In Pokémon GO you can benefit from a special group bonus during the “Bug Out” event. However, this has caused quite a stir among trainers in the reddit community. We at MeinMMO show you what it’s all about.
What bonus is it about? Currently in Pokémon GO, the Bug Out is taking place, a special bug event. On this occasion, you can encounter numerous old and new bug Pokémon in the wild. In addition to the usual event bonuses, Niantic has also come up with something as a group bonus.
You already know this type of bonus from the last Community Days, which is primarily intended to encourage playing together in person. If you win a raid locally with other trainers, then certain spawns appear for 15 minutes in a radius of 300 meters around the gym.
However, city players in particular are simply annoyed by this group bonus and express their frustration on social networks. We show you what the problem is.
Which monsters can you get in the group bonus? During the Bug Out, a different Pokémon is the focus each day, which you can increase your chances of obtaining through the group bonus. With a bit of luck, you may even encounter a shiny:
- Wednesday, August 10: Wurmple
- Thursday, August 11: Caterpie
- Friday, August 12: Spinarak
- Saturday, August 13: Slugma
- Sunday, August 14: Toxapex
- Monday, August 15: Hornli
- Tuesday, August 16: Ledyba
That’s why city players are annoyed by the group bonus
Actually, the group bonus should allow trainers to play together more frequently and provide an additional incentive for group raids. However, this is now being criticized by many players. This is also the case with the reddit user Diligent_Trifle_4018.
What bothers the trainer? As he explains in his reddit post, he finds the group bonus for the Bug Out a good idea in principle, but its implementation is just frustrating. He lives in a large city where it feels like there’s a gym on every corner where raids take place, and where the bonus can thus be earned.
However, this leads to a major problem in his opinion. He is currently mainly looking for the new bug Pokémon Mabula and still needs some candy to be able to evolve it. However, he has to catch the little Pokémon first.
When a group bonus is activated, the selected Pokémon, like Wurmple, will spawn for 15 minutes. However, the actual spawns are replaced. So if he wanted to catch a Mabula, he can now only find Wurmple.
And even after the 15 minutes have elapsed, according to Diligent_Trifle_4018, nothing can be seen of the previous spawns. For this reason, the reddit user wishes for a different approach or at least more interesting and rarer Pokémon like Scyther, Pinsir or Mabula.
How to evolve Mabula is explained in our guide:
Finding Trainers: “You don’t want to play where others raid”
What do other trainers think about the bonus? Diligent_Trifle_4018 is not alone with this issue. As many commentators under his post can attest, while many find the idea of group bonuses generally great, they have had similar experiences.
While playing in the city is usually a bit easier, trainers now see even rural players at an advantage. This is mainly because there are fewer gyms in rural areas, and thus fewer group bonuses can be earned.
Also, the selection of Pokémon released as part of the bonus plays a decisive role, not only according to Diligent_Trifle_4018 but also according to the opinion of some other trainers. As can be seen in the comments on reddit:
- shadraig: “This is the time when Pokémon GO in rural areas….is better.”
- Mesoplodon: “It’s a really fun idea, but the way it was implemented has effectively ruined the Bug event for every active area now. You don’t want to actively play where other people could be raiding.”
- Ark42: “I can confirm. Today Wurmple is everywhere for Community Day. Even my daily adventure smoke was 100% Wurmple. I couldn’t find a place to walk that was far enough from a gym.”
- pokemonbreederOppar: “The problem isn’t the bonus itself, but the featured Pokémon. No one would really try to increase the spawns of Caterpie or Wurmple. The bonus is a good idea but needs some improvements to get people excited about it.”
- Osts_ssp_: “I agree, the bonus is very annoying. I play in Tokyo, and since there are a ton of gyms where someone is always raiding, Wurmple is basically everywhere and nothing else.
I know cities usually get all the good stuff, so here I play the smallest fiddle in the world (after all, we also get the Community Day extended until 7 PM), but I wish the bonus was implemented as additional spawns that don’t replace the existing ones.”
Advantage of the group bonus in the city
Are there also advantages to the group bonus? Yes, the group bonus can actually provide a huge advantage for city players. Due to the number of gyms, significantly more bonus spawns can be unlocked, particularly giving shiny hunters a better chance to encounter one or another monster in its shiny form.
Which monster is particularly worthwhile? Especially Toxapex will be interesting to many players, as this bug and poison-type monster can also be found in its shiny form for the first time during the Bug event.
This is also the opinion of the reddit user NDMac, who defends the bonus in his comment (via reddit.com): “If you’re a shiny hunter, you won’t say this on Sunday when Toxapex is active.”
In this case, rural players will probably have the disadvantage and will have to travel back to the city for optimal catching to benefit from the numerous gyms.
What do you think about the group bonus for the Bug Out? Does it bother you that uninteresting Pokémon spawn constantly? Or do you live in a rural area and don’t have this problem? Feel free to share your opinion with us here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange ideas with other trainers.
In the coming days, there’s still a lot happening in Pokémon GO. We will show you all events in August and which ones are especially worthwhile.
