*****
This is a non-regular series I dub as Fool's Errands. Why? Because it will chronicle, or at least, tell about an act or attempt I have or had taken, could be small or big, that was... well, presumably pointless, unnecessary, or even crazy to some. 😅
It would not always be the case, of course. Maybe it was merely a mundane thing I just never really got around to doing before. My goal is to learn something from it. Whether I intend to continue doing it or not is up for grabs. But, hey, maybe such an action will lead to a fun discovery... 😉
*****
Here I am, typing the second Part of "What happens if I start playing Pokémon GO in 2025."
You can check the first part through this link if you're curious about what was there before. Also, to save time and effort since I'm picking up where I left off right away. ✌🏻😏
To Store or Not to Store
When I abruptly wrapped up Part 1, I said, "I couldn't play that day because I had ZERO empty space in my Pokémon Storage." That does serve as the unintentional bridge to this next point. 🤷🏻♂️
As I said above (and on the previous point), you WILL fill up your Pokémon Storage with completely new, unique Pokémon in no time. Those Special Research I discussed before? Some of their tasks also reward a Pokémon encounter. 🙂
There are also Raid Battle dens, which will also reward the featured Pokémon, often the powerful final evolutions of the wild Pokémon you found on the virtual map. Assuming you have met enough players to clear the Raid, that is. But even if you are a complete introve-- er, lone wol--, I mean a SOLO player like me, there are easier 1☆ to 3☆ Raid Battles you can tackle alone. The 3☆ will need some preparation (read: Power Up), but a good number can still be dealt with solo. 💪🏻😤
Furthermore, the same Pokémon come in different varieties. Remember the Shiny variant? That is another entry in the Pokédex. Shadow variants are next in line. You can catch these by defeating Team GO Rocket's grunts. They are the in-house antagonists/Evil Team, led by three original characters called GO Rocket Leaders. All three operate on behalf of a non-in-house character, Giovanni. 👨💼👀
The Shadow Pokémon lineup expands regularly. Also, their Purified forms are registered separately on the Pokédex, adding yet another variant to collect! 😳
Defeating a GO Rocket Leader will also give you a red-patterned, 12 km Egg, containing specific Pokémon only available in it (for now)... 🐣
Ah, yes. I haven't mentioned Eggs, huh? If you spin a PokéStop, you will receive three varieties of Eggs. A green-patterned 2 km, an orange-patterned 5 km, or a bluish violet-patterned 10 km one. Each may contain a unique Pokémon you cannot usually encounter roaming around. How to hatch these Eggs? Well, you put them in an incubator and... WALK. 🚶♂️🏃♀️🤮
Wait, there's more! A gift from other players may give you a 7 km egg, containing even rarer varieties of Pokémon. Often, these are Regional Forms of the ones you normally catch while playing. Is it another variant, too? BINGO! 🙆🏻♂️
And then, there are costumed Pokémon that Niantic adds to certain events or achievements. No, this is different than Pokémon with unique forms. For example, a little fairy, Flabébé, can hold 5 different-colored flowers, the Poodle Pokémon Furfrou has 10 unique Fur Trims, and don't get me started on Vivillon's 18 available geographical-based Patterns or the 28 Alphabetical shapes of Unown. Costume Pokémon are regular Pokémon wearing a themed outfit.
Ever wonder how Pikachu would look wearing a cowboy or witch hat? It is available in Pokémon GO. 🤠🧙♀️
Uh-huh, they get entries in the Pokédex, too, now.
That's amazing, right? So many to hunt and collect. 😛
Items have their own Storage, modeled as a backpack. Like Pokémon, you will add content to your Item Bag super fast. You only need to spin a PokéStop to gather these items: Pokéballs, Potions, and more. Each time you level up, the game also gives you Bonus items. It is such an embarrassment of riches! 🤑
Free things are awesome. Right?
Well, nothing is ever free on this planet. The problem with having all kinds of mons and loads of items is one, honestly. YOU RUN OUT OF STORAGE IMMEDIATELY!!! 🤯😱
I used up my initial 300 Pokémon Storage in the first week alone. "Pokémon GO Tour Unova" played a major part in that, since every hour of those two days flooded my account with new Pokémon or their forms (Oh, Deerling) from the Unova region.
The Storage issue has a solution, of course. Players can expand it using PokéCoins. Luckily, or perhaps, thankfully, I had put Pokémon in Gyms. They helped me earn PokéCoins, which are capped at a maximum of 50 per day. On the 4th day, I had enough coins to upgrade my Pokémon Storage with 50 more empty spots. But believe it or not, it took me only 2 days to fill those spots with completely new Pokémon. My goodness. 😵🤦🏻♂️
And when you do, you cannot really do anything else. Unless you're willing to dump the hard-to-catch Pokémon for a clean slate, of course. That is the next simple solution, honestly. My nephew, when he used to play, always chose that option because he was uninterested in taking over Gyms. 🤷🏻♂️
How about the Items Bag? That poses the same issue and/or solution.
You cannot spin any PokéStops once it is full. But what if you clear a Special Research that rewards Items? Your Item Bag will get overloaded more than before. The effect ripples, too. No spinning PokéStop means saying goodbye to Research Tasks asking you to "Spin X PokéStop." Also, that means not getting Gifts. You need to wait until the Pokémon you've assigned as Buddy Pokémon shows pity and fetches a few for you. Believe it or not, the critter is designed to care enough for you to stay connected with other players. 🥺👐🦋
But yeah, you can always use PokéCoins to upgrade that Item Bag, too. Or, just like the Pokémon, dump the items you just got for free in the trash. 😫🗑
That's right! You either use as many items as possible or throw them away as a last resort. Beats the point of getting them in the first place, huh? Everything is disposable in this game. 😐
Money, Money, Money?
Like most mobile games, Pokémon GO began, and, well, in general, is an F2P (Free to Play) game. Then again, echoing my line above, there's never anything free on this planet, huh? A give-and-take always happens in anything we do, even for the most abstract thing you can think of. 🙄
Once you've gotten the general idea of Pokémon GO's gameplay, you start to stumble into some roadblocks I detailed previously. And, that's, my friends, where the monetization comes in. In desperate need of Storage? Just upgrade using PokéCoins. Not enough coins, but need it fast? Visit the Niantic store to buy them using real-life money. Ooof! 😩💱
There's an obvious reason why the Pokémon storage limit is now 9,800 (from the free 300 😨), and the Item Bag limit has been increased to 8,800. Players need them, so they SELL like hotcakes! Cha-ching! 😓💸
In Part 1, I also said there is extra Special Research you can purchase. That is right! It's also a profit source for the developer. Personally, I never bought them. I know many do, though, to the point of calling it "worth the price." Those annual "GO Tour" and "GO Fest" events? If you want to get more benefits, then you will need to get the Paid Ticket.
And, hmmmm. Does the idea of walking a 12 km Egg sound like hard work? Fret not! You can buy a Super Incubator that reduces the distance by 1/3. I mean, you STILL need to walk. But at least it doesn't need to be 12 km. 🙄🤦🏻♂️
On the one hand, the pursuit of money isn't a negative thing. A company like Niantic needs to earn profits to pay employees. Otherwise, there wouldn't be decent programmers to keep upgrading the game or any percentage paid to The Pokémon Company International, which allows the game to use Pokémon. 🤷🏻♂️
Then again, on the other hand, it's getting hard to ignore how this monetization effort has gotten more and more obvious. You probably have noticed that in the not-so-subtle weekly events in the game. 😶
Hatch event? That encourages players to buy extra, if not Super Incubators to speed up the results, unless you're up for walking the extra mile. Raid event? It's designed to push players to do as many Raids as possible, beyond the 5 Passes given for free. And to do so requires a purchasable Raid Pass. 😰
Starting from "Pokémon GO Tour: Hoenn" in 2023, Location Backgrounds have become a thing in the game. It functions precisely as its name. A unique background appears on a Pokémon info screen. These are rare cosmetic effects, prompting you to keep the Pokémon, even though you probably have deleted dozens of them already. 🤔
But it's only for Special Events, right? Well, "Pokémon GO Fest 2024" expanded that idea with Special Backgrounds. Since Community Day in December 2024, there has been follow-up Timed Research that gives encounters with the same featured Pokémon, but it will have Special Backgrounds. Just like that, it makes plenty of sense why Storage capacity only keeps growing. Niantic sneakily makes players feel unsure about deleting the Pokémon they catch, thus implicitly encouraging them to upgrade their Pokémon Storage and Item Bag as often as possible. 🙄
Even without a Special Background, recent Timed Research has done nothing but dump loads of Pokémon at the players' faces. The "Bug Out 2025" event, which will wrap a few hours after this post goes up, rewards you with 7 Pokémon. It comes with 3 Collection Challenges that reward 3 more. 🤔
The game has also compensated for the "Catch Mastery" mishap by providing 2 free Timed Research for all players: "Fossil Encounters: Kabuto" and "Fossil Encounters: Omanyte." Each one gives not 1, not 3, but a heaping 10 Kabuto and 10 Omanyte. How many are those in total already? 😟
Oh, and one more thing.
I feel the Pokémon have gotten harder to catch in recent months. Maybe to justify the latest Adventure Effects that supposedly make Pokémon "easier to catch" or supposedly so. Either way, you might waste more Pokéballs trying to catch one. And, in a way, that is another aspect that tempts you to, well, BUY more. 😑
The irony is, as I've just noticed, the game sometimes suddenly drops 30 Pokéballs on my Item Bag without warning. That's why my Item Storage is almost always over capacity. 🤦🏻♂️
These dazzling decisions trigger one question in my brain. Why the growing urge for monetization? I have my theory. But I'll save them for the final Part (surely you've seen that coming, considering this has already felt too long 😅).
With that said, in this new playthrough, I don't intend on spending a single dime of actual money. But I'm already doubting if that's even sustainable. Maybe if I stop catching anything until I gather enough PokéCoins? 😖
Hot and Cold
And then, just like that, after I waited and upgraded my Pokémon Storage the second time? My progress came to a screeching halt. At that point, the "Festival of Colors 2025" had begun. Believe it or not, I cleared all the wild entries available through this event the next day. I had acquired the Time Limited Shiny Smeargle, too. After that, what to do? Nothing but catching the same ones to get candies, I suppose. 🍬🍭
That's the ongoing routine of this game. Some events come at you hot, as if trying aggressively to meet ends meet, tempting you to play actively maybe, even day and night. Then, suddenly, it shifts into being cold, introducing a new Pokémon through one method only (Use Incense! Hatch them!). Meanwhile, the ones sprawling the map are the same old varieties you've probably already deleted for the twentieth time. 📅📈📉
I guess the downtime is good. But often, it feels like a facade that may throw you off guard. The wisest course of action during these slow periods is to stock as many PokéCoins as possible. By doing so, once the next event begins, you may be more prepared for any curveball thrown at you. To be precise, I'm talking about the money-draining kind. 💵🗑😟
Friends or Foes?
GO Friend has been a staple component of Pokémon GO's gameplay since it was introduced in June 2018. Back in the day (a sentence I can't believe I just said, but it's accurate nonetheless), adding friends was not easy. Players must rely on social media, using the hashtag #PokémonGOFriends to locate other players who might be looking for friends. Then, after communication and connection were established, the pair could register their names to each other in the system. Like a dating app? Hahaha. 😜
My, oh, my, how the times have changed. Social media is still an option, yes. But nowadays, non-official third-party sites make the process much easier to accomplish. Pokémon GO Gishan and Leekduck's Pen Pal are two examples on the market. They are what I rely on most lately, anyway. Players will find the pages chock full of other users looking for new friends.
The reason? XP and Gifts. 😌😅
Leveling up Friendship rewards XP. Sending Gifts also gives XP and enables you to encounter a Scatterbug that can evolve into unique patterns Vivillon. 🐛🦋
But, again, the reality of GO Friends is not as sweet as it sounds. One fact I truly dislike about this feature? Much like mutual followers in social media or the game's treatment of Pokémon and Items, it transforms other players into another disposable thing. 😞
Seriously, it won't take you long to realize that some players are just plain awful! I've run into players who unfriend too easily when I forget to send Gifts or open theirs. Some others only open Gifts and never send any in return. I know GO Friends will never be as real as an actual friend. But it also feels like they are simply a stepping stone to level up. Once they reach Best Friend status, they delete you right away. 🙅🏻♂️🦵🏻
I also discovered a startling revelation in this new playthrough. There are three high-ranking (level 50) players in my area. Before, I never paid attention to their behaviors, being in the same Blue team. This new account, however, opened my eyes. Two of them could be in two different Gyms at once, located far apart, kicking out the Pokémon I left to defend there. Even if they used a car, it would take at least a 10-minute gap to reach my position from the previous Gym.
Naturally, there is only one obvious explanation. They must be The Flash and Quicksilver! 🤔
Kidding. They are obviously GPS spoofers. No wonder they could reach high levels so fast. That's how they could easily monopolize the entire area as their Gyms. That explained why they could have distinct Pokémon only found in Egypt and Hawaii before they were made available globally through Paid Tickets. How gullible I was, thinking they were frequent travelers. 🧑✈️
Niantic may have insisted that they are taking care of and banning GPS spoofers. However, these two players running free for 8 years only proves otherwise. 😑
Regardless. Where there are bad seeds? There are also good ones. Such is the nature of life. As of this writing, 1 month and 3 days after this Pokémon GO account was born, it has reached Level 28 with 30 steady GO Friends. I'm partially and hopefully sure these are the good people that remain. 😌
Of course, that number is not entirely pure; 2 are my neighbors, including the one whose referral code I requested, and 1 is my main account. 1 other is a New York-based Best Buddy I had from my main account, who caught wind of my project and wanted to help (Thanks, LB! 😁🙏🏻). So, in total, that's 26 completely new GO Friends. 😏
Considering the daily cap limit for sending and opening Gifts, though? I'd say that number is more than enough. I've seen other players filling up their 400 GO Friends limit overnight (the space was extended from 200 in 2021). While I'm not criticizing that move (to each their own, eh?), I don't see it as sustainable. There WILL be a future Special Research that asks you to "Add a New Friend," so it's wise to keep a space to breathe. 😳
Besides, I prefer to connect with GO Friends from various parts of the world. Thanks to these diverse players, I've secured the Gold Medal for Vivillon Patterns, missing only the obvious rare ones (Tundra, Sandstorm, and Ocean). 😉
I'll be frank; this may be the only feature that has prevented me from logging off from the game for good in my main account. Maybe that will be the reason for me to keep playing this new account, too. So, if you're interested in adding me as a GO Friend, drop your Trainer's Code in the comment section. I guarantee you'll get at least 1 Jungle Pattern Vivillon a few days later. 😉👍🏻
****
Whoops, I've hit the Storage limit (of my brainpower) again. Have to recharge with PokéCoins first before I can continue. Hahaha...
See you on the final, Part 3, next month!
No comments:
Post a Comment