Developer Niantic has heard Pokémon GO fans loud and clear and today released an update that, while small in scope, is sure to please the community. Specifically, the update will give dedicated players a guaranteed chance at evolution stones, which have become a very difficult to earn item thus far.

Tuesday’s Pokémon GO Update, as mentioned, is a small one. But the key element is that it will award a random evolution stone for players that hit the 7-day mark on their 'First Pokestop of the Day' streak.

For those that might not be familiar, Pokémon GO introduced a bonus wherein a player’s first Pokestop visit of the day would reward additional XP and additional rewards (Pokeballs, antidotes, etc.). If a player kept up with the first visit of the day for a total of 7 days, they would gain an extra bit of XP and potentially a few extra items. Now those extra items will include an evolution stone, guaranteed.

Trainers,

Pokémon GO is in the process of being updated to version 0.59.1 for Android and 1.29.1 for iOS devices. Below are some release notes and comments from our development team.

• The 7-day ‘First PokéStop of the Day’ streak will now award a random Evolution item.
• Minor text fixes.

Evolution stones have become a hot commodity for Pokémon GO players because they are the key to evolving specific Pokémon in the mobile game. Where some Pokémon simply evolve after being injecting with a certain amount of Pokémon candy, a select few – most of them Gen 2 Pokémon added in this year’s major update – require these evolution stones.

Things became a problem, however, when players realized how rare evolution stones are. Niantic claims that players have a chance to earn one from every Pokestop visit, but some deep dives by hard-core players revealed terrible drop rates – sometimes even less than 1%.

Needless to say, the Pokémon GO community is sure to be pleased by the latest update. Evolution stones have become one of the more contentious topics as of late, with many lamenting the abysmal drop rates. Obviously, players will need to be dedicated if they want to earn an evolution stone, but at this rate visiting a Pokestop 7 days a week for a guaranteed drop is better than nothing.

Now that Niantic has addressed one of the more pressing demands in the Pokémon GO community, it will interesting to see what’s next. Assuming that the studio is sticking to its mantra of 3-4 major updates a year, the mobile is due for something big in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though Pokémon trading will be part of that next update, but there could be something equally as cool, like Legendary Pokémon drops, on the way.