‘Pokémon Go’ 2017 Updates Change Eggs & Make Common Pokémon Uncommon

Pokémon Go updates have been happening fairly regularly since the game’s release last summer, and new studies suggest recent patches quietly made some big changes to eggs and overall monster rarity. The Silph Road offers the full report, and we’ll recap it for you.

Read: Pokémon Company Profits Rise By 2,500 Percent In Latest Fiscal Year

When it comes to eggs, it’s been discovered that six common species have been removed from the egg rotation altogether. In other words, if you’re still hoping to find any of the monsters listed below, you’ll have to rely on nests and biomes as opposed to walking around. Here’s the full list of Pokémon eliminated from Pokémon Go eggs.

• Tentacool
• Wooper
• Psyduck
• Natu
• Sandshrew
• Paris

While no exact date has been offered as to when these Pokémon were removed from eggs, the cut appears to have gone live during the grass-focused Bloom event in early May. Whether coincidence or not, 3,081 eggs hatched after May 5 failed to feature any of the species listed above.

Also in relation to eggs, it appears both Dratini and Pineco will hatch from their 10 km eggs less frequently. While previous rarity tier lists categorized the two monsters as common, they’ve now been pushed up one level to uncommon. Oh, and as for Scyther, his egg rarity has finally been deemed as rare as opposed to uncommon. With regard to eggs specifically, this whole shift is probably the biggest news since the Easter eggstravaganza drastically reshuffled egg rarity for a short period of time in April.

While these changes could have a big impact on Pokémon Go’s most serious trainers, it’s not an unprecedented move for the game’s developers at Niantic to introduce a silent update like this one. In this particular case, unannounced changes to habitat and rarity levels are what keep the app’s collection grind feeling fresh. On the larger scale, however, we’ve also seen several anti-cheat mechanisms pushed to the public without warning too. Shadowbans have caused a stir for bot users in recent days, but we’ve witnessed hidden increases to the random encounter level cap as well.

Read: New Pokéland Pokémon Mobile Game Enters Alpha Testing In Japan

These balance changes appear minor in the short term, but it’s feasible they could have larger implications with regard to what comes next. While nothing’s officially confirmed, interviews suggest players will be catching legendaries and engaging in PvP battles as soon as this summer. The new feature additions are part of two major Pokémon Go updates still planned to release in 2017.

Pokémon Go is available now on Android and iOS devices. The source report indicates that the above changes are effective immediately, so players may want to adjust their training routines accordingly.

What do you think of Pokémon Go’s recent egg changes? Will we see more rarity updates like this in the near future? Were you expecting something slightly more drastic? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section!