The roster of Pokémon in Pokémon GO is expanding, but not as much as fans had hoped when rumors of second-generation Pokémon first surfaced online.
Niantic has now revealed a new update with new Pokémon in tow. Starting Monday, players may collect Togepi, Pichu, and "select Pokémon" from Pokémon Gold and Silver, the second Pokémon installments released 15 years ago in the United States.
Pokémon GO Gen 2 Update
Togepi and Pichu may be obtained via egg-hatching, as revealed in the trailer, but players are also starting to spot Cleffa, Elekid, Magby, and Igglybuff. Trainers can get these eggs from PokéStops. The new update, which fans expect 100 new Pokémon from, seems a bit spare, and a number of players from forums and comment sections are now barking jabs at Niantic because of it.
Up in arms about the apparent lack of other second-generation Pokémon, players are also groaning at Niantic for other long-requested features culled from the mainline series such as trading, direct player-to-player battles, and encountering legendary Pokémon. Niantic hasn't addressed the latter requests, but it has, however, noted that the scant initial second-generation roster will change.
"These are the first of more Pokémon coming to Pokémon GO over the next few months," Niantic said in a blog post.
Once second-generation Pokémon start littering about, becoming available via random encounters, then the most recent update seems poised to be the largest update Pokémon GO has ever received, and it'll likely reinvigorate the dwindling interest of many fans who have already left the game for a number of reasons, one of which is the yanking-away of the tracker, which, by recent reports, seems back up again, albeit piecemeal.
A Special Holiday Event
Apart from the slow appearance of second-generation Pocket Monsters, the game is also getting a small event that involves finding a Santa hat-donning Pikachu in the wild as a nod to the holidays. The festive Pikachu starts appearing Monday through Dec. 29.
Pokémon GO was first released in July, shooting rapidly atop the charts shortly, but the game has slowly waned each day, with players jettisoning from Pokémon GO as Niantic implemented a number of gate-keeping measures that mostly kept third-party developers from interfering with the ways Niantic wanted Pokémon GO to run.
The game's popularity, however, is not to be downplayed. As of November, 600 million people have downloaded Pokémon GO, according to the Wall Street Journal. Its recent partnerships with Starbucks, Sprint, and this second-generation update may finally ease players' longstanding ennui.
What second-generation Pokémon are you most excited to see? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
