The APK for the next Pokémon GO update has been made public, and it hasn’t taken long for the good folk at The Silph Road to poke at all the new changes. While we learnt a lot from the official Niantic statement about the upcoming Raid Battles and Gym revamps yesterday, there’s yet more juicy info to examine!

While the following information doesn’t mean we can expect implementation for everything now (for instance, Raid Battles was known to exist in the code several updates ago), we can expect these features sooner or later. Plus we got a new Loading screen!

The highlights are as follows:

• Battle Teams – Constructs in the code appear to be for the ability to pre-store a battle team (or multiple!), along with the ability to name said teams and prefer one. Here’s hoping this is something that is made available when Gyms return!
• Battle Network calls – Remote network calls during battles may be possible.
• Battling formula changes – STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus) attacks have been weakened,, and type immunities have been factored in to some degree (e.g. Ground-type attacks versus Flying types does less than Ground versus Grass types). Damage multipliers for weaknesses have been buffed too. This means Pokémon with 4x weaknesses, like Dragonite and Tyranitar, will suffer more from Ice and Fighting type attacks respectively. This will surely have a bearing on the Gym metagame.
• Search functions – You can now search for Pokémon you have caught by number, by a custom name, ones to be evolved and within a CP range!
• Max total deployed limit for Pokémon – There appears to be three limits added to the code – the max number of Pokémon a player can add to any Gym, the max amount at one Gym (6 in total), and the max number of the same species of Pokémon at the same Gym (1).

• 

  Legendary Battles – That’s right, Legendary Battles! Multiple references to these has been added to the code, such as the number of battles against Legendaries had and won, as well as a Legendary Raid Ticket. This suggests that Legendary Pokémon will be encountered in Raid Battles, and will require a special ticket. This may not be something available right away when Gyms return.

  Furthermore, it appears that it may not be possible to place Legendaries onto Gyms to defend them. If this holds true then this is likely to help balance the game. But there’s no indication you cannot use them to attack Gyms!

• Gym “Healing mode” – Healing items can be used while viewing a Gym! A great time saver.
• Berry logistics – A new badge has been added for the number of times you feed Pokémon with Berries. New error messages have also been added, suggesting that you won’t be able to feed Pokémon on Gyms belonging to other rival teams. Not that you should want to do so!
• Gym Badge Tiers – There are four tiers; Vanilla, Bronze, Silver and Gold. These are upgraded by winning defensive battles, feeding berries, deploying Pokémon, winning Raid Battles and also “losing all battles”, curiously. New badges and icons have also been added.

  

• Premier Ball Awards – You gain Premier Balls following a successful Raid Battle. The number you gain depends on your contribution damage-wise to the battle, your team contribution, Gym ownership, a bonus item multiplier and “the base Poké Balls”. Some more work is needed to properly understand these factors.
• Gym Pokémon Display update – Gym team displays have been updated.
• Inbox – You will be able to view various messages about notices and progress on Gyms.
• Lobbies – These are the waiting rooms for Raid Battles. Private Raid lobbies are lacking some documentation.
• Gym Badge Map – You will be able to view where the Gyms are that correspond to your Gym Badges.
• Push Notifications – You can enable push notifications about nearby Gyms and updates to them and their Pokémon (e.g. if a Pokémon needs feeding, or if one of yours won a battle while defending).
• Bonus Gym Loot – You can get more items if you have a higher tier of Gym badge.
• Raid Levels – There are five Raid Levels in the game.

That’s a lot of information! What are you most excited about?