Pokemon GO unveils significant changes coming to the routes

Niantic has announced a series of significant changes that will be coming to the Pokemon GO routes in the near future. The latest update is another attempt to directly address the frustrations expressed by some Pokemon GO players regarding the routes.

Originally introduced in late July, Pokemon GO routes were intended to further encourage exploration and strengthen the sense of community among the game's vast player base. The underlying concept of this feature is for players to share their favorite paths with others, who can then complete them to earn route badges, XP bonuses, and various in-game items. While tackling a route, there is also the possibility of encountering a Zygarde cell, which allows them to alter the form of any Zygarde in their collection.

In practice, this feature received widespread criticism from fans due to a number of limitations and quirks that proved frustrating for a large portion of the player base. Following some adjustments already made in response to these complaints, Niantic has now announced further changes awaiting the routes. This came as part of the "Out to Play" event announcement. The newly released list of upcoming adjustments is led by the commitment to allow more trainers to create routes, potentially by further lowering the current requirement of level 40. Additionally, the developer intends to increase the frequency of Pokemon GO Zygarde cells that can be found while tracking a route.

A notification informing players about nearby available routes is also in the works, along with several other quality-of-life improvements, according to Niantic. The developer's latest announcement did not provide a specific timeframe, leaving it unclear when the planned changes to the polarizing Pokemon GO feature are set to be introduced.

While the announced adjustments are expected to enhance the overall availability of routes, none of the promised changes will fundamentally alter how players discover them through the "Nearby" menu. The ability to bypass this additional layer of interaction and view community paths directly from the overworld has been widely regarded as a highly desired improvement to routes in Pokemon GO since the feature's introduction in midsummer.

The upcoming adjustments will join the growing changes that Niantic has made to the Pokemon GO routes in recent weeks. The studio has already increased the total number of routes available worldwide, lowered the trainer level requirement for submitting routes twice, and made the "Nearby" menu more informative by expanding the visible limit of displayed items and adding directional arrows to the listings.

Pokemon GO is available now on mobile devices.