Johto Pokémon, new Berries, and more!

That’s right, Pokémon GO is finally giving us gen 2 Pokémon, along with a couple other long-awaited upgrades. Niantic announced the update today on their website, saying it’ll hit “later this week.”

80 new monsters from Pokémon Gold/ Silver’s Johto region will be available once you download the update. You can find them like most other Pokémon in the app game–by going into the real world and chucking digital Pokéballs at ’em!

Longtime players will be happy to hear you can finally evolve your gen 1 Pokémon into some new ones from gen 2. These evolutions include Zubat into Crobat, Slowpoke into Slowking, Onix into Steelix, Chansey into Blissey, Seadra into Kingdra, Scyther into Scizor, Eevee into Espeon and Umbreon, and Porygon into Porygon 2.

After the update, encounters with wild Pokémon will be a bit different, as the monsters will have some new reaction animations. Also, Berries and Pokéballs will be selectable on the encounter screen.

Those old boring Berries are getting some new friends as well: Nanab Berries and Pinap Berries. According to Niantic, the “Nanab Berry will slow [the Pokémon’s] movements, making it easier to catch. The Pinap Berry doubles the amount of Candy you’ll receive if your next catch attempt succeeds.” They also look really cute.

The final part of the Pokémon GO update is a big one: expanded avatar customization. Until now, avatars have been very limited in their appearance and clothing choices, but Niantic promises you’ll be able to “give your avatar a complete upgrade” very soon.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t opened Pokémon GO in a month or so. And the couple months before that I only touched it when I was in a new area I thought might have fun monsters. I think this update really will make me play the game again, and hopefully Niantic will keep the fun content rolling.

Will the new gen 2 Pokémon make you dust off your Pokémon GO app this week? Let us know in the comments!