File photo: A man uses a mobile phone in front of an advertisement board bearing the image of Pokemon Go at an electronic shop in Tokyo, Japan, July 27, 2016. (REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon)
The first major Pokemon Go update of 2017 is rumored to arrive this week, but in the meantime, a new feature has been added to the game to whet our appetite. As of this week, players on Android devices can enter promo codes in the Shop to redeem special items without having to pay for them.
Niantic has yet to make any formal announcement regarding promo codes, but they were previously discovered in a data mine of an earlier version of the game. And while we're still waiting on more concrete information from Niantic, there is a page on the Pokemon Go support page explaining how promo codes work (and noting that promo codes are currently only available on Android).
These are the steps Android players need to take to redeem promo codes:
- In the Map View, touch the Main Menu button.
- Touch Shop button.
- At the bottom of the screen, enter the promo code in the text field.
- Touch Redeem.
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Unfortunately, Niantic has yet to share any codes, so all you can do with the feature now is guess randomly and hope you accidentally stumble upon a working code. The support page explains that Pok Balls, Lure Modules, Lucky Eggs and more will all be handed out via the promo code system.
For all the iOS users out there who are disappointed by the Android exclusivity, know that Ingress (another Niantic game) players on iOS devices simply have to enter promo codes on a website rather than within the app. Once the feature is fully implemented in Pokemon Go, we imagine the same will be true for iPhone owners who want to snag free stuff with promo codes.
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