Pokémon GO APK Teardown [0.71.0]

Hey everyone and welcome back to another Pokémon GO teardown. Like previously we are going to look into some of the changes found inside the application for version 0.71.0 (Android).

 

Incubator Central

 

We now have 3 incubators

  • Unlimited Incubator – Everyone has this
  • IAP Incubator – “In App Purchase” and used for 3 hatches
  • Super Incubator – “A more powerful Egg Incubator helps Eggs hatch quickly. Breaks after one use.” (Discovered by Pokémon GO HUB and ZeChrales)

Exclusive Raid Tickets

Raid ticket is expired
journal_received_raid_ticket
exclusiveRaidBattleTimerBackgroundColor
exclusiveRaidDecalColor
playersInLobbyText
exclusiveRaidWonEmblemReference

We can see from a string dump that exclusive raids are invite only, which is earned from completing a raid (From defeating the boss) at the Gym that Exclusive Raid will be taking place at. This information was already provided by Niantic before the release so this isn’t anything special.

From my personal opinion and guess — this is what I think. The design enhancements of the Exclusive Raid are so much more powerful than the regular Raid, with the ability to provide custom colors/banners, custom text and more for the UI. This makes sense if each Exclusive Raid would need to be different (Perhaps different sponsors/locations instead of just inheriting the details on the Gym).

This paired with the notion that requirement for entry requires playing a Raid at the same location of the Exclusive raid keeps you in physical location of this Raid twice. This may be a clever advertising/sponsorship plan ingrained into the game.


Generation III

We see hiding in the application that Pokémon 252 (Treecko) to Pokémon 386 (Deoxys) are now in the application. Since assets are downloaded at runtime we don’t have anything interesting to show in terms of those, but this means that development has begun for Generation III. Our Pokédex is automatically generated from the data of the game, so once move sets are provided we will update our site to provide those.

 


Android Permission Set

androidPermissionService
All permissions already granted

We found the Android permissions added to the Unity side of the game. Usually these permissions are granted before Unity launches, so this may be an enhancement with the security fixes in Android Nougat and Oreo.


Search By Move

GetPokémonMoveName()

An interesting function was found and after some digging, it was attached to the search widget on Pokémon. Now you will be able to search for Pokémon depending on the moves they have by using the “@” sign. This works for both Special and Quick attacks.


Conclusion

Exclusive raids, Super Incubators and the start of Gen III development is very exciting. This paired with the simultaneous release of Ingress v1.122.0 which is bringing portal submissions back. For those unaware, a portal in Ingress is more than likely either a Gym or PokéStop in Pokémon. With Ingress agents approving new portals through Operation Portal Recon and soon gaining the ability to submit new portals we may see new Gyms/Poké Stops enter the world of Pokémon.