A Change to Pokedex in Pokemon Go

There will be several changes coming to Pokemon Go, as we've talked about several upcoming changes in the previous articles. This time, a change revealed that allows allows the Pokemon you see at gym locations to be counted in your Pokedex as "seen" Pokemon. 

Before this update, any Pokemon in your Pokedex that were listed as ones you've seen before are ones that you would have encountered while exploring, and not the ones you've encountered at gyms. This changes now that the update is pushing out to devices, but there are a few noteworthy details that are worth mentioning. As pointed out by the original poster on Reddit who has clarified this feature was added, this isn't going to affect every single Pokemon you've ever seen at a gym since you've been playing.

It's a slightly bigger deal when you consider the fact that filling the Pokedex is basically the only endgame activity in Pokemon GO right now. To be honest, it's a bit strange that that something like this hasn't been in place since the beginning: seeing a Pokemon in a gym should definitely count as "seeing" it, and this is the way things work in in the main line games. It also means that people who can't travel the world to collect all the monsters can at least make headway towards actual completion without buying a plane ticket. Someone in North America is never going to see Mr. Mime in the wild, after all, but they might encounter the creature in a gym. One assumes that it will work the same way if Niantic ever introduces multiplayer battles or trading. You'll still need to catch the things to properly fill the Pokedex, of course.

This new feature are that if you happen to see a Pokemon at a gym that you have yet to actually catch, the seen Pokemon is counted as what the poster on Reddit is referring to as a Phantom "Seen: 1" Pokemon in the Pokedex, and once you have actually encountered and caught that particular Pokemon in the wild, say a Squirtle for example, then the number count of that particular Pokemon which you've seen both in the gym and in the wild would stay at two instead of one.

One assumes that it will work the same way if Niantic ever introduces multiplayer battles or trading. You'll still need to catch the things to properly fill the Pokedex, of course.

If you haven't noticed these changes, the updates may not reach your device. There should be some larger changes coming our way soon, particularly with the new medal system that will allow you to hunt for specific Pokemon.