The newest update for Pokemon GO begins rolling out, bringing bug fixes, the option to customize a trainer's appearance anytime, and a change to the Pokemon Tracker.

The next version of Pokemon GO is on its way to Android players, gradually rolling out now on the Google Play store. While not all of the millions of gamers who have downloaded the game have access to the update yet, a changelog of what the update entails has been made public.

The 0.31 update for Pokemon GO entails quite a few adjustments, including a change to the Pokemon Tracker. Following complaints that the in-game Pokemon Tracker was broken and incorrectly displaying footprints for a Pokemon's location, Niantic and The Pokemon Company appear to have temporarily suspended the footprint functionality entirely.

In addition, gamers will now be able to customize their avatar whenever they feel like it, rather than being stuck with whatever they chose when they started the game. Niantic and The Pokemon Company appear to have answered gamers' pleads to make it easier to transfer Pokemon as well, as a new submenu allows easier access to a transfer option.

The full list of changes in the 0.31 update are as follows:

  • Avatars can now be re-customized from the Trainer profile screen
  • Adjusted battle move damage values for some Pokemon
  • Refined certain Gym animations
  • Improved memory issues
  • Removed footprints of nearby Pokemon
  • Modified battle damage calculation
  • Various bug fixes during wild Pokemon encounter
  • Updated Pokemon details screen
  • Updated achievement medal images
  • Fixed issues with displaying certain map features
  • Minor text fixes

Gamers will undoubtedly be pleased to see that a good amount of this update is devoted entirely to bug fixes. While it remains to be seen how stable the game is courtesy of these changes, hopefully it means fewer instances of the game crashing after throwing a Pokeball, or the game causing severe lag on even recently-released devices.

Pokemon GO fans hoping to fill out their Pokedexes have been particularly frustrated by the broken Pokemon tracker. While solutions have appeared in the form of PokeVision and other online tracking programs, the developer behind Pokemon GO is against tracking apps, and there's always the chance that these sites may eventually be taken down. Unfortunately, simply removing the footsteps isn't the fix that gamers were looking for, but it's probably a patch job to hide a broken function while the company figures out what went wrong and how to fix it.

Pokemon GO has experienced some bumps in the road, but even the current difficulty of finding specific Pokemon hasn't kept it from becoming one of the most successful mobile apps ever. Since the game hasn't even been out for a month yet, it's a bit easier to forgive the developer for not fixing all of its problems just yet.

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Pokemon GO is available now in select areas for Android and iOS devices. The 0.31 update is available to some Android users now, and gradually rolling out to other regions.

Source: Android Police