Trainers, a new update v0.261.0 is available in Pokemon Go and we have some very exciting news to share with you. Thanks to the world’s greatest miners, we now have an in-depth APK teardown of the newest update.
Update v0.261.0 have a lot of things to offer, such as new assets, Gimmighoul, Gholdengo, a new Rocket-type Pokemon contest, VPS events, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet updates, and other cool stuff. Those who want to learn more feel free to follow this link.
Now, let’s talk about the new Rocket-type Pokemon contests, what we know about them, and how you feel about them. According to reports, contests will spawn at PokeStops, and completing them will grant you rewards. You have to be close to interact, and you can only do a limited number of contests.
These contests have different levels of re-occurrence daily, every two days, every three days, weekly, or seasonally. Pokemon Go players will submit only one Pokemon per contest, and you can do several contests at once.
Here is what we know so far, as per the miners:
“Stops
- Contests are another type of rocket, so they will spawn at Stops.
- Contests reward loot and each contest have a set of rewards per contest.
- You can have unclaimed rewards from a contest, unclear what causes the rewards to be unclaimed, perhaps if your bag is full or if you have a network error? It sounds like you can have several contests going on at once, so perhaps you have to come back to the stop to claim your rewards.
- Contests have a unique style on the map, like Rockets and Rocket Victories.
- You have to be within range of a Contest stop to interact with it.
Timing and Appearance
- Contests have different levels of re-occurrence – Daily, every 2 days, every 3 days, weekly, or seasonally.
- Season contests have specific definitions
- This is defined by a schedule, unclear if this is visible to the user or not.
- There is a list of eligible contests, unclear if that’s for the player, or global.
- There is a limit to the number of contests you can do.
- There is a restriction preventing ‘same season trade’ not being allowed.
Mechanics
- You appear to submit a Pokemon for the contest, and each Pokemon can only be in one contest at a time, this suggests you can do several contests at once.
- There are references to focusing on a contest Pokemon.
- There is a set of Pokemon Metrics for the contest.
- You can substitute a Pokemon in a contest for another one, but this might just be in response to if you try to use the same Pokemon in more than one contest? Unclear at this point.
- There are references to replacing a contest Pokemon in addition to substitution, unclear if these are the same thing or not but there are error states for if you are trying to remove or replace a different Pokemon.
- Contests only have two ranking systems – min or max.
TL;DR and Speculation
As of right now, we think the contest system is a mix between the old gym system and the new compare challenge that we think Niantic forgot about. We still need a lot more information to confirm any of this, but this is what we think right now.
Contests appear at stops (or gyms) every so often based on the schedules above and you can only participate in so many before hitting a limit. You probably have to leave a Pokemon that beats the contest’s rules (this part is us guessing based on previous min/max mechanics, but things like ‘heaviest Pikachu’ for example). You leave a Pokemon that beats the contest’s rules. Then someone else can come to the stop and try to beat your left mon’s stats. Once the contest timer runs out, the winner can claim the rewards.
Granted, this is us filling in a lot of gaps based on other similar things we have seen, so we could be way off the mark here. We’ll keep an eye on it as it gets developed (If it gets developed. Maybe it’ll be forgotten about like routes).”
What are your thoughts about this feature? Please have in mind that this is a datamine and things can change.
We expect to see an official announcement soon, so stay tuned.
