A whopping 50 Gen 3 pokemon are coming to Pokemon Go as part of a big update which also includes the addition of dynamic weather effects. The patch will go live later this week, and even more Gen 3 pokemon will join this initial batch in the following weeks.
The arrival of Gen 3 pokemon has been eagerly anticipated by Trainers who fancy themselves collectors, and to its credit, Niantic is treating the event like a pretty big deal. There's even a trailer:
Being able to catch Torchic, Treecko, Mudkip, and more Gen 3 pokemon is pretty self-explanatory. As for dynamic weather: once the update is live, players may notice the look of the map has changed, and now includes visual effects for when it's raining, snowing, sunny, foggy, windy, or partly cloudy.
Additionally, pokemon can be associated with different conditions, making them more or less likely to appear based on the weather. Certain moves will also be more or less effective in battle - Charizard's Fire Spin will be extra strong on sunny days, for example.
It all sounds pretty cool, but I admit I'm a bit worried - every cool new feature seems to be hampered by some setback, and the community has not been shy about letting Niantic know. A new gym rewards system frustrated city players and created a new roadblock for rural players, while Mewtwo's arrival was marred by fuzzy details and frustratingly vague communication. So hopefully this weather feature won't also have a monkey's paw-like curse attached to it.
