A big Pokemon Go datamine compiled by the sleuths on the Silph Road subreddit has uncovered traces of routes and their rewards, as well as new challenges including an almost dog show-esque Pokemon comparison.
Reddit user martycochrane collected the recent findings in a tidy, not-so-little write-up. The headliner was the new route feature which, according to the datamine, would add a new type of challenge and routine to the game. From what we've seen so far, routes are essentially player-made paths that string together hotspots, landmarks, Pokestops, and other in-game bonuses to create a fun and profitable route to take while playing the game. This is all unofficial and subject to change, but it sounds like the augmented reality equivalent of building and uploading a custom level.
Completing a route would award a route badge, and each route would be dotted with trade opportunities, collectible stamps and postcards, and potentially tappable rewards like candies and coins. Route badges seem to be the central collectible for the feature. They'll seemingly display who created a route in the first place, how many times you've cleared a route and your fastest clear time, as well as what stamps you've earned along the way.
Routes may also add, or launch alongside, a new type of contest currently known as the Compare Challenge. It's pretty much what the name implies: you'd enter one (or perhaps more) Pokemon into a contest based on certain parameters such as height, weight, or HP. If your Pokemon proves to be the smallest, thickest, shortest, or what-have-you, you win the challenge and get… something? This is one of the fuzzier features in the datamine report, so there are still plenty of questions to be answered regarding rules and rewards. The biggest question is probably whether this challenge can only be waged against NPCs, or if players can also compete with each other. With more details cropping up in datamines, there's a good chance these features are nearly ready to come out of the oven, so hopefully we get an official answer later this year.
