'Pokémon Go' updates with reduced spawn rates for all those f*cking Pidgeys and Rattatas

Are you tired of seeing a Pidgey around every freaking corner when you're playing Pokémon Go? Are Rattatas not worth the PokéBalls? Are you tired of hatching eggs only to receive Pokémon that are so common you can't make it past your front door without stepping on one?

On Thursday evening, Niantic's official @PokemonGoApp Twitter feed announced three changes to Pokémon Go that may sound minor — but their results could bode very well for you and your future Pokémon hunts.

The big update: Pidgey, Rattata and Zubat will no longer flood Pokémon Go.

The major change introduced by this latest Pokémon Go update is spawning different species of Pokémon in areas that commonly spawned Pidgeys, Rattatas and Zubats. In other words, this is a biodiversity update.

It's an exciting change, because Niantic hasn't told us what will replace these three common Pokémon in the spawn algorithms. Will Pokémon Go sometimes spawn rare or epic Pokémon in those spaces? 

And, for those who've been playing Pokémon Go for a while, will the Pokémon that replace Pidgeys, Rattatas and Zubats in the spawn lineup be useful to their collections?

This could be the end of the Pidgey spamming experience point strategy for leveling Pokémon Go trainers quickly.

Pidgeys have always been worth catching because they're one of the cheapest Pokémon species to evolve, and evolutions generate a healthy amount of experience points. 

If you catch a ton of Pidgeys, then pop a Lucky Egg — which doubles your experience point gains for 30 minutes — and evolve as many as you can during the Lucky Egg's duration, you can earn a lot of experience points very quickly.

This strategy was called "Pidgey spamming." An entire third-party web tool called PidgeyCalc was designed around Pidgey spamming to help Pokémon Go players plan and execute their power-leveling schemes.

You can still spam Caterpies and Weedles, two other species of Pokémon that have a 12-candy requirement for evolution similar to that of Pidgeys. 

In fact, you probably ought to get used to it, because the Pidgey population in Pokémon Go is going to take another hit.

Check it out — the two other big changes to Pokémon Go.

The new Pokémon Go update includes a change to egg-hatching rules for Pidgey, Rattata and Eevee.

It's very frustrating to incubate a Pokémon egg — especially for those who pay real-world money for their incubators, which only last for three incubations each — and receive a common species of Pokémon.

Those days are partially over. As part of this most recent update to Pokémon Go, developer Niantic has announced that Pidgeys and Rattatas will no longer hatch from Pokémon eggs, period.

Pokémon eggs have been a fairly reliable source of Pidgeys. Hatching a Pidgey from an egg also included a bunch of Pidgey candy, so hatching Pidgeys from eggs played a significant role in fueling the Pidgey spamming quick-leveling strategy. And that strategy, therefore, takes a second hit from this change to Pokémon eggs.

It's also worth noting that the sixth nest migration in Pokémon Go took place recently, which could also affect your Pidgey supply.

Eevees are also affected by this update. They will now hatch from 5km eggs only — whereas they previously had a chance to hatch from 10km eggs, as well. This isn't the worst thing in the world, though: The best Eevee evolution, Vaporeon, is no longer a top-tier attacker and isn't highly regarded for its prowess as a defender, either.