As promised at the end of last month, Pokémon GO developer Niantic has detailed a number of changes coming to the game to keep players involved while stuck at home.
While Pokémon GO usually rewards you for getting out and about, these new tweaks will allow you to take part in Raid Battles and train up your favourite Pokémon just like you would under normal circumstances. Here's an overview of the upcoming changes:
- With a Remote Raid Pass, you can access Raid Battles you can see on the Nearby screen from wherever you are.
- You’ll receive a bonus Field Research task daily without having to spin a PokéStop.
- As you run low on Gifts, your Buddy Pokémon will venture to nearby PokéStops and bring some Gifts back for you to send out to your friends.
- You’ll be able to power up your Pokémon to the desired CP by using all the required Candies and Stardust at once.
- After using a Star Piece, Lucky Egg, or Incense, you’ll be able to use more of the same item to extend the item’s effect beyond the usual 30-minute limit. No more waiting for an item effect to expire before you can use another one!
- Look out for other updates, including improved battle-screen design.
The Remote Raid Pass is a particularly interesting addition; with it, you’ll be able to join any Raid Battle you can see on the app's 'Nearby' screen, or any that you can tap on the map. You'll need one Pass to join one Raid, with 20 players in total being allowed to join the same Raid Battle.
Interestingly, all Trainers regardless of location will have equal opportunities at launch, but as the world situation evolves, Trainers still using the feature remotely will have reduced attack power compared to those who make their way to the Raid Battle's true location. Changes like this will be announced through Pokémon GO's official channels as and when they go live.
You can find more details on each of the other changes listed above on Niantic's website if you're interested.
Have you been playing the game at home? Are you happy to see new features being added to keep you entertained? Let us know with a comment.
[source pokemongolive.com]
Comments 5
These sounds like good changes, but I'm skeptical that the remote raiding system won't be handled properly.
In normal circumstances you can visit a gym to receive a free raid pass once per day, and use this to do a daily free raid.
It sounds like there will not be a method to do a daily free remote raid, despite a need for it in these circumstances.
The fact that the initial price for remote raid passes is 100 coins being a "special discount" is also troubling, as well as the fact that a remote raid pass is separate from a battle pass, so it cannot be used for the Go Battle League feature and likely is not transferable.
In Pokémon Go, trading and raid battles are two of my favourite features because they really represent engaging with the local community, and I feel that Niantic have not done enough to accommodate this and enable local communities to play together again.
I’m interested how the reduced attack power of remote raids works over time. It better be reset-able
The requirement of a new type of pass, 'On Sale' for an entry price of 100 coins really hurts my desire to keep playing. I've got a lot of paid raid passes in my inventory from before Covid hit, so it seems really low of Niantic to suddenly require you to spend money on a different pass for the same end product. I've spent a lot on this game, and gotten my value from it in the past, but this seems like a new level of low for a multi billion dollar company.
@Dramlin I doubt this to be overtly nefarious, the devs at Niantic are just extremely clumsy and out of touch in general. They do a good thing with their right hand (remote raids) and then foil it up with their left in the form of a paid experience. It's quite hopeless to ever see an entirely 100% on the nose effort from them.
We'll see how this plays out but similar to you, I am not likely to put even more money into this game in order to perform core functions of the app.
At the core of the game is an exercise app. I’d say in some areas exercise apps are hurting for money (though I’d be surprised If go is truly hurting, probably just not making as much) so now they are adding even more remote play functions to the game, seems understandable that niantic would charge more for something that can be used off location to raid anywhere opposed to something that has to be used on site because when we find a stable way to combat covid sometime in the future, niantic are going to want to keep the core game as what it is, an exercise app.
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