Pokémon Go APK 0.69.0 Update: Legendary Raids On Their Way?

Dataminers have uncovered new code in Pokémon Go, including new events and Legendaries. The smartest people in Kanto over at Silph Road have dug through the APK, or the Android Package Kit, for version 0.69.0, They found a bunch of awesome assets and strings of code that signal some much-needed changes coming in the next update.

Legendaries!- According to the Silph Road, Niantic has added more code for Legendary Pokémon raids. There’s a new Pokémon attribute called “IsLegendaryOrMythic” and warning/error messages for trying to transfer a Legendary or place it in a gym. There’s also a new message prompt for these battles called “get_IsEventLegendary.” My favorite change, and quite frankly the coolest, is a new Lugia icon and a “Victory” banner that appears after a successful raid.

Pokémon Go’s Raid update brought tons of players back to Niantic’s AR-infested app. Battling a Blastoise with thousands of CP with fellow trainers was all any of us wanted from PoGo in the first place. While Raids were a solid step in the right direction, the game still lacked something crucial to the Pokémon mythos: Legendaries. Excluding Zapdos, Suicune and Mew from these large-scale battles have made them feel a lot less epic.

New Event Mechanics- Remember QR codes? Those grey and white boxes that spread like wildfire in China but are rarely seen in the States? Niantic is adding a QR scanner to Pokémon Go for special events, making sure that spoofers and bots can’t join in from anywhere in the world. Event-specific Pokestops and Gyms also seem to be coming along, though it’s unclear how they will act differently from normal ones.

As a special bonus for those that participate in events, you’ll get a unique badge that won’t be available anywhere else. The Chicago event planned for later this week has a special “Chicago 2017” badge for attending, a show of pride that every badge completionist is going to need.

Exclusive Raids? Hidden alongside Lugias and badges was an icon for a new Raid called an “Exclusive Raid.” They have their own Raid tickets, pictures and even a link to Google Maps. Similar to regular raids, these Exclusive variants will have you going to a location, fighting a Pocket Monster and then taking a reward. There’s no further evidence as to what these might actually be so only time will tell.

Smaller Changes

• Pokémon Go Plus should suck less.

• “Remoteberrymultiplier” is coming, meaning berries can finally have differing levels of strength. My Pokémon are going to get big and strong from all these Razz berries I keep finding.

• Badges are now compiled in their own image folders instead of being bunched together.

• Bug fixes for health bars, localization translations and heal animations.

• A new sponsor called “whisk.” Like the Starbucks promotion before it, this looks to be another corporate tie-in, though it’s unclear who that might be. Miltank butter cakes from Betty Crocker is what I’m personally hoping for.

Nothing groundbreaking in this APK dig, but there’s still some pretty neat stuff. We’re one step closer to battling Celebi in a crowded park at an event, which is really all I want. I’ll take off work to fly anywhere in North America to catch a flying green sprite, but Niantic has to put it in the game first.

Are you excited for Pokémon Go Legendary raids? Tell us in the comments.