July 9, 2019

Community Note: New attacks and updates for Trainer Battles

July 11, 2019 UPDATE: In an effort to improve your competitive experience, the new switching Pokémon mechanic has been removed from Trainer Battles. We strive to make Trainer Battles intuitive and strategic, and we do not feel this change has met that bar.

While the original implementation had unintended behavior, we’ve been impressed at the depth of gameplay created by real-time switching against incoming attacks. We still plan on fixing what we consider polish issues of Pokémon being able to attack and be attacked during switching animations. Moving forward, we also plan on more deliberately supporting the emergent strategy that has come from the old switching behavior.

Rather than retaining the new behavior, until we can better support this mechanic we’ve decided the best experience would be to return to the previous game rules. We appreciate the community’s passion and dedication to Trainer Battles. Stay tuned for more updates as we work to provide a competitive and fun battle experience. We will continue to keep your feedback in mind for future releases.

Trainers,

In our previous Community Note, we outlined some changes that came to Pokémon GO that affected your Pokémon’s performance in Raid Battles, as well as other additions to the game. In this update, we’re excited to announce more changes, focusing on Trainer Battles!

In a continued effort to make Trainer Battles a fun and competitive experience, switching Pokémon will now briefly pause the battle. This will grant you more time to choose which Pokémon to call out, and it will avoid Pokémon causing damage to each other while they are withdrawn into their Poké Balls. Charged Attack gameplay will also be updated with new, fun swiping and tapping mechanics.

More attacks will also be coming to Pokémon GO!

The following Pokémon will be able to learn attacks they couldn’t before:

026 Alolan Raichu: Grass Knot - Alolan Raichu currently can only learn Electric- and Psychic-type attacks. Grass Knot will give it more type coverage and help cover its weakness to Ground-type attacks.
045 Vileplume: Sludge Bomb - Sludge Bomb provides Vileplume with a strong Poison-type Charged Attack to take full advantage of its Grass and Poison types.
097 Hypno: Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch - These attacks provide Hypno with coverage to help it in the Great League.
101 Electrode: Foul Play - All the attacks Electrode can currently learn are Normal type or Electric type. Foul Play provides more type coverage for Electrode.
142 Aerodactyl: Rock Throw - Rock Throw allows Aerodactyl to compete in the Great League against other Flying-type Pokémon, such as Altaria.
144 Articuno: Ancient Power, Ice Shard - Ice Shard will help Articuno use its Charged Attacks more frequently in battle. Ancient Power offers additional type coverage.
145 Zapdos: Ancient Power, Drill Peck - Zapdos currently can only learn Electric-type Charged Attacks. Drill Peck gives another type option and is a natural fit for this Pokémon. Ancient Power provides Zapdos with additional type coverage.
146 Moltres: Ancient Power, Wing Attack - Wing Attack provides Moltres with a Fast Attack alternative to Fire Spin, and Ancient Power gives it a new type option for its Charged Attacks.
254 Sceptile: Dragon Claw - Dragon Claw gives Sceptile additional coverage to compete with Dragon-type Pokémon in the Great League and the Ultra League.
306 Aggron: Smack Down - The Fast Attack Smack Down should make Aggron a formidable choice to use in any league.
344 Claydol: Mud Slap - This Ground-type alternative to Claydol’s Psychic-type Fast Attacks provides it with additional type coverage, improving its capabilities against Pokémon resistant to Psychic-type attacks.
437 Bronzong: Bulldoze, Psyshock - Bulldoze and Psyshock are Charged Attacks that Bronzong can capitalize on to differentiate it from other Psychic-type or Steel-type Pokémon, like Metagross.
466 Electivire: Ice Punch - All the Charged Attacks Electivire can currently learn are Electric type. Ice Punch provides more type coverage for Electivire.

Attacks New to Pokémon GO

Certain Pokémon will soon be able to learn attacks that hadn’t yet been seen in Pokémon GO!

Charm: A Fairy-type Fast Attack - Raichu, Clefable, Wigglytuff, Wobbuffet, Granbull, Donphan, Gardevoir, Delcatty, Latias, Togekiss, Gallade
Skull Bash: A Normal-type Charged Attack that increases the Defense stat of the user 100 percent of the time - Blastoise, Raichu, Lapras, Snorlax, Rhyperior

We’re excited to see the teams you build with these changes, Trainers. Stay tuned, as we’ll be sharing more updates like these in the future. Good luck on the battlefield!

—The Pokémon GO team