"Anyone else not care about costume Pokemon?": The Pokemon GO community discusses the efficacy of dressed-up monsters

A Redditor with the username TaeyeonUchiha recently questioned the existence of costumed Pokemon and their use in Pokemon GO.

Pokemon GO's Fashion Week is well underway and will end on October 3, 2022, at 8:00 pm local time. While this event presents trainers with the opportunity to catch well-dressed Pokemon, many aren't keen on the idea.

In a thread posted on the official Pokemon GO subreddit on September 29, 2022, TaeyeonUchiha posed this question:

"Anyone else not care about costume Pokemon?"

The user remarked that costumed Pokemon used to be fun at the beginning of the game's run. However, according to them, such creatures have essentially become a nuisance, often possessing poor IV stats and not being particularly useful for battles.

TaeyeonUchiha's Reddit post (Image via u/TaeyeonUchiha/Reddit)

Introduced shortly after Pokemon GO's release, costumed Pokemon have appeared during multiple events, with new ones added quite often.

The Fashion Week event is one of the best times to encounter these dolled-up Pokemon in the wild, and some trainers undoubtedly enjoy catching them. However, a few costumed Pokemon are incapable of evolving (various forms of costumed Pikachu, in particular), and not every one of them has particularly solid stats for battle.

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Pokemon GO subreddit community has mixed reactions to costumed Pokemon in the game

Absol, Dugtrio, Mareanie, and Toxicroak in their costumed forms for Fashion Week 2022 (Image via Niantic)

The commenters under TaeyeonUchiha's post were relatively divided, but a majority agreed with the post's sentiment.

Costumed Pokemon take up quite a bit of space in a player's inventory. Most of them have substandard stats and are unfit for combat.

Many trainers remarked that unless the Pokemon has solid stats or is a shiny, they tend to transfer the costumed creatures. They then convert them into Pokemon candies for leveling up and evolution.

While many players agreed that costumed Pokemon are essentially a long-running gimmick, some admitted that certain costumes were just too appealing not to keep.

Some of the costumes mentioned include Bowler Hat Dugtrio, which was released during this year's Fashion Week, and Party Hat Wurmple, which has been in Pokemon GO for a while.

Other trainers signaled an interest in certain costumed Pokemon like Squirtle Squad Squirtle since the shade-wearing creature can still evolve into Blastoise normally. Under this reasoning, the Pokemon can still be effective in battle, even if it's wearing a little more than its counterparts.

After reading the post, one could surmise that a collective agreement is in the air. The consensus is that costumed Pokemon are nice as a novelty in Pokemon GO. However, their evolutionary limitations and substandard IVs prevent them from being useful.

Perhaps if Niantic considers this fan feedback, it can tweak future in-game models to accommodate more costumed Pokemon for evolution. At the very least, this would increase interest in costumed Pokemon since they could ostensibly evolve and be used for battle (if their stats were solid enough).

Niantic has not stated any intent to make changes to the way costumed Pokemon work in Pokemon GO. However, small changes could certainly go a long way towards altering players' views of them.

Many trainers enjoy the concept well enough, but Niantic could bring even more players into the fold by allowing more costumed Pokemon to evolve. Furthermore, making their IVs somewhat better per catch wouldn't be a bad idea, though this could ultimately affect game balance.