Pokemon GO Update Has New Secret Features And BIG Changes

Pokemon GO's latest update has a number of references to features that are not yet active. Today we're having a peek at a variety of elements that will likely be launching in the game within the next couple of updates as they're already a part of the released game code. This includes references to trading Pokemon, catching Legendary Pokemon, and notes on new items that'll be released in the in-game store.

The Pokemon GO store is relatively limited at the moment, allowing users to purchase incense, lures, egg buckets, and some expansions to Pokemon holders and backpacks. In the very near future, we'll be seeing more items here.

"Cool" Incense and "Floral" Incense can be seen in the code of the newest version of Pokemon GO. As with everything we'll be mentioning here in this article, these names wont necessarily be on the front end of the game, instead very possibly just here as a placeholder for the final name in game.

Code in the newest APK has Egg Incubators marked as type 2 or 3, and we've not yet seen type 1. Either that type was removed from the game early on in development, or there's a new type of Egg Incubator on the way.

We've known that Pokemon would eventually be able to be traded – just like the Nintendo handheld console games – but we've seen no reference in the game's code. Until now.

Four clues suggest that trading is coming very soon:

• Trade Search

• Trade Offer

• Trade Response

• Trade Result

It's likely users won't need to be immediately next to one another to be able to trade. Something like leaving one's Pokemon at a Gym to battle on their behalf may be in order.

Pokemon like Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres have been spotted in the code of the game. They're in the game, too – just not quite released to the public. We've known about them, as well as Legendary Pokemon Mew and Mewtwo, since before the game was released after Beta.

Now we've discovered another stepping stone between here and the special events in which these Pokemon will be released. While before we were only able to see "Activity Catch Pokemon" in the code, there's now reference to "Activity Catch Legend Pokemon."

Mention of "Forts" in the newest code for Pokemon GO made us think there'd be a whole new category of location in the game soon – however, our most recent analysis suggests that these are just references to either Pokemon Gym locations or Pokestops, where applicable.

Code for Forts includes "Deploy Pokemon" and "Recall Pokemon" – which either suggests that users will be able to take Pokemon back out of a Gym they've already assigned them to, or just references a Gym battle, in which a Pokemon can be recalled to deploy another.

Notes on "Buddy Pokemon" can be found in this newest update. Reference to "Buddy Candy Awarded" and "Buddy Walked Message" – so we wouldn't be extremely surprised to see something like Pikachu following our avatar in Pokemon Yellow business going on – though probably without the animation, to save on battery.

A tiny baby Pokemon following you around all the time, getting happy, growing closer to you day by day?

Sounds like... Eevee evolutions for Gen 2, doesn't it?

As we discovered back in March of this year, Pokemon GO will have a virtual reality component. The Pokemon GO app file contains a folder called "VR", inside which can be found two folders: platform and Cardboard.

This Cardboard folder contains files which reference Google Cardboard, aka the name for Google's virtual reality platform before it changed to Daydream. Codes are the same. VR is coming!

Some imagery above is Designed by Freepik and distributed by Flaticon

See SlashGear's Twitter portal for Pokemon GO at @TeamPokemonGO for updates, hacks, and oddities of all sorts – with more on the way!