“My incense doesn’t work” is a message that you often read in connection with Pokémon GO. The reason is a change by the developers that impacts all players. MeinMMO editor Patrick Freese plays in the village and describes how much the incense nerf affects his gameplay.
In 2020, Pokémon GO activated some corona bonuses that are supposed to make it easier for trainers to play while playing from home. Due to the lockdowns and corona regulations, many trainers had to change their gameplay behavior. One of the bonuses was related to incense. Even if you did not move, the incense was more effective than usual and attracted more Pokémon.
But Niantic removed this bonus again. In a blog post, the team explains which changes have been active since the start of the new Alola season on March 1st. Among them: “Additionally, the increased effectiveness of incense when stationary is removed, but instead, incense lasts 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes.”
Another decision against the players?
Is this final? In the blog post, Niantic protected itself with the following sentence. “We are monitoring the impact of these changes on the further development of Pokémon GO and will make necessary adjustments if needed.” It is quite possible that after much negative feedback, there will be further changes.
And there is already that negative feedback. Players are angry and confused. As a village player, I can certainly understand the frustration of the players. The spawns from home are now ridiculously low.
How do the changes specifically affect? Before the nerf on March 1st, an incense attracted one Pokémon per minute when stationary. Now, since March 1st, the incense attracts ONE Pokémon every FIVE minutes. Previously, you would therefore have had 60 spawns when you lit one incense. Now you get about 18 spawns from one incense. You get more spawns when you move and walk outside.
Village players like me are hit hard by this. And I know that some city players are also very dissatisfied with this. There are already few Pokémon spawns in the village anyway. The monsters that like to hang around PokéStops have exactly one place for that in my area. Otherwise, there are only scattered spawns here and there – otherwise, it is very quiet. To be able to play events like spotlight hours properly and efficiently, I have been dependent on the incense spawns in the last few months.
The incense change ruins the gameplay and the associated fun for me. I now encounter far fewer Pokémon, making events like Community Days, spotlight hours, and themed events super uninteresting for me. The only solution: drive to the city for every event or play events outside. But that is exactly the problem. Until now, the incense helped me in situations where I couldn’t leave a location. For example, in the home office when I report on events. And now the incense is adjusted so that it is only worthwhile when you move.
What disappoints me is Niantic’s communication. Because once again, the developers show that communicating with the community about such changes is their weakness.
This background on Corona changes in Pokémon GO is important
What happened before? Niantic had already changed the incense before, that was back in 2020. For a few weeks, activating incense was less effective, and you had to move for it. But after feedback from players, the incense became effective again. Niantic said that they wanted to inform players “at least a month” before reverting the changes (source: Pokemongolive.com). The incense changes were announced on February 28th, before they were then activated about 5 hours later.
In 2021, trainers from around the world united against a rollback of a Corona bonus. Because Niantic decided in June 2021 to reduce the interaction radius of PokéStops again. Instead of being able to interact with the stops from a distance of 80 meters, they restored the original value of 40 meters.
This was followed by an open letter from the Pokémon GO community. It caused a huge stir, with “#HearUsNiantic” trending on Twitter, as players felt unheard regarding their criticism of Niantic’s decisions. A few hours after trainers around the world had shared the open letter, Niantic responded. The developers explained that they were setting up an internal task force dedicated to addressing “suggestions on how to continue our mission to inspire people to explore the world together while also addressing the specific concerns expressed regarding interaction distance.” Shortly thereafter, they permanently increased the interaction radius to 80 meters. The community had won.
They now hoped for better communication in the future regarding such changes so that it would not escalate into another open letter. But so far, there has been no official statement regarding the complaints about the incense nerf from March 1st. We at MeinMMO will closely monitor the situation and inform you as soon as there are updates.
What to expect in the Alola season and the active Alola event in Pokémon GO.
