'Pokémon GO' tips & tricks news: New update lets players walk Pokémon, data miners find

Coders appear to have uncovered the next big feature of the wildly popular location-based augmented reality mobile game, "Pokémon GO."

The new feature, which is set to become the second major addition to the game following the Appraisal feature Niantic released last month, reportedly allows players to choose a Pokémon that will walk with them.

This week, curious players over at the "Pokémon GO" Hub unearthed data from the game that point to a yet-to-be-introduced Buddy system. The data miners note that while the system is coded into "Pokémon GO," this particular feature has yet to be launched.

According to the "Pokémon GO" Hub report, the Buddy system allows players to pick a Pokemon that will walk or fly beside their avatar. Some of the Pokémon will even sit on the avatar's shoulder. These Buddy Pokémon will also earn Pokémon Candies as they walk alongside the players.

"Pokémon GO" Hub also combed through the data to uncover the specifics of the new Buddy system.

According to them, the system utilizes the same distance calculation that the game uses for Pokémon eggs. The code discovered by the data miners also seem to indicate that players can only have one Buddy walking or flying along with them at a time. It also suggests that while a "Pokémon GO" Buddy will earn Candy as it walks alongside the player, there is a daily limit to how much Candy a trainer can earn in a day. The daily cap is, however, undetermined, as is how much Candy is received per kilometer walked with a "Pokémon GO" Buddy.

CNET reports that Niantic Labs has yet to respond to a request for comment about the Buddy system.

According to BGR, while the uncovered "Pokémon GO" buddy system is currently without a release date and has yet to be confirmed, the fact that the code is already present in the app points to an imminent launch, possibly even within the following week.