The very first Pokemon to be added from the Kalos region is now available in Pokemon GO raids after a series of strange teases over the weekend: The Psychic-type Pokemon Espurr.
The strange cat-like Pokemon with glazed-over eyes hails from the Kalos region, and was first featured in Pokemon X and Pokemon Y. Along with the Kalos starters and a handful of other Pokemon, the cat and its twin-tailed evolution Meowstic were spotted by eagle-eyed Pokemon GO dataminers last week as being some of the first Pokemon from Kalos that will be added to the game.
Espurr is available in one-star raids starting today, as more or less announced by it subtly appearing in the video the official Pokemon GO Twitter account just a few hours ago. The Pokemon should be easy for most trainers who have been playing the game to beat solo. It takes a standard 50 candies to evolve into its final evolution, Meowstic, who has different visual male and female forms.
In terms of DPS, Meowstic’s best moves would be Confusion as its quick move and Psychic as its charged move. It it not an especially powerful Pokemon, but it could be decent in the Great League of Season 6 of GO Battle League, which begins today. Meowstic could potentially be a solid matchup against Machamp, who is one of the best Pokemon available in Great League.
With all that being said, it appears not everyone is happy with how developer Niantic decided to deliver Espurr. After five cryptic tweets over two days, some fans were expecting more than just Espurr and took to Twitter to express their frustrations. Many shared a mix of frustration and confusion as to why Niantic put so much time and effort into teasing the Pokemon, though the likely explanation is that Espurr marks the first Pokemon from the Kalos region to be added to the game.
Even if players aren’t thrilled about the hype that went into Espurr, there are still plenty of other things to get excited over for Pokemon GO. Not only does Season 6 of GO Battle League begin today with a reworked ranking and reward system, but the level cap has also been raised to 50. Those who have not yet reached the previous level cap of 40 still have a month to do so in order to earn some cool rewards. All of this is part of Pokemon GO’s massive GO Beyond update that is rolling out in pieces from now until the start of the new year.
Pokemon GO is available now on Android and iOS devices.