Slated to begin on June 1, Pokémon Go’s Season of Hidden Gems is set to bring a positive update to Remote Raid Pass—a move that many players didn’t expect from Niantic’s side anytime soon. Unfortunately for the developer, many players have classed it as an insignificant change, considering how ruthless April’s Remote Raid nerf was.
Starting with the Season of Hidden Gems, Pokémon participating in raids remotely will deal the same amount of damage as Pokémon in in-person raids. Previously, Pokémon in remote raids could enjoy this damage buff only when a Seasonal Bonus was active. Now, remote raiders can enjoy the same damage potential as their outdoorsy peers at all times.
On May 30, a Reddit post from a Pokémon Go player attracted comments from the community. While some expressed satisfaction with Niantic’s consolation prize, others reiterated that it changes almost nothing for remote raiders.
One player was too defeated to expect this encouraging change. “I really felt like they were going to nerf remote until it died,” they said.
“They already did, and it already did lmao. They are excluding new content from remote raids, almost doubled the cost of remote raids, they already killed it. This literally changes nothing,” another player responded.
Speaking of the highly condemned Remote Raid nerf, a player pointed out how the Remote Raid Passes were always intended to “cost more” and that the limit to using the passes was a greater surprise. “The original announcement said they were discounted,” they said.
Then again, the increase in the price of the passes may have been too much, especially when it’s double the price of ‘premium’ items.
Amid comments deeming Niantic’s “damage control” move “pointless” and a PR tactic to win the lost hearts back, a number of players were quite happy with the change.
“People like me who often need remote help to beat various T5 raids in-person were hurt with the remote nerfs, but the remote damage being nerfed would have all but killed me when I can’t raid with others. Happy about this at least!” one player said.
Niantic hasn’t really “buffed” the damage for remote raids, as many misunderstood in the thread. What was already there in Pokémon Go as a Seasonal Bonus has just been made permanent.
The move can be treated as an assurance from Niantic: it may not tamper with the remote raids’ damage stat in the future, although the increase in price and a disheartening limit per day have already killed remote raiding for most of the community.
Pokémon Go will host the Season of Hidden Gems from June 1 to Sept. 1, 2023. There will be a whole lot to look forward to this season, including new Pokémon debuts like Sandygast and Pallosand, new Shadow Pokémon Raid Bosses, and plenty of new features which are yet to be announced.
