‘Pokémon Go’ Devs Aware Players Want To Change & Reroll Movesets For Their Best Pokémon

Pokémon Go hasn’t been updated in a big way since Gen 2 arrived in February, but Niantic is still taking the concerns of its fans into consideration. According to a recent tweet, the team is aware that players would love to swap or reroll movesets for their most powerful beasts.

When one user asked why their Donphan couldn’t learn the move Earthquake instead of Heavy Slam, Niantic replied “this is not currently available, unfortunately, but we are aware of the community’s interest in this feature.” It would be wrong to assume this tweet hints at any future changes to the mechanic, but it shows some of the most common complaints from are being noted by those involved with the project.

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As awesome as it’d be to have a way to easily get a Pokémon with the best moves, however, there are a few reasons why that level of freedom simply doesn’t make sense. After all, Niantic wants to keep players collecting for as long as possible. If you’re into the gym scene, that means spending more time, and possibly more money, on the game to find a monster with the moves you’re looking for.

Especially for a game that’s hacked as rampantly as Pokémon Go, it also helps to maintain as many random variables as possible. If, for example, Niantic were to introduce an item that could reroll movesets, it could potentially be manipulated by those using third-party tools. That means more chaos in gyms, dwindled player satisfaction and less community engagement. If movesets don’t have a specific algorithm to go by, it’s harder to game the system.

This is precisely the reason why Niantic has made multiple efforts over the last month or so to add an increased level of randomness to wild encounters. As it stands right now, players have to be around level 30 before movesets and stat values are standardized between players. This new luck-based barrier stops cheaters from sniping the best finds with illicit GPS apps. While it’s possible a cheater could eventually work their way up to level 30, logic dictates that they would likely be banned before then.

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If there’s any hope at all for an adjustment to how movesets work, it may be figured out during 2017’s still-ambiguous gym overhaul. All that’s been said on the competitive tweak is that “there will be more teamwork and people will have more incentive and reward to participate in [battles].” In other words, Niantic hopes to bring a unique brand of co-op action to competitive play. In addition to teamwork, deeper PvP battle mechanics have been teased as well. These features and more are planned to arrive in at least two major updates over the rest of 2017.

Pokémon Go is available now on Android and iOS.

Do you think Pokémon Go players should be able to reroll movesets? Will those frustrations be sorted out in 2017’s gym refresh? Tell us in the comments section!