Trainers in Pokémon GO say, “You want more players out there? Not without the 3 features”

There have been some changes in Pokémon GO over the past few months as the developers want to send players back out there more. Now trainers are making a clear demand for this and want old features back. We at MeinMMO have looked at what this is all about.

What changes is Pokémon GO going through? The augmented reality game was released in 2016 with the focus on players not just sitting still in front of a screen and gambling, but going outside.

So it should give the trainers an incentive to leave their comfort zone, explore the environment, meet new players and catch the little monsters together. However, with the onset of the corona pandemic, Niantic 2020 was forced to move away from this original concept and introduced certain corona bonuses.

These enabled the coaches to play from home without having to leave the house. However, Niantic has been wanting to send more players outside for a few months now and has systematically removed the corona bonuses.

This caused a lot of criticism in the community. However, some coaches are now making a clear demand that should make playing more interesting again even without corona bonuses.

Niantic is set to bring back 3 popular features

Many trainers were angry that Niantic removed or at least slightly worsened some corona bonuses, such as the effective smoke when standing still. After all, they had taken a liking to these features for the past two pandemic years.

Now the trainers, especially in the Season of GO, should go outside again. In particular, exploring the area and playing together in local communities is repeatedly brought to the fore by Pokémon GO.

Now the Reddit user Parker4815 has thought about it and asked the developers in a Reddit post a clear demand: “If Niantic wants to make the game back to how it was before the pandemic, it has to bring back the features it eliminated!” He also explains which functions he specifically means by that.

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1. Legendary Monsters in Research Breakthrough

First and foremost, he wants the legendary Pokémon back in Research Breakthroughs: “If you play the game for 7 days, you should get something rare and exciting. Legendary Research Breakthroughs were great rewards.”

These particular breakthroughs were an integral part of the game until the end of 2019. In this way, trainers could not only get hold of the popular and, above all, rare monsters in raids, but also had the chance to get a strong specimen from the weekly reward through regular play.

In comparison, the current breakthroughs are received by the trainers much worse, because often only weak or uninteresting Pokémon are available, such as Alolan Slime in the May research breakthrough.

This is what the community says about it: The fact that Parker4815 hits a sore spot with many trainers and that they have a similar opinion is shown in the comments under his contribution. But there are also concerns (via reddit.com):

• lewisisb: “I never really understood why Niantic removed the Legendaries from the weekly research rewards. Aside from being just a great reward, having some in Raids and some in Research is a good way to get more Legendaries. You also need so many candies to level up that I don’t think it would have any effect on raids. Unfortunately, I don’t see that Niantic will change this. They don’t seem to like reverting changes for the benefit of the players.”

• Novrev: “Too many legendary encounters could ‘debase’ the game.”

• turbobuddah: “There will then no longer be a need to buy raid passes”

• House_Of_ell: “The other nice thing about having the Legendaries in Research is that you can then get them low enough for Super League. Only the ones that have Cressellia for Super League are the ones that got it when it was in Research Breakthrough.”

2. Return of ex-raids

Another highlight that many players have been missing for a few months are the ex-raids. These were available until spring 2020 and were initially no longer offered due to the ongoing contact restrictions due to the corona pandemic.

Previously, these were accessible to select players with a special invite at designated ex-raid arenas. There, the trainers could look forward to very special raid bosses like Mewtwo.

Since Pokémon GO now wants to send the trainers outside more and they should also interact with other players, according to Parker4815 it would be the best time to finally bring the ex-raids back. And in this context he has another suggestion for improvement.

He writes: “Unlock ex-raids again. You can even set it up so that qualifying for an ex-raid is only possible locally, but you can do the raid yourself remotely. That way I could explore another city and not miss the raid a week later.”

Why might this suggestion make sense? The reason for this suggestion is the original approach of Ex-Raids. Trainers could not simply participate in this form of raids, they had to be invited to do so. You got this if you played raids yourself and many other trainers in an ex-raid arena.

The ex-raid then usually took place in the following days at this arena. This was especially a problem for trainers who were only in a city for a short time and had qualified for such a special raid. Under certain circumstances, they could not perceive the raid.

3. More frequent encounters with Giovanni

And the Team GO Rocket boss Giovanni can only be found occasionally in the game since a longer break. When the villain made his Pokémon GO debut in 2019, it was already clear that you wouldn’t have a daily encounter with him.

However, there should be monthly special research through which you could secure the corresponding Super Rocket Radar, which you need to track down Giovanni. So while you were able to meet the great leader of Team GO Rocket at least every month in the beginning, the encounters are now much rarer.

So you’ve only had about 5 encounters with the Rocket Boss over the past year. Parker4815 also thinks that this is far too little and writes: “Bring Giovanni back. Fighting him and finding him was a good challenge. Now you only fight him if Niantic allows it.”

What do the other coaches say about this? The main criticism in the community is that it is very unclear when Giovanni will be available next time. And the resulting slow progression of the “Ultrahero” medal is also a thorn in the side for some (via reddit.com):

• Upper_Pomegranate359: “I would like Giovanni to be offered more often. The coaches need to go out and track him down.”

• nanaki_: “And 0 persistence when available”

• FearMeIAMLag1: “My Ultra Hero Medal is currently at 15. I’m not sure if there was a ticketed event where I didn’t get him, but I think I have as many as one can have. I think he first appeared at GO Fest 2019, so about 3 years ago. At this rate I’ll have to play the game for 7 more years just to get the Platinum Ultra Hero Medal…”

In order to get the Ultra Hero medal at platinum, you must have defeated Giovanni at least 50 times. If the number of encounters remains so rare in the future, it may take a while.

More community suggestions

Alongside Parker4815’s suggestions, other trainers are also reveling in the origins of Pokémon GO. In particular, the track function of Pokémon at the beginning of the game was very popular with the players, which is why some people want it back.

So you could locate the corresponding monster with the help of footprints. However, this function was removed from the game again after just a few months, which many coaches found very sad. So you can read the following in the comments (via reddit.com)::

• Hobo-man: “Who remembers the original Pokémon tracker?”

• Laszlo: “That was so cool. I loved being able to locate a Pokemon based on the number of steps it took. It’s a shame they didn’t even try to re-implement that.”

• Elrathias: Man, this map had me running around town like a bloody idiot. God, nostalgia hits hard.”

• point_of_you: “The original tracker was so much better than the current system.”

It remains to be seen whether Niantic will implement these functions again in the game in the future. Should there be any new information on this, you will of course find out about it from us, on MeinMMO.

What do you think of the community’s suggestions to bring back the old features? Which feature are you most looking forward to? Or do you even have other suggestions? Let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO.

On June 25th, Pokémon GO is bringing back at least one thing briefly. So you can do level 4 raids with Kapuno again for Community Day. We’ll show you what you need to know about it.