In Pokémon GO there has been the option to participate in remote raids for some time now, but one thing particularly annoys our MeinMMO author Franzi Korittke about it. She explains what it’s about and what she wishes from other trainers.
What are remote raids? In Pokémon GO you can catch Pokémon in the wild, but also fight them in raids. You can participate in a local raid using a raid or premium raid pass, among other things.
Due to the contact restrictions of the Corona pandemic, Niantic introduced remote raid passes some time ago. These allow you to participate in raids that are not immediately in your vicinity.
You can either select a raid that you see in your area or be invited by friends. This also allows participation in raids in other parts of the world. Meanwhile, this form of raids has become established among many trainers, and remote raids are actively used.
I also use this feature often and gladly, but there is one thing that really annoys me about it. I will tell you what that is.
What annoys me about remote raids
Who is writing? I am Franzi Korittke and work as an author at MeinMMO. I have been playing Pokémon GO daily for over 3 years now, and of course, participating in raids is a must. I find it great to sometimes arrange local raid battles with other trainers.
However, I have always gratefully accepted the introduction of remote raid passes in connection with the Corona pandemic and used them actively. However, I am mostly invited by other trainers from abroad.
This gives me the opportunity, due to the time difference, to face interesting raid bosses late at night or early in the morning and catch them. Especially when the lake trio was available in their various regions, that was my chance to get a strong specimen each time.
But despite all the joy of this feature, there is one thing that really annoys me about remote raids: the behavior of some trainers.
“Stop leaving the raid lobby just before the start!”
This is the problem: I am often invited to interesting raids in foreign countries or other parts of Germany by other trainers. Since I am interested in the Pokémon, I gladly take a remote raid pass in hand to participate.
But I often experience situations where trainers leave the raids just a few seconds before the actual start. This is, of course, really annoying for all other participants in the lobby. Often, the game registers the exit of these players so late that invited persons suddenly find themselves alone or only two in a battle.
Why is this so bad? Especially level 5 raids and mega raids cannot be completed alone. Therefore, in this situation, you cannot win such a raid and the remote raid pass is lost.
Even more annoying is when you are not invited again to this raid to use the remote raid pass you used in a second round.
But apparently, I am not alone with this experience. If you scour social networks, you will find posts from other trainers who have had the same experience and are very annoyed by these players.
So my appeal to all trainers: “Stop leaving the raid lobby just before the start!”.
Why do trainers leave raids so shortly before the start?
I can generally understand the reasons of the trainers. To succeed in a level 5 raid, there should be at least four of them. If you don’t know the other trainers very well or they might not be very far along in level, then perhaps it should be one or two more.
I also set a benchmark for myself regarding how many people I think should participate in such a raid to succeed. After all, you want to win it and have the chance to encounter the raid boss.
For this reason, I find it completely legitimate if players decide, “We won’t make it like this!” and therefore leave the lobby again. I do this too and invite again when I know that we might gain one more participant.
However, I don’t make this decision just in the last 10 seconds, but much earlier. So I’m not fundamentally annoyed by the thought that one leaves the raid due to a lack of participants, but I am annoyed by the timing of this behavior.
It should be noted that there is always a delay in the game until the change in the number of participants is displayed. For players, this is not an issue because they can briefly communicate. However, for participants in remote raids, this is a real problem, as this communication is missing.
How can this issue be resolved?
The question arises as to how to counteract this problem. I have thought about it and listed below 3 things that I would like from other players, but also from the Pokémon GO developers, so that this problem does not occur as frequently in the future:
1. More consideration
First and foremost, I would like more consideration among the trainers. Especially when you don’t know each other well and only rarely play raids together, you should not put other players in a bind with this behavior.
I am convinced that even with about 25 seconds left, you can assess whether such a battle will succeed or not. Other trainers still have enough time to notice the exit of the respective player and can leave the lobby in time.
In the last 10 seconds, this is, in my opinion, only difficult. Ultimately, for them, it is not only a missed raid boss but also a lost valuable remote raid pass.
For my part, I also remove such players from my friends list if such thoughtless behavior occurs multiple times, as I just do not have fun playing raids with such people.
2. Give it another try
If you do leave a raid at the last minute, then at least invite the trainers who were already in the raid lobby one more time. This gives them the opportunity to use their invested remote raid pass before the raid ends.
Maybe more friends are online in the meantime and the raid will work out in another attempt. I would wish the same if a raid couldn’t be won. So, give yourselves a second chance as a group.
3. Better communication
A wish that is less aimed at trainers and more at the developers of Pokémon GO is the introduction of a communication option in the game. Especially with the possibility of remote raids, it becomes even clearer how much an in-game chat is missing.
This could give friendly trainers the opportunity to communicate about the raids. This way, you could already ask before a raid who would like to participate. And even in such a case where players suddenly find themselves alone in the raid lobby, they could communicate whether and when there will be a second attempt.
From my perspective, it would even suffice if they only made this feature available within the friends list and you can activate/deactivate the chat. An in-game chat would certainly simplify communication considerably.
My conclusion on remote raids
I find the option of remote raids as a supplement to the regular on-site raids a great alternative. It gives me the opportunity to additionally participate in battles abroad and thus gives me some interesting Pokémon.
Even though the behavior of some players in remote raids really annoys me, I will continue to enjoy using this feature. Furthermore, there are also plenty of trainers who are already very considerate and leave raids on time when there are too few participants. This makes fighting together really fun for me.
Nevertheless, I hope that some trainers reconsider their behavior and no longer leave raids so shortly before the start. Additionally, I wish Niantic would create the possibility to communicate better in the future.
Do you regularly participate in remote raids? And have you had similar experiences where you suddenly stood alone in the raid lobby? What would you wish for remote raids? Feel free to share your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange views with other trainers.
In Pokémon GO there are again some cool raids this month. We show you all raid bosses and raid hours in April.
