Pokemon Group

A common complaint among Pokemon Go fans, especially dedicated high level players, is that there’s no way to change a Pokemon’s moves. While shuffling a Pokemon’s moves has been a fixture of the gaming franchise since it began 21 years ago, Pokemon Go‘s move selection is solely based on luck. In Pokemon Go, each Pokemon is given a random set of moves chosen from a small move pool that varies from species to species. So – when you evolve your Pokemon with perfect stats into its final form, there’s a chance that it’ll become useless due to a weak set of moves.

Fans have long wanted a way to change Pokemon moves and it seems that Pokemon Go is listening. Recently, a fan asked Niantic Support’s Twitter account to change one of their Pokemon’s moves so that it would be more useful in battle. Surprisingly, the Twitter account (which acts as a customer service representative/player outreach of sorts) replied, stating that changing moves were not available, but that they are “aware of the community’s interest in this feature.”




This being the Internet, a few sites (including Forbes) jumped on the tweet, stating that Pokemon Go was “considering” allowing players to re-roll their Pokemon movesets. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pokemon Go did ACKNOWLEDGE that fans wanted the ability to change moves, but Forbes mischaracterized Niantic’s statement entirely in what looks like a pretty desperate bid to start a rumor and then claim credit if it came to pass.

It’s nice that Pokemon Go is acknowledging their fanbase’s desires, but don’t expect the ability to change a Pokemon’s moves to be added to the game anytime soon. Pokemon Go has acknowledged plenty of fan complaints, demands, and wishes in the past, but that hasn’t turned into any new features. Also, Niantic has made their short-term goals for the game pretty clear (namely a rework of the gym system and Legendary Pokemon events) and it seems unlikely that they would change those plans just because some fans asked on Twitter.

We’ll probably get the ability to change moves in Pokemon Go eventually, but there’s no indiciation this is a high priority for Niantic. Still, it’s nice to know that they’re at least listening to what the fans want.