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Everything you need to know about Pokemon Go's upcoming Go Beyond update

Level cap increases, Seasons and Kalos Pokemon

Everything you need to know about Pokemon Go's upcoming Go Beyond update
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| Pokemon GO

Niantic has announced a plethora of changes that will be heading to Pokemon Go from the week beginning 30th November. It's certainly an exciting dump of information if you've been a long or short term fan of the game and we've got all of the details here for you.

Level cap increase

The first major change is that levelling up will be made easier than ever before whilst the cap will also be increased from 40 to 50. Naturally, higher levels also mean you can power up Pokemon to a higher CP than previously. From November 30th you'll earn more experience from catching Pokémon, evolving them, hatching Eggs and registering new Pokédex entries. 

Basically, everything you earn experience from now, except you'll get more of it, as much as double in some cases. There's also a bonus up for grabs if you hit level 40 before December 31st. Doing so will earn you the title of Legacy 40 Trainer alongside some rewards including a Legacy 40 medal and a Timed Research that nets you a Gyarados Hat. More experience will be on offer from today to help achieve this.

Levelling up beyond level 40 will be a little different from what you're used to, however. Instead of just grinding experience, you'll need to complete Leve-Up Research between levels by fulfilling certain criteria. For instance, to reach level 41 you'll have to catch a high number of Pokemon in one day among other things. To check out all the requirements head over to Niantic's recent blog post.

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Seasons

They will also be adding a new Seasons feature to the game. This will see the game world change every three months to reflect Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Most logically, it will affect which Pokemon you find in the wild, hatch from Eggs and battle in Raids.

This will also be dependant on which hemisphere you're living in. During the first season, for example, folks in the Northern Hemisphere will see more wintry Pokemon whilst those in the Southern part of the world will see summer Pokemon.

As the seasons change you will also see changes to the newly added Mega Pokemon. Each will bring new Mega-Evolved Pokemon to Raids and Mega-Evolved Pokemon will have limited-time periods where their total CP will temporarily be increased.

There will also be some changes to the Go Battle League, which is set to expand from 10 ranks to 24 with the top four having new names and badges. This will coincide with the addition of a new reward structure that will provide more bonuses that will also be based on the current Season.

Kalos Pokemon

Another upcoming addition will see the arrival of plenty of Pokemon from the Kalos region. You can check out a list of them below:

  • Chespin
  • Quilladin
  • Chesnaught
  • Fennekin
  • Braixen
  • Delphox
  • Froakie
  • Frogadier
  • Greninja
  • Bunnelby
  • Diggersby
  • Fletchling
  • Fletchinder
  • Talonflame
  • Litleo
  • Pyroar
  • Klefki (France only)

The arrival of the above Kalos Pokemon will be celebrated with an event that will take place from December 2nd to 8th. More details are expected to be announced soon but obviously, you can expect a bunch of Kalos Pokemon to appear in the wild.

12 Days of Friendship

To celebrate the impending arrival of the Go Beyond update, an event called 12 Days of Friendship is underway now and will conclude on November 30th. During this time, Friendship levels will increase faster than usual through opening Gifts, trading Pokémon, or battling together in raids, Gyms, and Trainer Battles with more XP and an attack boost on offer when Raiding with friends.

Pokemon Go is available now over on the App Store and Google Play. It's a free-to-play game with in-app purchases.

Looking for some GO Battle League tips? We've got some that will help you get started
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen brings both a love of games and a very formal-sounding journalism qualification to the Pocket Gamer team.