Niantic has announced that PokéStops in Pokémon GO will soon be powered up, allowing Trainers to earn more rewards and create new AR experiences within the popular mobile game. The new event is yet another feature in the ever-expanding title, following on from other recent in-game Pokémon GO events including Season of Heritage, which ties into the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

The augmented reality in Pokémon GO is used for a variety of features in the game. Trainers can turn on augmented reality when catching Pokémon or when interacting with their buddies, offering a unique and immersive experience that's helped to bolster the success of the Niantic title. Pokémon GO is arguably the best way for fans of the franchise to feel like a real Pokémon Trainer, able to explore the world and catch pocket monsters in real life, contrasting quite starkly to the series' console releases. The game has seen a number of changes since its launch, and 2020 introduced Pokémon GO AR mapping tasks, which involve scanning nearby PokéStops in order to complete them. These tasks give a variety of different rewards such as Pokémon encounters or Rare Candies, and encourage players to walk around and explore.

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Pokémon GO's Niantic has now announced another usage for the AR mapping tasks by introducing Powered-Up PokéStops. By completing AR mapping tasks and scanning PokéStops, certain Gyms and Stops will be able to be powered up for a limited time, offering a range of increased rewards for players. At five scans the PokéStop will reach level one, at 10 it’ll reach level two, and at 15 scans, level three. The higher the level, the more rewards trainers will receive. Trainers level 20 and above can work together and complete multiple tasks to power up PokéStops, and Powered-Up PokéStops will look different on the map. Niantic has created a video tutorial for those unfamiliar with scanning in the game, which can be watched below.

Powered-Up PokéStops should provide more incentive for players to go out and explore certain areas, while also offering yet another way for players to cooperate in-game to achieve certain bonuses similar to Raids. PokéStops can still sometimes have problematic glitches, such as when a PokéStop turned into Gym and caused a Pokémon GO player's Slaking to disappear, but it's hoped the new feature will be implemented without any such issues. It’s unknown what items the powered-up PokéStops will reward, be it more Pokéballs or rarer items like Rare Candy. No matter what the rewards may be, the new feature should encourage cooperated exploration, and will provide a feedback loop of continuously completing AR mapping tasks to obtain more rewards to assist with catching Pokémon.

PokéStops have been a controversial issue over the last few months after backlash over a change in their distance, and the new Powered-Up versions might go some way in improving players' perception of them. Earlier in 2021, Niantic faced criticism for reducing the distance of Pokémon GO PokéStops from 80 meters to 40 meters. After Niantic took away the stay-at-home pandemic bonuses that led to closer PokéStops, fans petitioned to reverse the distance back to 40 meters, and Niantic created a task force in an attempt to address players concerns. Though the distance was reversed to 40 meters for a short while, it was later reversed back to 80 meters. After working with the task force, Pokémon GO also replaced region bonuses with global and seasonal bonuses to provide more incentives to explore. It's possible that the new Powered-Up Stops might once again see controversy due to their distance.

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Pokémon GO is available now on mobile devices.

Source: PokémonGoLive