Dataminers have pored through the files for Pokémon Go’s latest version update, and they’ve found numerous signs of even bigger updates to come. Pokémon Go research community The Silph Road catalogued the code found in the game, which suggests that several more second-generation Pokémon are heading to the mobile hit.
Found in the game’s latest update are evolutionary items. There are five items that appear by name in the datamined game code, which will be familiar to longtime fans of the handheld Pokémon adventures. There’s the Sun Stone, King’s Rock, Metal Coat, Dragon Scale and Upgrade items, each of which debuted in Pokémon Gold and Silver back on the Game Boy Color.
In Gold and Silver, these items are given to a corresponding classic, first-generation Pokémon to transform it into a totally new monster; these Pokémon include Gloom, Slowpoke, Onix, Seadra and Porygon. Respectively, they use these evolutionary items to evolve int Bellossom, Slowking, Steelix, Kingdra and Porygon2, all of whom were new in Gold and Silver.
That method would make sense for Pokémon Go, which already includes the bulk of the original 151 Pokémon. As we saw with the first round of new Pokémon in the game, developer Niantic seems focused on introducing new monsters that are related to those already existent within the game.
There is one new, second-gen Pokémon who doesn’t evolve from an older monster in the code, however: Unown. This Pokémon debuted during the second-generation games as well, although it’s not based on any of the older monsters. Instead, these odd Pokémon come in several different forms, taking on the alphabet as well as a pair of punctuation. The datamined code points to Pokémon Go eventually supporting each unique type of Unown at some point in the future.
There are also 38 new moves found in the code, according to The Silph Road. That’s the first time that new moves have appeared within the game’s programming since the move that anticipated Ditto’s arrival, Transform, showed up.
It’s unclear when any of these new features — and others, like shiny Pokémon and Pokémon genders, both of which turned up in datamine — will make it into the base game. For now, Pokémon Go players can continue trying to hatch all of those second-gen baby Pokémon.