Pokémon Go players frustrated by in-game coin changes
Last night, Pokémon Go maker Niantic announced it would introduce new ways to earn Pokécoins, its in-game currency used for buying items like raid passes, and there’d be a slight increase in the daily coin-earning total. On the surface, this seemed promising. The idea of alternative routes to getting those coveted daily coins (which otherwise have to be bought with real money) is great. Currently, it relies on placing Pokémon in gyms and then getting kicked out to earn coins when your Pokémon are defeated.
But a follow-up from Niantic and some quick math suggest this reworking will actually work against most players. While Niantic said this new system would be tested, it’s being implemented as is for the entire Australian playerbase. Under the new scheme, there are activities to earn extra five coins for things like making an Excellent throw or winning a raid. To balance this, gym coins are nerfed so you get just one per 30 minutes, a much slower rate than before. The overall daily max is now 55 coins.
At first it seemed like the gym coin shortfall could be made up by the task rewards of five coins each, but Niantic clarified that you only get five extra coins total per day from tasks. So the rest has to be earned from gyms, which is tougher under the new system. A quick math calculation shows that currently you earn 1 coin every 10 minutes defending a gym for a daily cap of 50 coins, which is about 8.33 hours of gym defense. Under the new system, it’s 1 coin every 30 minutes for a max of 55 coins, which is 25 hours of gym defense for 50 coins. That’s a huge increase from the current eight hours and means having Pokémon in and out of at least two gyms every day to reach the 25-hour mark.
Looking at the fan response on Reddit and Twitter, it’s not going well. Rural fans say they don’t have enough gyms in their areas to make the new system work. City center fans say they don’t stay in gyms long enough. Players in all settings worry that this won’t provide alternate routes to the daily coins but will encourage more aggressive players to dominate gyms even more, freezing others out. And there’s general dissatisfaction with the meager 50 daily coins, which takes two days’ worth to afford a single raid pass (and completing a raid is one of the tasks to earn five more coins). Plus, the timing is bad as many are having a harder time going outside. Nerfing gym coins without providing alternative ways to earn the same amount feels like the wrong decision at a strange time. Australia will soon see this new Pokécoin scheme enforced, and hopefully Niantic rethinks these changes before rolling them out further.
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