Niantic has just announced that they're going to start testing some "minor gameplay adjustments" in Pokemon Go. Some of those adjustments involve changing the way PokeStops work and adding a brand new introductory Special Research for new players.
-"We continually strive to improve the Pokemon Go experience," wrote Niantic on the Pokemon Go blog. "As such, we want to ensure the changes we make are beneficial to—and make a strong, positive impact on—the greater community, as well as each individual Trainer’s experience, before we launch them globally."
There are five new gameplay mechanics that Niantic plans to start testing in the coming months. Those include:
- Nickname suggestions for new Trainers
- An expanded set of Trainer Tips
- New PokeStop functionalities
- Egg hatch updates, including the option to skip the hatch animation
- A Special Research story that introduces new Trainers to the world of Pokémon GO
A lot of these are self-explanatory, like skipping egg animations and new Trainer Tips, but “new PokeStop functionalities” could mean anything. Thankfully, Pokemon Go has an extensive data mining community, so we already have some idea of what these new PokeStops look like.
A PokeMiners infographic posted on r/TheSilphRoad outlines what's known so far about the new Power-Up PokeStops. This new functionality seems to keep track of how often players interact with PokeStops, leveling them up over time with escalating rewards for visitors.
At level 0, PokeStops behave exactly as they do now, but at Level 1 they begin to offer players bonus items. At level 2, they offer both a bonus item and a Buddy bonus heart, and at level 3 they provide a bonus item, a Buddy heart, better spawns, and bonus Raid Premier Poke Balls.
How Power-Up PokeStops level up is still a bit of a mystery. PokeMiners note that there's a new point counter that levels up a PokeStop after achieving a certain number of points for a limited time, and those points seem to accumulate from player interactions, but there might be some modifier based on player level of AR-scans.
But we might find out soon. PokeMiners reports that New Zealanders should have access to the new Power-Up PokeStops if they're level 20 or higher. Kiwis, get out there and report back with your findings!