Pokémon Go is making a beloved glitch into an expensive feature

Remember that vision radius bug everyone loved? So does Niantic

Niantic has unveiled another wave of content that will be part of the upcoming Pokémon Go Tour: Sinnoh. It’s not surprising that Dialga and Palkia’s Origin Formes are among these additions, as they have been leaked on official artwork already, but the developer has thought up some rather interesting abilities for the duo. Not only will they come with their signature moves Roar of Time and Spacial Rend, they’ll be able to generate an Adventure Effect for their trainers.

Dialga’s Roar of Time can extend the duration of Incense, Daily Incense, Lucky Eggs, and Star Pieces by six minutes for the cost of 5,000 Stardust and five Dialga Candy with a maximum of 24 hours at a time.

Palkia’s Spacial Rend allows trainers to encounter wild Pokémon at an increased distance on the map for ten minutes, costing 5,000 Stardust and five Palkia Candy with a maximum of 24 hours at a time.

Origin Forme Dialga and Palkia are coming / Niantic

If “encounter wild Pokémon at an increased distance” rings a bell for you, then your intuition is quite correct: In June 2023, a glitch was introduced to the game that allowed exactly this. The community was absolutely stoked by this bug, because it made playing Pokémon Go more fun. Niantic at first told several creators that this had been an intended change, only to take that back after a few hours and patch out the glitch, leading to massive fan backlash.

Now the glitch is back as a feature, which would be quite nice if it wasn’t a trap. 5,000 Stardust and five Candy for a Legendary Pokémon are quite a high price for this bonus, as good as it may be. Just to put this into perspective, 24 hours of either of these bonuses will cost you 1.2 million Stardust and 1,200 Candy. That sure sounds like a great way to drain players of resources and push them into a paid feature like raids.

Aside form the controversial execution, this is definitely an exciting development for players – giving Pokémon different effects that influence gameplay on the map is a pretty cool feature.

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