Pokemon Go: Still Going

[lightsout]

That title, right? lol

Anyway, so, anybody still playing? The old thread got archived, but I'm still playing pretty regularly.

For those who hopped off between Gen 2 Pokemon being released and now, the gym system was reworked and is now better (slightly, anyway). There are raids, which are basically boss Pokemon that you fight in the same general way that the original trailer for the game showed Mewtwo being fought in NYC. Basically, there are 5 tiers of raids (4 currently because the 5th is confirmed to be Legendary Pokemon and unreleased as of this posting, but expected soon). Raids occur at gyms randomly, usually between lunch and nightfall (from what I can tell). Each tier is a group of Pokemon (between 4-6 different ones, depending on which tier we're talking about), ranked by the difficulty of completion. All Tier 1 and 2 raids are raids that can be done solo, and offer modest rewards. 3 and 4 are harder and require at least 4-5 good players with good knowledge and good Pokemon. Rewards are better here. Type advantage matters more than CP in this regard (FINALLY) . Tier 4, from my experience, requires 7-8 people. After completion of the raid, you have a chance to catch a weaker version of that Pokemon (Tier 3 Pokemon are around 20,000 CP....so they still land in the very high range. Much like hatching Pokemon, in that they have higher CP and guaranteed IVs between the "good" and "perfect" range).

The obvious downfall is small town play makes raids frustrating. But while going to Charlotte to raid on the 4th with my girlfriend, we ran into groups regularly and it was fun. There are some other small details involving raids, but that is the basic idea. You get 1 free raid pass per day, by spinning the Pokestop attached to a gym (yeah, another addition is that gyms have discs you can spin just like pokestops. So if you have a gym, you also have a Pokestop. Good news for rural players). You can also buy them for 150 coin ($1.50 in real money). Honestly, it's the best part of this game now. You can't save up more than one raid pass though. So, say you get a raid pass on day 1 and don't use it on a raid. You play the next day, see a raid you like, and use that raid pass. If you spin a gym after that raid is completed, you will get THAT day's raid pass. You can purchase as many as you want to have though. So, just like with bag and pokemon storage, you have a free amount, but you are definitely going to spend the money. If you use your pass on a raid and fail, don't worry, you can re-enter that raid until it closes, thus giving you unlimited attempts at completing it. When you start the raid, you're put into a 2-3 minute waiting lobby. You can either do a private lobby set by a code or just join the public lobby and wait for people to get in with you. Anybody from any team can do a raid at any one time in the same lobby, so it is 100% cooperative. However, the team that does the most damage gets more Premiere Balls for the bonus catch portion after beating the raid. 



Those are the truly big changes. On July 22, there is a big event in Chicago to celebrate the 1 year anniversary. The event will have global effects though, in that a bonus will be determined based on the play of those at the event, and those outside the event (read: the rest of the world playing) will also aid them in them catching as many Pokemon as possible during a few set time periods during the event in Chicago. The thought here is that the event will conclude with a Legendary Pokemon raid, and that the rest of the world will have Legendary raids released the two days following the event in Chicago.


Anyway, who else is playing still?