Niantic Turns Pokemon GO Bug Into Official Feature

gamerant.com:

Following the introduction of the chameleon Pokemon Kecleon into Pokemon GO earlier in 2023, players have found that one of the bugs also added around the same time has actually been converted into an official feature. Niantic continues to expand the available Pokemon in its hit mobile title, and 2023 has been no exception. In fact, Pokemon GO is even bringing the Primal variants of Kyogre and Groudon later this year.

Kicking off 2023 was the introduction of Kecleon, originally introduced as part of the third generation of the franchise for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. The addition of Kecleon into Pokemon GO proved to be a big hit with players thanks to a unique encounter near Pokestops. Players would typically need to spin a Pokestop to potentially find an invisible Kecleon, requiring them to get inside the walking radius. Following the latest update, it seems NIantic has adopted on of the bugs involved with finding Kecleon has an actual game feature.

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The discovery comes from a user named -Nintendo on TheSilphRoad sunReddit for Pokemon GO. In looking through the patch notes, Niantic confirmed a Kecleon bug, that actually proved to be helpful to players, was added as a feature to the game going forward instead of removing it through a fix. The feature actually removes much of the guesswork in order to find these Pokemon, meaning they should be much easier to catch.

Essentially, players could tap on a Pokestop, even outside of the walking radius, which would make an invisible Kecleon visible on the map. Instead of patching it out, Niantic has kept and added it to Pokemon GO, which has left a very positive impression with the community.