DITTO NOW HAS ITS SIGNATURE MOVE: TRANSFORM. LET THE HUNT BEGIN!

v0.47.1 of Pokemon GO brought several client-side changes, which we explored in our data mine a few days ago. Ditto received some necessary animations and interactions therein, but one thing was missing: Ditto's signature move TRANSFORM had not been assigned to it on the server side.

A short while ago, however, the Silph Research group discovered that Ditto has now been officially assigned the TRANSFORM move in the brand new server-side game settings.

That means, travelers, that the hunt is officially on!

DITTO IS COMING (VERY) SOON

New code for Ditto has been added in spades. Code showing the following has now appeared:

Ditto appears to be able to be 'encounterable' in the wild. It is not clear whether this is enabled yet, or whether it will appear as Ditto before capture, but the species is almost certainly 'capturable' (as opposed to acquirable only through non-wild-encounter)
Ditto appears to be able to be used in battle
Sounds for different Ditto effects have appeared (not included, so as not to spoil the effect!)
A background graphic for Ditto has appeared (dark purple)
A small 'spotlight' graphic has appeared for ditto that may indicate a different appearance either on the map, or elsewhere
It is possible that Ditto is now in the game. We are unable to confirm either way, but this update appears to have given the client everything it needs to handle Ditto interactions. Keep it together, travelers.

2. THREE NEW 'SPONSORS' HAVE APPEARED... BUT THEY'RE UNUSUAL

To add to the known sponsor list (MCDONALDS, POKEMON_STORE, TOHOSOFTBANK, and GLOBE), three new 'sponsors' have appeared:

SPATULA
THERMOMETER
KNIFE
This could possibly be placeholder names/icons for sponsored retail/restaurant locations that will play host during a promotion. Or, they could be used for a future event in other ways. Notably, no new graphics have been added client-side for the three items, so it is unclear whether they are simply icons to appear in PokeStop photo-discs, or have other purposes.

3. TWEAKS TO THE NEW NEARBY TRACKER

New code now appears to show that the NEARBY tracker (currently being tested in San Francisco, Arizona, and Seattle) will hide the SIGHTINGS radar when a minimum number of NEARBY Pokemon are detected. The minimum number is unclear, but anecdotally, it may currently be a single one. The code appears to be able to adjust this parameter - perhaps indicating Niantic is continuing to refine the feature.

Logic has also appeared that informs the client whether or not to show the NEARBY Pokemon tracker at all, possibly referencing the geofence, or if there are no POKESTOPS with spawns in range.

PURE SPECULATION AHEAD!
4. SOMETHING ...SHINY...

We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, as we're working with crumbs, travelers. But for the first time, the phrases SHINY and RARE have appeared in the APK.

There is a new audio file that plays when a wild Pokemon is captured that is deemed RARE by the game (it's a little more enthusiastic than the normal 'you did it' music after a capture).

Finally, there is a decent amount of new code segregating Pokemons' materials into "default" and "shiny" materials. Materials, for those unfamiliar with game development, are specifications for how surfaces appear, reflect light, are colored/tinted, etc.

If it's true that a SHINY material has been introduced, it is possible that tinted versions of Pokemon may begin appearing.

However.

There are currently no new Pokemon sprites for the Pokedex/Sightings/Nearby tracker, nor elsewhere in the game. We might have expected to see alternate SHINY sprites in this update if "shinies" were truly going to become part of the collecting game.

Take this one with a big grain of salt, travelers. But we'll be keeping an eye out for traction on this front.

5. COMBAT TWEAK?

We have seen no change to the move DPS or species CP values, but a small amount of new code referencing moves/attackers has appeared. This currently remains unexplained, but may point towards future changes to the combat system.

PARTING WORDS
So, travelers, a little more than meets the eye with this update! Whether or not SHINY Pokemon will be appearing in the game, we are confident that Ditto is nearing it's appearance. It may already be enabled in the game! So keep a sharp eye.

Niantic's VP of Product recently shared that very large things will be heading to the game before the end of the year. In our mind, these signs point towards some awesome things to come.

The Hunt For Ditto In Pokemon GO Is Finally On!

Ditto has long been rumored to arrive in Pokemon GO, but it was only recently that everything about it seems to make sense. Following a recent update to the game, data miners on social media sites were able to gather information about the Pokemon's supposed arrival and abilities. This is definitely something that players must look forward to.
According to The Silph Road -- a popular Reddit community dedicated to Niantic's hit mobile game -- the signature move of Ditto has been discovered in the title. This is thanks to a new patch (v0.47.1) unleashed by the studio lately. The said update reportedly brought various client-side changes, all of which have been data mined a couple of days ago.
While there have been several Pokemon Easter eggs pointing to the Pokemon GO creature's existence in the last few weeks, nothing seems to highlight its ability. Well, actually, it's already a thing in the past. The aforementioned community was able to confirm that the developers have finally assigned -- officially -- the Transform ability to the specie. As of this writing, it's already been placed in the game's newly released server-side settings.
So what does this mean for the fans of Niantic's title? It's simple -- the hunt is on! Yes, that's right. The highly anticipated Pokemon is already available in the game. Players can now head straight to the wild and look for the popular monster.
The said Pokemon GO creature is equipped with the ability to transform into any other species. For instance, it can copy Dragonite. And through it, it's also able to mimic or utilize the same skills. This one here is really going to be a real game changer in gym battles.
As previously reported here at iTech Post, the monster was first rumored to arrive sometime in December. The month is believed to be the release window of Gen 2 update, something fans have also been anticipating for. Hence its arrival is a bit of a surprise to many fans.
What are your thoughts on Ditto finally arriving to Pokemon GO? Have you started your journey to catching this creature already? What are your expectations? Tell us what you think at the comment section below!

Pokemon Go: New information! Ditto development!

The good lads over at Silph Road recently audited the new APK and discovered a few interesting things about Ditto; Niantic has actively made moves!

This should be considered exciting news! For months, die hard fans have been patiently waiting for some sort of concrete data relative to new Ditto development (or transformation!) and now we have some.

Because the APK’s update was just released, this article is pending and awaiting further updates. There may be plenty of things hidden in the APK yet to be discovered.