Video Games

Pokémon Go is making a beloved glitch into an expensive feature

Remember that vision radius bug everyone loved? So does Niantic

Marco Wutz

Pokémon Go is making a beloved glitch into an expensive feature
Pokémon Go is making a beloved glitch into an expensive feature /

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.

Pokémon Go Tour Sinnoh artwork with Palkia and Dialga Origin Formes.
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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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg

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