'Pokémon Go' Update 1.29.1/0.59.1: Special evolution items guaranteed from 7-day streaks

The story of Pokémon Go's second generation is really the story of its evolutionary items. These are special items like the metal coat and sun stone that evolve certain Pokémon into new forms. They've been notoriously hard to get, prompting posters on the Silph Road (a research-heavy Pokémon Go subreddit) to propose some unusual theories about how to get them. These ranged from needing to have a specific Pokémon for your buddy to hitting a PokéStop at a specific time of day.

If that all seemed a little overwhelming to keep track of, we have some great news: The patch notes for patch 1.29.1 for the iOS and 0.59.1 for Android have simplified your search immensely.

Pokémon Go update 1.29.1/0.59.1: Special items finally guaranteed at PokéStops

According to a post on March 21 from the Pokémon Go official website, Patch 1.29.1/0.59.1 is short but sweet, introducing some minor text fixes, as well as the implementation of a new rule for getting evolutionary items:

The seven-day "First PokéStop of the Day" streak will now award a random Evolution item.

So there you have it. Instead of having to gamble on an increased chance for one to appear during your seven-day "First PokéStop of the Day" streak only to be disappointed by getting extra great balls and pinap berries, now you're guaranteed a random evolutionary item once per week if you can make it to at least one PokéStop every day. Sure you might still get eleven King's Rocks in a row if you're unlucky, but it's much better than hoping for random drops.

Maybe it's not the most exciting or expansive update, but between this and the upcoming Water Festival event Pokémon Go players are going to be filling out their Pokédexes much faster as a result of this change. The post does state that the game is "in the process of being updated," so it's unclear whether or not this extremely helpful change is already in the game yet, but if it's in the patch notes, it's only a matter of time before we start seeing those guaranteed special items in-game.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start getting those PokéStops if you want those evolutionary items.

More Pokémon Go tips, tricks and updates

If you're booting up the game for the first time in a while to get ready for Gen 2, be sure to check out Mic's guides on Gen 2 evolutions, how to get stardust, how to determine how long it will take you to reach level 40, the kind of Pokémon you get from 10-kilometer eggs, how to create new Pokéstops, how to maximize your chances of catching Pokémon and how Pokéstops distribute Pokémon eggs. Also check out how to catch Gen 2 baby Pokémon, our analysis of post-balance update Chansey and Rhydon and everything you need to know about finding the long-awaited Pokémon Ditto.