Pokemon Go Buddy Update To Begin Rolling Out Shortly

Along with the announcement of Apple Watch support, the biggest Pokemon Go news last week was that trainers will finally be able to get their hands on the Pokemon GO Plus wearable accessory starting Friday, September 16th. With that day quickly approaching, developer Niantic has confirmed that the next update for the game — version 1.7.0 on iOS, and 0.37.0 on Android — is being prepared to rollout in the next few days.

Along with adding support for the Pokemon GO Plus device, which aims to make it easier to catch Pokemon and collect PokeStop goodies without needing to take your phone out of your pocket, this update will add the much talked about Buddy Pokemon feature.

As we've previously covered, the Buddy Pokemon system will let players choose one of their favorite Pokemon to pair with their in-game trainer, in turn having it displayed on their profile and map screens. Niantic's patch notes explain that once players assign a Buddy, they will be able to earn candy for that Pokemon each time they walk a certain distance.

The distance needed depends on the Pokemon, and sadly only one piece of candy will be awarded per completion. Word is that Pokemon like Lapras, Scyther, and Dragonair will require 5 kilometers per candy, the three starters will need 3km of walking, while Jiggly Puff and certain other will only require 1km.

There are a few other small but important changes this update will bring, including a fix for the issue that sometimes caused eggs to be hatched without the notification animation, making it easier to select smaller Pokemon on the screen, and improved performance reliability when a device switches networks.

Lastly, Niantic says that Pokemon Go will no longer run on smartphones that have been rooted or jailbroken. The developer explains that this is part of the effort to cut down on bots and cheating tactics, such as using GPS spoofers to change locations at will.

SOURCE Niantic