Niantic has announced that the second generation of Pokemon, commonly referred to as the "Johto Pokemon," are arriving later this week in Pokemon Go. This update will be the biggest yet for the hit mobile game since its massively successful launch last July 2016. According to the announcement, more than 80 Pokemon will start rolling out once the anticipated update arrives, likely this upcoming weekend.

The update will also include new evolution items, new berries, new avatars, and new wild Pokemon behavior. But with all the new Pokemon, most players probably couldn't care less about them. Well, except maybe the evolution items which are likely needed to acquire Steelix, Kingdra, Politoed, and other Pokemon that need special items for evolution.

Take note that Niantic didn't specifically say "all Johto Pokemon," which likely means the six legendary Pokemon - Suicune, Raikou, Entei, Ho-Oh, Lugia, and Celebi - won't be among the new Pokemon. All of which will likely arrive at a later date via a special event. But let's not get too excited about the second-gen legendary Pokemon just yet. Recall that the five first-gen legendary Pokemon - Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo, and Mew - have yet to arrive in Pokemon Go.

There are 100 second-gen Pokemon in total. Eight of which were already released last December - the Baby Pokemon plus Togetic, in case you forgot. So, excluding the legendary and Baby Pokemon, the maximum number of new Pokemon will be 86. It's curious that Niantic didn't simply say "86 new Pokemon" in the announcement. That would have spared us from speculating whether a few Pokemon would be temporarily unavailable, similar to the case of the Baby Pokemon Tyrogue which was left out in the December update.

It was initially believed that Niantic would release the second-gen Pokemon last December, thanks to diligent data-miners who discovered the existence of new Pokemon in the game data. Ultimately, Niantic opted to forego the entire second-gen Pokemon in favor of the Baby Pokemon. But hey, better late than never.

Source: Niantic