Go is sabotaging itself. Everything they've done since they ended the COVID buffs has just been ass. You need an absurd amount of people to do a gigantimax raid, but you can't rely on remote raids anymore, you need irl people. It's stupid.
despite its flaws, i still find it to be a good motivator for me to get off my ass and go outside for a walk every day. I dislike how they seem to really hate their casual playerbase. if you dont pay up and play in a group, it feels like you miss half of the stuff an event offers. for a game that is about going outside and catching pokemon, many pokemon sure are behind either raids, event passes, random rare spawns from lures or inside eggs. like with the current event, why is rookidee inside an egg, when people mainly want it for pvp.
Empty tins are best bought in-person or in online bundles on resale sites like eBay, the only downside of the latter is the shipping charges.
I stopped using ETBs for bulk ages ago, now I use cardboard "cheese" boxes that are actually designed for it.
That's the case for me, I usually find myself getting out of the house when there's a nice 1-2 day event and I'm actually contemplating getting a ticket for the in-person Go Tour: Unova event that's happening next month.
Magnetic lure spawns them fyi
if game freaks get their own head out of their ass about making a functional game I will. You have my word for that.
Another issue, is that you can't be more than casual, if you don't live in a city. I live in a smallish town, and we have to pool together several towns worth of people for one raid day. Used to, we could bring in people with remote raids, but the nerf really hit us hard.
That does suck. I'm lucky to be in a solid situation where I can find a solid location with a grassroots community of Pokemon Go players in my town just a short drive from my place. Not to mention there is a local metro park with gyms and stops to boot. that is actually a place I plan on moving my grind too once the summer gets going here. Like I said I am lucky that I can drive to some places. Some folks I get why the temptation to spoof is there. Of course don't do that.
Uh, no? There is more than that.
You can't even get people to do shadow raids let alone a 5-star Dynamax. I've tried getting people together through Campfire for Articuno, and nobody wants to do it (I'm near one of the largest groups in my area). The worst thing about the Legendary Dmax and Gmax fights are that it's all fomo bullshit, so if you missed out on something like Gmax Kanto starters, you're not seeing them anytime soon. Here's another kicker: You're not even guaranteed a lot of good farming spots on Maxed Out Mondays. My meetup only had 1 accessible Articuno spot, but it was way too fucking cold to walk around for other spots.
A lot of new Pokemon has been behind some paywall or fomo event like Fidough. Mausehold and Fidough should be roaming around the world with the others. Even though you can use a lure to get a rookiedee, unless you get lucky with Showcase wins you're going to have spend a little cash for lures if you want rookidee. Good luck saving up coins as f2p (getting pokecoins is very slow and tough as f2p, especially if you're unable to hold gyms).
Pvp is beyond fucked because it's full of cheaters even in the lowest Great League ranks (I ran into 3 from one set). They never fixed the other cheating methods (spamming charge moves instantly, seeing your opponent's team and having immediate counters, etc.). They've been trying to force players to do more pvp because nobody wants to put up with the broken bullshit and cheaters.
Honestly, the PvP wins requirement was one of the easiest ones. There are a ton of people, myself included, who AFK 3 matches a day to get the 3 free hearts for our buddy. There's even more of those AFKers when there is an event going on that requires PvP matches played. Now the level up challenge that i'm stuck on is the 50 Rocket leader wins. That takes forever if you're like me and only rely on the guaranteed Rocket balloon spawns that happen every 3 hours or so.
The Rookidee release i just find baffling. Its an early route bird, yet it comes from stationary lures and eggs? It absolutely should have been a wild spawn.
I caught a fucking shiny male combee and I have never really recovered emotionally.
my heart goes out to you