Hours after activation, gifts in Pokémon GO already give fewer items than at launch. What has changed?
Gifts in Pokémon GO: Since the activation of the friends and trading feature, trainers in Pokémon GO can send gift boxes to their friends. These contain useful items like Max Potions or Ultra Balls.
What’s new? Players noticed that the contents of the gifts have changed significantly. Initially, there were five Ultra Balls, but now there are only two. Were the gifts too good?
Fewer contents from the gifts – Gifts
Strong nerf in the Gifts: On Reddit, members of TheSilphRoad notice that the distribution of gifts has changed. Together, they made a list and counted how significantly the contents have been weakened:
- Instead of 5 Poké Balls, there are now only 3
- Instead of 5 Great Balls, there are now only 2
- Instead of 5 Ultra Balls, there is now only 1
- Instead of 2 Potions, there is now only 1
- Instead of 2 Super Potions, there is now only 1
- Instead of 2 Max Potions, there is now only 1
- Instead of 2 Revives, there is now only 1
- Instead of 2 Max Revives, there is now only 1
- Instead of 10 Sananaberries, there are now only 2
Discussions in the community: Such drastic changes lead to many conversations within the community. Some trainers understand Niantic and say, “Yes, every trainer just adds strangers as friends to send gifts to each other. This way, it’s too easy to get coveted items.”
Sympathy for trainers in rural areas: Not everyone can understand this change from Niantic. They particularly notice the change in Poké Balls negatively. Trainer Deadsoulinside writes on Reddit, “I don’t like that this also affected the Poké Balls. Not that I really needed them […], but it was nice to know that you could help players who don’t have easy access to PokéStops.”
At PokéStops and Gyms, trainers can also obtain coveted items like Poké Balls or Potions. However, there are only a few Stops and Gyms in rural areas, making it harder to get the items there.
Possible further changes: There is a chance that Niantic will make additional changes to the gifts. The feature is new and is still being refined.
Another theory about the changes: Trainers suspect that the distribution of items increases with the friendship level. So it could be that there was a bug (i.e., an error) in the game that distributed too many items. This will become clear in the coming days as trainers increase their friendship levels in Pokémon GO.
The Safari Zone in Dortmund begins in a few days, bringing a new Shiny to Pokémon GO worldwide
