Pokémon Go will end a PokéCoin Remote Raid Pass on May 23

Pokémon Go Players will have fewer opportunities to participate in the game’s Raids from afar (which are “free” anyway) starting next week. Developer Niantic announced on Thursday that it plans to end the weekly distribution of the cheap Remote Raid Card that has been included in a pack of one PokéCoin for the past two years, as the company added new gameplay to adapt Pokémon Go ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting May 23, Pokémon GoThe in-game store will no longer include Remote Raid Cards in the Weekly One-PokéCoin Event Box, Niantic said in a post on the game’s official website. Instead, that cheap weekly box will feature “a rotating range of items,” Niantic said.

In announcing the change, Niantic said it was “delighted to be back playing together in person” and that they were working to find ways to “support players who have difficulty getting to the gym” with ” solutions like tools for community leaders to organize local events and faster approval for new gyms. ”

The Pokémon Go The manufacturer also said it will bring new social features to its mobile game in the next few months. The social features that have been testing in a separate, standalone app and accessible to select players of another Niantic game, Intrusion, since the beginning of May. That social app allows players to chat with each other and coordinate face-to-face meetings through the app, Pokémon Go players often do through external services, like Discord, over the years.

While Niantic’s promise to make it easier for players to coordinate encounters and access new gyms will likely make it less of a problem to get rid of cheap Remote Raid Cards, Loss of other convenience in the pandemic era will certainly cause some objections. Players can still purchase Raid Cards remotely from the store, but they cost them 100 PokéCoins for a pass and 250 coins for a three-pack. Players can earn up to 50 coins a day for free by hosting a Gym or paying in real world for coin packs.

Polygon sent some questions to Pokémon Go Live game director Michael Steranka on the changes and our email Q&A available below.

Polygon: For players who don’t use the external social features you intend to bring Pokémon GoCan you expand on what you hope to bring to existing players?

Michael Steranka: Meeting with other Instructors is an important part of Pokémon Go experience, that’s part of what makes it Pokémon Go different from most other games. We’ve found that for newer Trainers, or even veteran Trainers who’ve mostly raided at home over the past two years, those skills and habits need to be learned or re-learned. What we’re working on is a set of social tools and features that will allow Trainers to easily see where other Trainers are playing and congregating, and signal to others where they intend to fight or raid. So on Community Day, let’s say you’re traveling to a new city and you want to meet local Coaches. You’ll be able to do it in a flash when these tools are ready. I should add that protecting privacy is extremely important to us and all of these features will be optional and can be tweaked so you can decide with whom and where to share content. what level.

What is the reasoning behind pulling the Raid Card remotely from 1 PokéCoin event box? Are there other ways players can buy them, other than the store?

Our goal is to shift the balance back towards the joys of direct raids together again. Sales and discounts are really powerful ways to show Trainers what kind of game loop they should focus on at any given time. For example, if there’s an incubation event going on, we might recommend Incubators. We wanted to take advantage of the 1 PokéCoin pack to take that forward and use it to emphasize other playstyles.

This is why we’ve increased the rewards for meeting face-to-face to tackle challenging raid encounters. This is part of our return process Pokémon Go for that important experience.

This doesn’t mean that the remote raid option is going away, as we recognize the convenience it brings to players. Our aim is to bring joy that can only be experienced firsthand, like when you catch your first Lugia at a gym with your friends.

Note that with this change, there will be no other way to get a free Remote Raid Pass. However, our goal is to provide great value in Store deals for our events, and it is likely that Remote Raid Cards will be included in those bundles in the future.

What kind of items should players expect from a future PokéCoin event box?

We plan to rotate various things, so it’s hard to say definitively at this point. That being said, the first revolving 1 PokéCoin pack is going live in 2020 and comes in a variety of permutations. Previous versions are a good reference for where the package will likely continue to grow.

Are there any other changes planned for raids, such as the return of EX Raids or ways to make them more convenient for players who may not be able to find people to join them? are not?

Of course, and the new Niantic social features I mentioned will play a big role here. I can’t reveal too much yet as we have early details that will launch at our Niantic Lightship event next week, but later this summer Trainers will have the tools to make it easy. easily meet others for IRL raid battles and more.