Niantic has announced that Pokemon Go regional bonuses will be changing on Android and iOS, opening up benefits to all players that were previously exclusive to the U.S. and New Zealand.
Pokemon Go has been continually delivering new updates to players, but it's had a rough time lately. Niantic originally planned to revert changes made during the pandemic as the world was opening up, but the game's community wasn't too happy about that decision. The game's developer promised to listen to the community's concerns and followed through by reversing its decision to shorten the game's interaction distance while promising a more in-depth report from their Taskforce tomorrow. Ahead of that though, Niantic had some Pokemon Go changes to announce.
How Pokemon Go Regional Bonuses Are Changing in the Season of Mischief
For Season of Mischief, Niantic is going with a single worldwide bonus, rather than two split by region. Given the changing conditions of COVID compared to the June announcement, this appears to make a lot of sense. Starting on with the Season of Mischief on September 5th, 2021, everyone world wide will have the following bonuses as per the Twitter post:
- 3x Bonus XP For Spinning a Poke Stop for the first time
- 2x Lure Duration
- Increased Incense effectiveness
- Boosted damage for Trainers battling remotely in raids
- Guaranteed Gifts from PokéStop spins
- Buddy Pokémon will bring you Gifts more often
Sadly, Niantic is also dialing back a few of the in-game bonuses. The 10x XP for spinning a Poke Stop for the first time, instead replaced by the 3x bonus mentioned above.. Additionally, players will no longer receive up to two free Raid Passes per day by spinning Gym Photo Discs; instead, that will be reduced to the previous default of 1 free Raid Pass per day. There is one area of confusion - how incense will work and whether there will be a bonus to effectiveness while walking. Despite their avowal to have a single worldwide bonus, the thread provides that there is an incense effectiveness while moving in the US and New Zeland, but not in the rest of the world. This is in addition to the stationary increased incense effectiveness. It appears likely that this part was just copied over wrong at this time, and that its not meant to have stacking incense effectiveness boosts.
The Season of Mischief is shaping up to be a bunch of fun for players around the world! You can join in on the fun by playing Pokemon Go for free on Android and iOS via its official website.
What do you think of the Pokemon Go regional bonuses expanding to global players? Are you sad to see some of the bonuses introduced during the panic being reduced? Let us know in the comments below!
