Pokemon Go Has a Ton of Raid Bugs

Last Ball Bug

The most problematic Pokemon Go raid bug is one that a lot of players didn't think existed until a couple of weeks ago. When Pokemon Go first added Legendary Raids last months, some players noticed that they could never catch a Raid Boss with their last Premier Ball.

At first, people shrugging off the alleged bug with reports that either they or their friends had caught a Raid Boss with their last Premier Ball. But when players started posted video of a Magikarp Raid Boss escaping from a throw with a 99.9% success rate, the theory gained a lot of steam.

Sure enough, Niantic acknowledged the bug a few days later and accommodated players by giving them an extra Premier Ball with every Raid Boss catch encounter, which in their eyes cancelled out the missed opportunity caused by the glitch. While the bug hasn't been fixed, at least Niantic found an easy way to "fix" the problem.

Stutter Bug

Raids have highlighted an issue seen in Pokemon Go battles since the game's earliest days. Occasionally, a Raid Boss will suddenly gain HP in mid-battle, as if someone was healing them (which is impossible in Pokemon Go.) Other times, players will successfully dodge a Raid Boss's attack, but will faint anyways but come back to life inexplicably a second or two later.

These are both example of the "stutter" or "dodge" bug, a problem that has bugged players for months. This issue is caused when a player's phone momentarily loses its connection to Pokemon Go's servers. When this happens, an algorithm takes over and simulates how much damage a player is dishing out and taking while waiting to reconnect to the server. When the app does link back up to the server, the damage is recalculated, resulting in the "stutter" that players often see in the game.

Unfortunately, there's no fix coming for this problem, although Niantic acknowledges that the algorithm needs work.

Bonus Bugs

Players get bonuses at the end of every Raid Battle, which translates into more Premier Balls that players can use to catch Raid Bosses. However, most of the Bonuses seem to be broken, resulting in a lot of players getting the wrong amount of Premier Balls.

The most common screwed up bonus is the "Team Control" bonus. Players are supposed to get two extra Premier Balls if they beat a Raid at a gym their team controls, but this bonus seems to be given out at random. There's not an explanation for why the Team Control bonus doesn't work. Some folks think it's because the gyms turnover too fast, while others think that it only works if you actually have a Pokemon defending a gym when the raid takes place. Either way, the bonus isn't working the way it's supposed to.

The other bonus that doesn't seem to be working is the "Damage" bonus, which is given out based on how much damage you did to a Raid Boss. Unfortunately, the bonus resets if a player loses all of their Pokemon and has to re-enter with a new team.

This leads to two things happening during Raids. Players will either use an "anchor" with a lot of HP but low Attack strength or just stay in a Raid's lobby after losing their first team, as it doesn't trigger the bonus reset. Neither does much good for the other players in a Raid, especially if it's a small team and success isn't guaranteed.

While Niantic says they're working on a fix to the Team Control bug, there's no fix coming for the Damage Bonus.