Pokémon Go's Battle League quirks are getting fixed in 2026

Niantic says it is rebuilding Pokémon Go’s core battle system in 2026 to address long-standing inconsistencies in PvP and the Go Battle League. Competitive players have found ways to exploit online play mechanics, and differences in network conditions or device performance could change how actions were resolved.

The update moves damage resolution to the end of a turn and ensures swaps resolve before damage is applied, making quick swaps and forced swaps behave more consistently. Niantic says the new system reinforces turn-based resolution at a foundational level so normal variations in turn and network tolerances should no longer change the outcome of identical decisions for a given game state.

Ben Li, a staff server engineer who was deeply involved in grassroots PvP before joining Niantic, says the team rebuilt the system from the ground up.

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