Pokémon Go players who have been playing the game for a long time know just how frustrating some of the limitations of the game can be. Things eased up during the pandemic, but now that everything has tightened again, players are asking for one crucial feature that they could ease up on to make things more simple.
Those who want to trade Pokémon must do so within a certain distance to be able to link up and trade their catches with each other. This limits most people from ever being able to complete the Pokédex due to regional Pokémon that only spawn in certain areas of the world
The maximum trade distance that players can be apart to trade is 300 feet. Players that want to trade with people who are in a different country or different continent will have to either travel to one another or use cheats to do it. Spoofing is certainly not recommended, nor is it tolerated by Niantic, since it allows players to put themselves in any location, which is not how the game is intended to be played.
The sting is much worse for players who have friends that live in other parts of the world. There are no restrictions on how close people need to be to add friends, so the limit on trades is doubly tragic for players who have lucky friends they may never meet up with in person.
Fans are asking Niantic to remove the trade distance so that players around the world can trade with each other. This would mimic how trading works in the main-series games, where it’s even encouraged to trade with players from other regions in order to get superior breeding Pokémon.
It is incredibly unlikely, however, that Niantic will remove the restriction. Pokémon Go game director Michael Steranka has consistently defended proximity in the mechanics of the game because of his desire to get players outside, moving, and connected. The topic came up when the Community Days were dropped back down to three hours. Steranka said that the goal is to “bring communities back together,” so taking out a mechanic of the game that requires people to come together is likely here to stay.
