Pokemon Go’s recent Gigantamax raids rollout hasn’t exactly gone to plan for Niantic so far. In addition to all the unintentional bans players are still dealing with, the raids are a mess – to the point that players have unironically suggested the devs look to the hated Elite Raids for how to improve them.
The problems are multifold: Requesting 40 players gather in person to complete these after going from solo-able tier 3 raids to these tier 6 raids was always a big ask, and the bugs didn’t make it any easier. Nor did the fact that the only available counters lack their Community Day moves, which caused most of the playerbase to not invest in both the base ‘mon and in their time-locked/currency based moves. It was a fairly easy situation to read and avoid, but it was apparently pushed through anyway as Niantic continues to test in the live environment.
In any case, it didn’t go well, so Niantic has announced new changes – which also aren’t inspiring confidence in players.
・Gigantamax Gengar Max Battles will still be challenging, but we will be slightly reducing the difficulty compared to Gigantamax Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise Max Battles.
・Defeating Gigantamax Gengar will reward participating trainers 25k Stardust each.
・Gigantamax…— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) October 29, 2024
The suggested changes are oddly vague. “Slightly reducing difficulty” and Gengar being “more easy” to catch doesn’t really explain much. But 25k stardust as a reward is easier to judge. While it does take some of the sting out of investing in Pokemon Niantic has asked us to invest in multiple times before, especially including pokemon we only got as “old” just six weeks ago, the other rewards appear rather stingy. Remember, Max Raid Battles essentially cost 1.5x as much as regular raids, have roughly half or less of the base rewards including balls to catch your reward with, ask that you pay twice the cost of an actual raid pass to double said rewards (including balls) before you even get to attempt to catch, and don’t come in any larger discount boxes as raid passes do.
It remains to be seen what the real impact on the game will be, but already the community is skeptical. Another day in POGO world.
