What Pokémon Go Needs

If you ask anyone what my favorite hobby is they’ll most likely say Pokémon: Go. I have loved the game since my fiancée got me into it when we first started dating and have played daily since then.

That being said, there are aspects of the game I wish could be improved on or changed. Nothing is perfect and there is always room for improvement, and this article details areas I feel the game could be improved.

Before we get into the article here are a few clarifications:

1. This is my third article I’ve written suggestions for the game. I may reiterate some points from my previous articles if they’re still relevant.
2. I am not claiming these ideas are unique or original. I’m sure others have expressed these before, I’m stating these as opinions and not original ideas.
3. You may agree or disagree which is fine, there will always be differing opinions and we can agree to disagree when this happens!
4. I do suggest reading my previous articles. I do reiterate some of the same points here but they are still worth the read:

My Suggestions for Pokémon Go

My Suggestions for Pokémon Go 2.0

With that out of the way let’s get into the list!

“Return!” - Being able to pull a Pokémon out of a gym

Starting the list is something that has always annoyed me, why can’t we pull Pokémon out of a gym on command?

I understand Niantic doesn’t want a million complaints from players who accidentally removed a Pokémon from a gym. A simple fix to this would be adding a confirmation prompt that players must do, maybe even setting it only to be available once the badge goes gold.

This way players can remove Pokémon from a gym but must go through a confirmation “are you sure?” before the Pokémon is returned.

“READY? Good luck!” - More consistent Ready button in raids

One of the things I have been begging for since I started is a way to end the raid lobby timer and begin the raid. Two minutes of waiting for a raid that usually ends in 30 seconds was always overkill to me and I vented about it to no end.

Then the Ready button was introduced and I was so excited, until I went to use it. It seems Niantic really limited its functionality making it so it can only be used in specific circumstances.

Niantic, I love the Ready button, but please allow it to be used in all raids. If you’re worried about people accidentally hitting it make a second prompt to confirm the person is ready to go in.

“Raid Invitation Declined.” - Declining unwanted raid invites

I have never understood why the game allows us to accept and join a raid through an invitation, but doesn’t allow us to decline invites we don’t want to do.

Instead it forces us to wait out the timer and either switch our online status to offline or continue to ignore any subsequent raid invites from the person if they resend.

We should be able to decline invites so it clears them from our queue and tells the sender we did not accept.

“Are you sure you want to transfer these eggs?” - The option to send eggs to the professor

Niantic, why do you allow us to transfer Pokémon but not eggs?

It would be great to clear out old eggs to make room for new ones, especially during events that new eggs are released with special Pokémon.

While I know the intent is to make us hatch them, it is cruel that everything from opening gifts to spinning stops forces us to receive eggs but short of hatching we have no way to clear them back out.

“Clothing purchased, check your wardrobe!” - A section in Style for Purchased items

This is another one has irked me for awhile, while the ability to save outfits has been a huge improvement I still wish there was a section for clothing items you purchased.

This would save time scrolling through the endless pages of clothing items just to find the one item you bought to wear, especially when you are trying to build a new outfit or put on what you bought.

Niantic, please give us a wardrobe for stuff we bought in the shop!

“Raid Party Assembling Nearby! Want to join?” - Announcement of a raid starting nearby

This one is more of a build on of a current feature, it is great that the game states the number of people about to enter a raid but it would be even better if we can enable a push notification to notify us like when we receive a raid invite or a gift.

Instead of relying on spotting the number above the gym the game would proactively notify us of the raid partying assembling so we could join in if we wanted to.

I personally would love this as I do love to raid and would jump in more often.

End the Remote Pass Limit

This one will make some people groan, but I feel that the daily limit of remote passes was a step too far. The price increase was a business thing and I get it, but the increase combined with the limit caused a lot of people to stop raiding altogether.

Limiting their use lowers their value in my eyes and making me feel the remote passes are no longer worth the price tag. Don’t get me wrong, the price tag hurts me in the wallet too for sure.

I hope Niantic can better balance their goal of making players raid in person more with a better alternative than this.

“Your Gym Challenge Has Ended” - Encouraging players to pursue other gyms once a gym badge has gone Gold

This one is going to be the most controversial of this list, but I do feel it is a feature that needs to be added.

Once a gym badge goes gold for a player that player should no longer be able to attack, put a Pokémon in or feed berries to Pokémon in said gym.

If they try to do any of the three above activities they should get a message on screen saying “You’re challenge of this gym is over, try challenging another gym!”

This will stop players from hovering over gyms that they are in regular reach of to allow other players a chance to attack, defend or hold the gym.

Don’t get me wrong, they should still be able to raid and spin the gyms that have gone gold!