A game-changing new quality of life feature has launched in Pokémon Go that’ll make shiny hunting your favorite creatures a lot easier. Niantic has introduced nearby Pokémon alerts to help you track down one specific ‘mon at a time, and the community is already strategizing the best ways to use it.
Pokémon Go’s nearby Pokémon feature has always been a bit unreliable, but this new feature is a significant improvement, letting you track one specific creature from your Pokédex at a time while you’re in the app and via push notifications throughout the day. Before you get too excited, there are some exceptions. You can’t track Kecleon and Smeargle, who only appear on Pokéstops or in photos, and shapeshifting Pokémon like Ditto and Zorua remain as elusive as ever.
However, you can use this feature to track the roaming Pokémon Go legendaries Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit – provided you’ve encountered them before. It’s also a great way to work towards your Dreepy evolution, as you can track where the tiny dragon Pokémon spawns and catch it for candies. Of course, as Pokémon Go is a location-based game, this feature doesn’t bring the critters closer to you, but at least you’ll have a better idea of where to go and catch them.
This feature can significantly boost your chances of completing certain collections and research tasks if you use it wisely. Use it to track Scatterbug to farm for your Pokémon Go Vivillon collection or select region-specific ‘mon when you’re traveling overseas. Overall, it seems that the Pokémon Go community is thrilled about this small change, with some calling it “the best feature [Niantic] have introduced in ages.”
There are plenty of opportunities to try out tracking your favorite ‘mon throughout Pokémon Go’s event calendar for March and beyond. Use our guide to the rarest Pokémon in Pokémon Go to figure out who you should hunt for next.