Pokemon GO Community Day special backgrounds are not a worthwhile replacement for 4-star raids

The conclusion of 2025's first Pokemon GO Community Day has finally introduced players to the new special background creature variants, which were announced weeks before the event's arrival. Controversy arose when it was revealed that these releases would replace the iconic four-star raid battles.

The addition of these new variants to Community Day events has significantly hurt the value of the event ticket, which has now doubled in price. This has led to concerns about the future of Community Days, with many players online claiming to have quit the game since the first round of nerfs in 2022.

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

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How did these changes hurt Pokemon GO's Sprigatito Community Day?

Many changes made the Sprigatito Community Day much worse for paid players (Image via Niantic)

Sprigatito's Community Day lacked many details from events prior. Not only have the four-star raids been completely phased out, but the other members of the spotlighted evolutionary line have also been taken out of the premium research ticket. Instead of rewarding players with each stage of the family line, Niantic now gives three chances to catch the new special background creatures.

This greatly increases the amount of grinding required to fill the Pokedex. Many players had purchased these tickets just for the opportunity to obtain all three stages of a Pocket Monster's evolutionary line.

With the ticket now seen as worth much less despite the price increase, Community Day tickets have become less desirable for many users.

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How new special background creatures fail to re-invest collectors in Pokemon GO

These "special backgrounds" are not unique to the event, but to the season (Image via The Pokemon Company)

The new special background creatures in Pokemon GO have noticeably lower quality, being linked to the update season rather than the event itself. This is in stark contrast to what was seen during the December 2024 Community Day, which received its own exclusive special background.

The new special background creatures from Community Days will feature the same checkerboard design until the end of the season. With players having more opportunities to see these special backgrounds, there is no urgency to collect these forms.

The new event backgrounds are significantly less detailed than even the standard ones. Normal Pokemon have dynamic backgrounds that change based on their elemental typing. However, the new special backgrounds are always static, remaining the same for any special background creature captured during the next few Community Days.

Overall, the new special background Pokemon are an uninteresting variety of creatures introduced for an event already popular for granting players shiny variants, making them redundant. The introduction of these lackluster critters at a time when the events as a whole received negative reworks only worsened their reception.

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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