Niantic Announces Updates to Mega Evolution System

It's been a while since we've had a genuine discussion about Mega Evolution in Pokemon Go. Love it or hate it, this system has embeded itself as a strong feature for Raids at least, but at the system's introduction, it was considered to be.... extremely divisive, to say the least.

We still have at least one writer on the Gamepress team that still has never Mega Evolved a Pokemon because of just how botched the system's release was. However, that fact may be changing soon.

After nearly 2 full years since the system's release in August 2020, we're finally getting an update to the Mega Evolution system. With Mega Levels and energy-free Mega Evolution on the horizon along-side other updates, the future looks bright for this once-reviled feature.

Mega Levels

Mega Evolving a Pokemon will increase its "Mega Level", which will dictate different bonuses that having a Pokemon Mega Evolved will give.

• The same-type candy bonus will become stronger with Mega level, and a similar feature involving XL Candy and an XP bonus will be introduced.
• The Mega boost and STAB boost that having a Mega Evolved Pokemon in a raid brings will increase with Mega Level
• And one more bonus that we'll talk about in the next section.

Mega Energy Cost

As-is, initially Mega Evolving a Pokemon costs a substantial amount Mega Energy, and then each subsequent Mega Evolution of that individual Pokemon will have a smaller cost to activate. However, this system is about to undergo a fairly large change.

• The initial Mega Evolution will still cost energy like normal, but then what comes next will be very different. Post-Mega, the Pokemon in question will enter a cooldown period. This brings two options to the table for players:
  • Pay Mega Energy to bypass the cooldown timer and Mega Evolve again with an energy cost that reduces as the timer counts down.
  • Let the cooldown period finish, at which time the next Mega Evolution may be performed free of charge.
• Calling back to the previous section; an increased Mega Level will also have the advantage of reducing the cooldown period, making it faster/cheaper for subsequent Mega Evolutions.
• Additionally, players will be able to Mega Evolve their Pokemon from the Raid prep. screen.

Mega Raid Changes

Let's be honest; Mega Raids are a bit of a hassle. We're basically getting a Pokemon that is generally less valuable than a Tier 5 raid boss and a bit of Mega-currency where we could spend our passes on the current-rotation Tier 5 instead. Well, Niantic has good news; Mega Raids are about to become easier. While we don't have the exact numbers yet, it looks like they may drop to be Tier-4 equivalent.... most of them, anyway. 

To start with; it's admittedly easy to be a bit skeptical of this update. Without the  hard numbers, this could make things worse on specific sides of the system, especially at a lower Mega Level. However, we have two resources to draw from while we await its global release:

1. They've already started a limited-release in specific places across the globe
2. Pokeminers. 

...seriously, everyone; go follow @poke_miners and join their Discord, these guys are amazing.

Anyway, looking at the chart, we can see just how this will play out:

• Mega Evolution will still have full cost initially
• Mega Levels start at Base (Mega Evolve 1x), move on to High (Mega Evolve 7x), and finish at Max (Mega Evolve 30x). 
• At "Base Level"/Level 1, repeat Mega Evolution will cost one more Mega Energy to recharge from max cooldown than it does now, but this cost will tick down as time goes on and drops substantially at higher levels, to the point where repeat Mega Evolution can cost as little as 6 energy directly after a previous Mega Evolution ends.
• The full cooldown period ranges from 7 days to a mere 3 days, which is fairly reasonable when combined with the lessened cost of bypassing the cooldown period at higher levels and with when the timer has been ticking down for a while.
  • On that note, this chart also lists Free Cooldown as 14 days for level 0, which would seem to infer that it might be possible to Mega a Pokemon that has never Mega Evolved before free-of-charge? Maybe this would apply to other Pokemon of a given species once the initial Mega Evolution has been unlocked? Honestly not sure, let me know in the comments if there's something more to this bit.
• The Attack and STAB boosts don't seem to scale with level currently. Of course this system has only been out for a few hours as of right now, so the numbers may very well change in the coming days.
• The XL Candy chance starts at High level with a meager 10% and skyrockets to 25% at Max level, while the normal Catch Candy bonus hits +2 at Max level. These bonuses will make Mega Evolutions even more important to events with an emphasis on catching, such as Community Days

So yes; Niantic is actually giving us an update that is pure advantage to the players. This is the update that will likely put Mega Evolution on the map for the majority of the player-base, as it makes huge leaps and bounds towards making this system actually accessible. But now comes the question: with all of these updates, Are Mega Evolutions on their way to Go Battle League? Time will tell.....