The CDC recently released “community mitigation strategies” in order to prevent further spread of COVID-19, one of their suggested strategies is the practice of “social distancing,” which the Atlantic reports is a “conscious effort to reduce close contact between people and hopefully stymie community transmission of the virus.”
Inspired by the CDC’s social distancing recommendations, many “Pokemon Go” players developed concern over how they would continue to play the game, inspiring Niantic, the company behind the game, to implement temporary changes to the game that will make it easier to play at home, the Verge reports.
Niantic announced the changes on Twitter Thursday evening.
Now, according to Newsweek, the game has been reformatted in the following ways to make sure players won’t have to leave the house as often in order to participate.
- A planned Abra Community Day has been cancelled
- Users can buy 30 Incense, which attracts Pokemon to their location, for only one PokeCoin. Incense will also attract Pokemon for an hour — this bundle is only available to be purchased by each user once.
- Hatch distance for eggs in incubators will be halved
- PokeStops will more frequently drop gifts
- The game will feature increased amounts of Pokemon appearing all over, and increased Pokemon habitats.