal coat and 50 candies), Scyther (one metal coat and 50 candies), Seadra (one dragon scale and 100 candies) and Porygon (one upgrade item and 50 candies). The evolved forms as per the order are Bellossom, Sunflora, Politoed, Slowking, Steelix, Scizor, Kingdra and Porygon2.