Pokémon

Pokémon GO introduces distance raiding during coronavirus shutdown

04/15/2020

The coronavirus has impacted Pokémon GO harder than most games because of how the game interacts with the real world. With most major countries being on lockdown, Niantic has had to come up with alternative ways for fans to play the game. Today, it announced its plans for distance raiding.

Remote Raid Passes

To join in a raid in Pokémon GO, players have always needed a Raid Pass. Now, players will be able to join Raid Battles from a distance using a Remote Raid Pass. These will allow players to join Raids that they can see on their map from any distance.

At launch, players will be able to battle at full strength remotely, but Niantic plans to change this later. The Remote Raid Passes will be available in bundles for one coin initially. However, they will cost 100 coins later.

According to Niantic, players will gain the ability to invite their friends to remote raids in Pokémon GO in the future. It also states that the team will continue to monitor and adjust the feature as needed.

Other quality of life changes

In addition to Remote raiding, Pokémon GO is making other quality of life changes that should help players during the coronavirus lockdown. Everyone will get a Field Research Task at midnight without having to spin a PokéStop.

Players will also no longer need to spin PokéStops to get gifts. If a PokéStop is in range and the player is walking a buddy Pokémon, the buddy will go grab a gift from the PokéStop. With both of these measures in place, players won’t need to actually go to the stops to spin them.

In our continued efforts to prioritize Pokémon GO experiences that can be enjoyed in individual settings, we’re excited to announce that
⭐ Remote Raid Passes
⭐ Bonus research tasks
⭐ Boost-item stacking
and more are coming to #PokemonGO!https://t.co/yNGqNwST1b pic.twitter.com/6VENmx0buq

— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) April 15, 2020