Pokemon Go Raids Confuse Players as They Face Unexpected Challenges

Reports surrounding Pokemon Go’s raids becoming increasingly more challenging have left players puzzled about the reasons behind these changes.

Users across various community subreddits have been expressing their struggles in defeating raid bosses that they previously found easy to conquer. Notably, the Gen 3 legendary Pokemon Kyogre, which re-entered the raid rotation on September 3, has been highlighted as significantly more formidable than before.

“Why is Kyogre suddenly 10 times harder!?” echoed sentiments from a now-deleted post, with others chiming in to ask, “Is it me, or are raids three times as difficult as yesterday?” and openly criticizing the situation as “in a horrible condition right now.”

On September 6, Niantic announced “improvements” to raids designed to “increase stability, reduce latency, and provide the capability for future expansions.” The developers indicated that these adjustments could “affect the timing of some Pokemon moves” and mentioned they “may adjust them over time.”

Trainers, we have launched improvements to Raid Battles to increase stability, reduce latency, and provide the ability to expand them in the future. This may affect the timing of some Pokémon moves. We are monitoring these changes and your feedback and may adjust them over time.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) September 5, 2024

Players have linked the unexpected emergence of supercharged raid Pokémon to Niantic’s updates, particularly pointing to the fact that raid bosses now perform Charged Attacks immediately, without any cooldown period, as a central issue.

“They changed the energy gain from damage to 50% overnight, and it is a significant issue coupled with a previous change that allows the boss to instantly execute a Charged Attack once it possesses enough energy,” one Reddit user stated.

Another user added, “While Niantic reverted the raid boss energy regeneration to 0.5 from 0.02 seconds, the alteration in how the raid boss employs its Charged Attacks (using them instantly rather than on a chance basis) means they can now spam them.”

Although the precise cause remains unclear, these frustrations reflect a broader pattern of discontent within the Pokemon Go community regarding the ongoing season, Max Out. Issues related to the introduction of Dynamax and monetization practices have been a consistent concern, and it is uncertain if any of this feedback will be acted upon.