5 ways Niantic can revamp PokeStop Showcase

Pokestop Showcase was introduced to Pokemon GO with initial praise from the community. Many players enjoyed showing off their high-value creatures without having to grind the resources needed for the only other form of competitive play, the Battle League.

However, the way these contests play out is relatively predictable and somewhat stagnant in the eyes of many trainers. This is because the gameplay mostly boils down to putting your Pokemon into a Pokestop Showcase and hoping you win.

Here are five ways that Niantic could improve the Showcase experience.

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5 ways Niantic could liven up Pokestop Showcases

1) Themed Showcases

Pokestop Showcases typically hold one species of monster, but it would be nice to see themed showcases featuring monsters with common traits (Image via Niantic)

Showcases only hold one species of monster. However, it may be more interactive and accessible to allow certain showcases featuring creatures of a singular type, size, attack, or those who appear during a given time.

For example, Niantic could implement a showcase featuring the different evolutions of Eevee, or monsters themed around certain holidays as they come up. This would broaden the amount of players who could join a given showcase as they appear.

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2) Better Rewards

Current Pokestop Showcase rewards can be very underwhelming (Image via Niantic)

A great way to incentivize audiences to take part in showcases would be to offer much better rewards to those who win. While Niantic already gives away some high-value items like Star Pieces and Incubators, these items only appeal to a fraction of the community.

Offering better rewards for Pokestop Showcases like Rare Candies, Elite TMs, or alternate Lure Modules would appeal to a vaster array of Pokemon GO players, like those who partake in the competitive battling scene. Perhaps offering free Raid Passes will make the feature worthwhile for more players as well.

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3) More Showcases

Pokestop Showcases only tend to appear during events, rather than constantly being active (Image via Niantic)

One issue with Pokestop Showcases in Pokemon GO is that they only appear during events where players have better objectives to go after. Why would a trainer want to send one of their creatures away if they want to challenge a limited-time Raid Boss or catch their fill of Shiny Pokemon?

As such, offering the option to partake in randomized showcases at all times of the year would offer many players more chances to participate in these forms of gameplay. Randomizing the creatures to be compared would offer more unpredictability to the rather stagnant game as well.

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4) More in-depth grading

Pokestop Showcases tend to be rather vague with how they score each monster that can participate in it (Image via Niantic)

Currently, showcases offer a very unusual way of scoring each of the creatures entered. In most cases, players that have creatures that are bigger or heavier than the competition typically win. However, the feature could be reworked, taking more factors into account when assigning each monster a score.

While size will still matter, there could be other traits that would net the trainer more points like what moves the creature has, its IVs, and whether or not the deposited specimen is shiny or costumed. This will reward and incentivize players to preserve more monsters in their collection rather than just instantly transferring duplicates.

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5) Showcases between friends

Giving players to compete against each other for fun with trainers on their friends list would make for some friendly competition between collectors (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Niantic has been pushing for Pokemon GO to become a more social experience. As such, a lot of players have been meeting up for events like Community Days and Spotlight Hours. With this in mind, giving players the option to compare the best creatures each player in the group caught during the event would be fun.

Much like battles, this could be instigated by a single party from the friends list, with the host sending out invitations to others to their personal Pokestop Showcase. While rewards may not be distributed to the winners, having the best creature in a group could still be a bragging right.