Pokemon Go Players Aren’t Thrilled with New Battle Pass Feature

There’s no shortage of ways for fans to spend money on Pokemon Go, but that doesn’t stop Niantic from adding new ones. With a potential pending sale of Pokemon Go on the horizons, fans aren’t sure how to feel about the dev they know versus who might come next. In the meantime, Niantic has released a new freemium feature called Tour Pass, which resembles the Battle Pass-style model of many other free-to-play live service games like Fortnite. The Tour Pass just went live yesterday in the lead up to Pokemon Go Tour: Unova – Global, and so far, players aren’t loving it.

The Tour Pass is basically an attempted glow-up of limited-time event Research in Pokemon Go. It sits right at the top of the Events tab as of its debut yesterday and features two lists of tasks players must complete to increase their rank. The list on the left is the Basic (aka free) path, while the list on the right is sure to remind players what they’re missing by not upgrading to the Deluxe (paid) path. To begin with, players on the Basic path get a Go Tour 2025 Tee the first time they sign in after the Tour Pass goes live. Paid players on the Deluxe path, however, also get an encounter with the Mythical Pokemon Victini.

So the Pokémon Go “battle pass” arrives.
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While a guaranteed encounter with Victini might be enticing to those who missed this Mythical Pokemon the first few times it was offered, most fans agree it’s not worth what Niantic’s asking. The paid version of the Pokemon Go Tour Pass costs $14.99, far steeper than previous paid Timed Research. That additional cost does mean they throw in a number of Premium Rewards for players to unlock as they rank up, but despite that, most trainers aren’t likely to spend their real-life Poke Coins on this one.

The New Pokemon Go Tour Pass Confuses & Frustrates Players

While the Deluxe pricing is a concern for many players, that’s not all that fans don’t like about Pokemon Go‘s attempt at its own Battle Pass. The Tour Pass also has confusing progression that leaves some gamers wondering how they’re meant to actually finish it in the time allowed. The Tour Pass runs for just about a week, from February 24th to March 2nd. That’s designed to lead up to and then run alongside the Global version of Unova Tour this weekend.

However, players won’t be able to rush through the Battle Pass to rack up rewards before Unova Tour starts. The daily progression is capped, with players only able to earn six levels per day. Trainers quickly realized that the math doesn’t quite work out, with 500 levels to reach in only one week. The level cap does get removed once Unova Tour begins at the weekend, but that means players can be, at best, level 30 by the time the cap comes off. Players who pay for the Deluxe version will also be able to get slightly more progress each day, but that still keeps you a way off from 500 levels in 7 days.

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Even if the daily level cap isn’t quite as bad as it initially seems, the fact that it lifts at the weekend isn’t exactly clearly stated in the game itself. To learn this, players need to click the link and head to the Pokemon Go website for a more in-depth rules breakdown. That leaves many fans thinking it’s genuinely impossible to actually finish the Battle Pass and earn all the rewards. Even those who plan to go all-out once the weekend hits are likely going to struggle to hit Level 100, let alone reach the bonus levels that come after.

The level cap slowing players down until the weekend is the major complaint for many fans, but even without that, few think the rewards are worth the price. As one fan puts it, “It’s not actually that good for 15 dollars,” noting that Victini is the most exciting part. That’s likely by design, since it’s the first Deluxe reward players will see when they first open the Tour Pass. However, given that Victini has previously been available, players would’ve liked if Niantic introduced a Shiny version at the very least.

Are you going to try to complete the Pokemon Go Tour Pass? Let us know in the comments below!