‘Pokemon Go’ Evolution Animation Time Decreased in New Update

'Pokemon Go' is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

‘Pokemon Go’ is available now for iOS and Android devices. (Nintendo)

A new Pokemon Go update is beginning to roll out for iOS and Android devices, and the time it takes to evolve Pokemon has now been decreased.

Although Version 0.41.2 for iOS and 1.11.2 for Android has not yet hit the app stores for everyone yet, Niantic put out a statement on Monday evening describing the nature of the update. In it, Nianitc says that the evolution animation time has been decreased. A Reddit user who was able to access the update revealed that the new evolution animation time is 20 seconds. Before the update, the evolution animation time was 25 seconds.

This is a welcome surprise for a lot of Pokemon Go fans, as the evolution animation time is something that had been the subject of many complaints for the past few months. It might not seem like it takes very long to evolve creatures, and you may never have thought of this as an issue. But it’s likely come up if you’re a fan of Lucky Eggs. This is the game’s item that gives players double XP for a 30 minute time period, and because evolving a Pokemon already nets you a fair amount of XP, one popular strategy for leveling up is to stock up on a bunch of low-leveled Pokemon – Pidgey, for example – and then evolve every single one of them back to back during a Lucky Egg session.

Before this update, it was possible to evolve around 60 Pokemon within one half-hour Lucky Egg session. But so much of that time is just spent waiting for the evolution animation to finish, so with it being sped up by Niantic this week, Lucky Egg sessions will become even more rewarding than ever before. According to Reddit, trainers can now evolve 75 Pokemon during Lucky Egg sessions.

This animation change is one of three pretty significant alterations in the latest Pokemon Go update. There’s also a feature where players are given catch bonuses for earning medals associated with certain Pokemon species. These bonuses will increase the likelihood of catching specific types of Pokemon. If you earn the medal for catching a lot of fire Pokemon, for example, you will get a catch bonus towards all fire Pokemon.

It is also now possible to take up to six Pokemon into a friendly gym for training, whereas before the new update, only one could be taken in.

For more on the latest Pokemon Go update, check out our breakdown of everything it brings to the table: