Pokemon GO has been hinting at the arrival of Mega Evolutions more and more directly as this summer has progressed. Most recently, a tweet announcing imminent Mega Evolution-related news was posted just hours before dataminers discovered some interesting new assets.
Niantic’s official Pokemon GO Twitter account alerted players earlier today to stay tuned for “MEGA news” on the way. This tweet was accompanied by an image portraying three stones bearing the Mega Evolution sigil (perhaps three Mega Candy?), and was apparently followed by a stealthy update to the game’s data.
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Several hours after the aforementioned tweet, a group of Pokemon GO dataminers known as the “PokeMiners” revealed their discovery of several new assets related to Mega Evolution. The assets, which in this case were all graphic elements, indicate the arrival of several different powerful Mega Pokemon, as well as “Mega Raid Eggs” and new badges involving Mega Evolution. While the game has already introduced a sizable amount of Pokemon that can Mega Evolve, it seems that players won’t simply be able to evolve all of them right away.
As of August 25th, 2020, only the following Mega Pokemon are present in the game’s data: Mega Blastoise, Mega Charizard X, Mega Charizard Y, Mega Venusaur, Mega Beedrill, and Mega Pidgeot. The presence of a “Mega Raid Egg” and the “Mega Raid Won” graphic confirm that players will challenge Mega Pokemon in Raid Battles. And another noteworthy fact is that all of these Pokemon’s Shiny variants have already been released in Pokemon GO, which is to say, it seems that players could have access to Shiny Mega Pokemon right off the bat. If this holds true, then the controversial trade value of some Pokemon, like Weedle or Pidgey, may accordingly skyrocket.
A subsequent update to the PokeMiners’ tweet confirmed the addition of two new badges, both related to Mega Pokemon/Evolution, as well. Although the medals aren’t particularly surprising, they may compel some players to consider potentially subscribing to Pokemon GO loot boxes, as it seems that there will be much raiding to do. The first badge, currently labeled “Mega Pokemon Guru”, keeps track of how many unique Mega Pokemon a trainer has caught. And the second, currently labeled “Successor”, keeps track of how many total Mega Pokemon a trainer has caught.
The presence of all of these assets does not guarantee that they will be released in-game, in their current conditions, or at all. That being said, given the recent Mega Pokemon datamine, and Niantic’s tweet, it seems safe to say that Mega Pokemon in Pokemon GO are right around the corner.
Of course, the fact that players will be challenging Mega Pokemon implies that they will be fighting fully-evolved Pokemon, which begs the question: will Trainers be able to Mega Evolve a Community Day Charizard this October, for example, or only a Charizard caught from Mega Raid Battles? Moreover, seeing as Pokemon GO Mega Evolutions are probably time-based, how will Mega Candy factor into the equation? Questions aside, players should keep their eyes on their mobile devices this week – Mega Pokemon are effectively one push-of-a-button away.
Pokemon GO is available now on the App Store and Google Play.
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Source: @poke_miners | Niantic