‘Pokemon Go’ is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)
Millions of Pokemon Go trainers are dying to get their hands on the game’s newest update, which was expected to hit app stores early this week. While the update is still not out yet, some interesting new details about it have just been revealed.
For those unfamiliar, the Pokemon Go app will be receiving a new feature called the buddy system, which allows trainers to walk with their favorite Pokemon. In addition to just being a fun way of connecting with your virtual pets, the idea is also that you’ll get candy for traveling a certain number of kilometers in real life. It was thought that this candy would be the only actual benefit.
But on Wednesday, the official Pokemon website, which is run by Nintendo/The Pokemon Company, put out a post about new Pokemon Go features, and there’s an interesting line in it regarding the buddy system. The post reads, “Your Buddy Pokémon will appear alongside your Trainer avatar on your profile screen and reward you with helpful bonuses —including Candy — as you walk with it. And there’s even more in store for the Buddy Pokémon feature — coming soon!”
There are two parts of that excerpt that shed some light about the forthcoming system. First, the wording seems to imply that players will get benefits other than just candy for walking their Pokemon. After all, the article says, “helpful bonuses – including candy,” implying candy is just one example of many bonuses you can receive.
The last sentence also implies there is more to the buddy feature than we currently know, and we already know quite a bit about it. Does this “more in store” have to do with the fact that there will be more bonuses than just candy? Does it mean that there is more to it than has been reported? Or does it mean that Niantic plans to keep updating the buddy system, adding more to it in future updates?
Many Pokemon Go fans online immediately began to speculate over this post, wondering about potential additional benefits to walking your Pokemon. Some suggested you could receive other items like potions or Poke Balls for traveling certain kilometers, while others wondered if walking Pokemon could increase the creators’ happiness like in the classic installments.
Mainly, though, a lot of trainers expressed concern over this development, worried that the buddy system might not live up to expectations.
“Sweet jesus, reading that got me concerned,” one Reddit user wrote. “If I walk 3km (and PoGo ‘kms’ at that) with a Lapras and get a friggin’ Potion or something else instead of a Candy, I will be absolutely livid.”
Pokemon Go updates tend to come out biweekly, and it’s been two weeks since the last update, so the buddy system should be online any day now. Here’s how you can get notified the exact second it is released:
