The long-awaited Raid Battles feature was finally released a couple of days ago, but already some obvious flaws have surfaced. Initially, only Pokémon Go players level 35 and over could take part in the battles – which means not a whole lot of players got to enjoy the update. Throughout the day, however, those levels were revised – first going down to level 31, then 28 and finally 25. It is unclear if level numbers will further drop or if this is the final call, but it certainly means Raid Battles are now available to more players.
The battles are also only available at select gyms, so players have to find out which ones are near them and go there if they want to take advantage of the new feature. The rewards are interesting and include rare Pokémon, Golden Razz Berries and Rare Candies, among other things. But the issues this reviewer found with the new Raid Battles might make the rewards – and the rare Pokémon – hard, if not impossible, to come by. He reports that the gyms are crowded with up to six Pokémon who, when defeated in one battle, only lose a measure of ‘motivation’. Three to five battles are required to erase them, and by that time, more likely than not, it has been replaced by an even stronger beast.
He and this veteran, a level 40, seem to agree that the game is lacking, and not only where fighting is concerned. It would seem that coins and stardust are extremely hard to come by, or at least they were, until Niantic tweaked the update to allow for better rewards, at least where holding a gym is concerned (from one coin an hour to one coin every ten minutes, or up to 50 coins a day). It would seem that the growing amount of complaints from dedicated players has been heard by the company and that it has decided to listen. Whether further issues will be addressed is unknown, but this is a step in the right direction.
Here’s hoping that fans continue to send their feedback and that Niantic continues to listen. For now, all that we’ve seen from the Pokémon Go Raid Battles is a new feature that may have potential but that has started out as a disappointment for users of all levels.