Pokemon GO fans dig deep into the game's latest update, hunting for data indicating that the rare Pokemon Ditto can be unlocked, but find no evidence that's the case.

Pokemon GO re-imagines one of the most iconic parts of traditional Pokemon games: catching Pokemon in the wild. However, gamers are still waiting to find out when certain rare and legendary Pokemon will be added to the list of creatures they can capture. Some new information from data miners reveals that gamers probably still have a long time to wait for the rare Pokemon Ditto.

Following a talk with Niantic Labs CEO John Hanke, some gamers believed that Ditto could finally be coming to Pokemon GO in its next update. Unfortunately, that's now been proven to not be the case. Data miners have gone to work on the latest update for the game, scouring for any reference to Ditto, and have come up empty. While other Pokemon GO easter eggs have included small amounts of code indicating their existence, like the trick to control Eevee's evolution, no such data can be found hinting at a way to find, capture, or otherwise unlock Ditto.

The developers behind Pokemon GO have previously stated that more generations of Pokemon are on their way, but so far, Niantic hasn't added a way to capture Ditto or the legendary Pokemon from the first generation of games. The most likely reason why there aren't any easter eggs in Pokemon GO indicating Ditto's accessibility is that its Transform move may still be a work in progress. Since there aren't any player battles in Pokemon GO yet, Ditto would only be able to use Transform in Pokemon Gym battles. However, that mechanic could be posing a difficult balancing problem for Niantic.

In Pokemon GO gym battles, players have to command their attacking Pokemon to repeatedly use a primary attack in order to charge up their more powerful secondary attack. Based on this system, Ditto would either need to be able to immediately use Transform as a primary attack (which could be considered unfair) or it would have to use a standard attack a certain number of times in order to be able to use Transform. In the latter scenario, there's a strong chance that Ditto could faint prior to ever getting a chance to use Transform, so Niantic could be trying to find a way to work Ditto into the game's current battle system.

Many gamers have been waiting for a chance to capture Ditto since Pokemon GO released, but it seems that another rumor of a way to capture Ditto in Pokemon GO has been squashed. Pokemon GO's popularity has dramatically decreased recently, in part due to a lack of features and no way to capture the most-coveted Pokemon from the first generation of games. Niantic has a lot of work to do to regain regular players of Pokemon GO, but it doesn't look like releasing Ditto is part of that plan right now.

Pokemon GO is out now for Android and iOS mobile devices.

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Source: Pokemon GO Hub