6 ways Pokemon GO is worse heading into 2025 than it was in 2020

While Pokemon GO's future looks bright with the release of the new Dual Destiny season update, many players still reminisce about the old days of the mobile game. Niantic has removed many quality-of-life features introduced to the game for the 2020 pandemic, which has made many parts of the game objectively worse than they were in the past.

Ever since the end of the pandemic, Pokemon GO has shifted heavily towards collecting as much money from the community as possible with nerfs to many items and remote features. The title also moved toward an abundance of premium tickets for many events. Here are some of the ways Niantic's mobile title was better in the past compared to its modern state.

Note: This article is subjective and solely relies on the writer's opinions.

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6 things that made Pokemon GO better in 2020

1) More Legendary encounters from the Battle League

Legendary Pokemon used to be a much more common encounter from Battle League victories (Image via The Pokemon Company)

While players can still encounter Legendary Pokemon from winning enough battles at the Battle League today, the odds of doing so were much higher back during the early days of Pokemon GO. Of course, even then being rank 20 or higher was still required.

Appearing at around a 20% chance, these classic Legendary encounters were great ways for players to still receive Raid Boss Pokemon while complying with social distancing regulations. However, Niantic nerfed this encounter rate heavily for modern seasons. This is inconvenient for users who cannot participate in Raid Battles regularly due to low player numbers in the areas they play in.

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2) Shop items

Many items were reworked or had their prices increased after the end of the pandemic (Image via Niantic)

Despite Niantic making the most money from microtransactions during the pandemic, the developers decided to rework many items in the shop following the game's transition into more in-person gameplay incentivization.

Most notably, Pokecoins were made much more expensive for users in many countries, Remote Raid Passes had their cost doubled, and only a certain number of these raids could be completed in a day. The limited-time bundle that required players to shell out a single pokecoin has also been removed.

Also check: Pokemon GO Evolution Calculator

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3) 6-Hour Community Days

Community Days had their time halved as regulations from the pandemic were lifted (Image via Niantic)

At the peak of the pandemic, Niantic implemented a massive buff to Community Days, doubling their duration from three to six hours. This was done to greatly increase the accessibility of these events for users who were stuck at home or work.

However, despite these users still having their responsibilities to take care of, Niantic reverted these changes to the Community Day events in 2022, returning them to the three-hour time limit despite the community's outcry.

Also check: Pokemon GO CP calculator

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4) Better event spawns

Mankey has become a controversial Pokemon in 2024 due to its overabundance of spawns and event appearances (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The wild spawns for 2024 were notoriously underwhelming, thanks heavily to the many Kanto Pokemon that made up much of the encounter tables both normally and during many events. Creatures like Koffing, and most notably, Mankey, have become incredibly dull for many players because of this.

While wild encounters in Pokemon GO's previous years may have never been revolutionary by any means, this level of redundancy in encounter variety was never as painfully obvious as it has been this past year.

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5) Incense was stronger

Much like many of the items in the game, Incenses were incredibly strong during the pandemic, only to be nerfed later (Image via Niantic)

Many long-time players may remember the Incense nerf that took place in 2022. This update changed how Incenses function, no longer granting players an increased chance of encountering wild Pokemon outside of the guaranteed timed spawn, unless they are actively moving.

This was done during a time when Niantic was focused on getting players out of their homes to play Pokemon GO after the pandemic came to a close. This nerf has also made Incenses much less valuable, with many players not bothering to use them at all outside of events like Community Days.

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6) Event tickets were less frequent

Many players are not fond of event bonuses being locked behind a paywall (Image via Niantic)

The free-to-play experience has been relatively underwhelming for Pokemon GO ever since Niantic brought event tickets to more of the game's spontaneous celebrations.

Before, event tickets were only reserved for yearly events like the GO Tour and GO Fest. However, in the modern era of Pokemon GO, many events have their own $5 or $2 tickets that players can purchase for more benefits. Players can even buy a ticket for December 2024 that grants them more chances to hatch eggs.

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For more information on the game, check out the articles below:

• Ditto disguises
• Sierra counters
• Cliff counters
• Arlo counters
• Giovanni counters
• Team GO Rocket Grunts