'Pokémon GO' Rural Area Boost Added in Latest Update? Promo Code Feature in the Works
Niantic Labs may have just rectified one of the biggest sources of complaints of players in its augmented reality game "Pokémon GO," all without making a peep.
The developer has updated the servers of the game, ultimately boosting the spawn rates of pocket monsters in rural areas, giving players in these locations better chances to bulk up their Pokedex.
One of the most glaring issues in "Pokémon GO" ever since its release was the deprived availability of items, gyms and more importantly Pokémon in rural areas, making the game a bit lopsided.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
However, according to Gamerant, folks are reporting that there was a surge of 10 to 15 percent in Pokemon spawns after the server update.
"Pokémon GO" players who kept track of the changes revealed that the 15-minute spawn-rate per location has been decreased, the 30-minute spawn-rate is in play while Pokémon remain in place between 30 minutes and an hour.
Niantic has released no official patch notes so there is no way of knowing what the exact tweaks and modifications they did on the game.
However, the evident increase of spawn rates in rural areas, which should finally give "Pokémon GO" players there the chance to see a wider variety of Pokémon in the wild, is certainly one of the improvements it came with.
Prior to this server update, there have been rumors that Niantic has been looking for ways to remove the burden on rural area "Pokémon GO" players when it comes to the spawns.
Gamerant says that the developer may already be making concrete moves to fix that and the server update could be their first step in doing so.
More changes with regard to this aspect of "Pokémon GO" are expected to arrive in the coming days or weeks. Niantic might even make it all official soon.
Apart from this improvement, Niantic has also been playing around with promo codes for "Pokémon GO." For a moment, a "promo code" button appeared in-store, but keying the actual code was not possible.
The graphic is now gone, leading Slashgear to believe Niantic may have just been testing it. It is rumored that the promo code could be a subject of a new update for "Pokémon GO" soon.
