Tag Archives: adventure log

What Is Campfire In Pokémon GO, And Do I Need It?

Campfire very quietly started rolling out last week, and I noticed it when I saw a rather peculiar grey icon in-app near my Daily Adventure Incense.

I tapped on it. I was met with a black loading bar that didn’t seem to do anything, so I left my phone where it was for a couple of minutes. Then, when I looked at it again, I had a map displayed on my screen with PokéStops and Gyms laid out. So?

What Is Campfire?

Campfire is essentially a way for Pokémon GO players to socialize with their local community. It’s not just a social app, though. Right now, it’s most beneficial use is to help you find nearby players to fight Raids with you. Especially when primal raids like Kyogre and Groudon occur, it’s important that you have enough Trainers in your battle group to ensure Raid Boss defeat.

Should I Download Campfire?

If you’re looking to link up with other Trainers locally, Campfire is a great way to find nearby Trainer-hosted events that you can join. Additionally, the social aspect is great to keep all of your Pokémon GO communications in one place.

Personally, I haven’t downloaded Campfire yet—I have friends I see regularly who already play, so we’re typically able to play as we’d like without yearning for new friends. But, it might be useful for at least one of your friends to take one for the team, so that when your core group needs the extra help for a raid, they can light a Flare.

Campfire links up with other Niantic apps as well, so if you have more than just Pokémon GO, it might be worthwhile.

But for now, I’m okay just being able to see the nearby Flares within Pokémon GO, without needing all of the other features the full app has to offer.

New Remote Raid Pass Prices And Daily Limit

Changes Coming On April 6, 2023

The Pokémon GO Team recently released an update detailing changes to Remote Raid Pass prices and limited the number of Remote Raids that Trainers could do per day.

Trainers were already aware of this prior to the announcement through leaks posted by @poke_miners on Twitter, where the in-game text was updated.

Other leaks suggested that Remote Raid Passes would cost 150 PokéCoins each, which is less than the official cost.

Officially, on April 6, 2023, at 11:00AM Pacific Daylight Time:

  • Each Remote Raid Pass will cost 195 PokéCoins instead of 100 PokéCoins
  • A 3-pack of Remote Raid Passes will cost 525 PokéCoins instead of 300 PokéCoins
  • Trainers will be capped at 5 Remote Raids per day, which may increase during special events in-game
  • Remote Raid Passes have a chance of being rewarded through Research Breakthroughs, but we don’t know how high the chances are
Who’s Affected?

Remote Raid Passes were introduced during the pandemic in 2020 so that Trainers could continue to participate in raids while adhering to public safety guidelines where they lived. At the time, Trainers received 1 remote pass each week, and it allowed them to play from anywhere, including with friends across the globe.

The introduction of Remote Raid Passes came with many benefits. Friends would not all have to gather at the same place to participate in raids together, which meant that they could receive friend bonuses from raids even if they battled from different countries. Additionally, those who lived in rural areas were able to access raids more easily if they were invited to one by a Trainer in a larger city. This allows Trainers who have all sorts of living environments to enjoy the game as wholly as they can.

Especially with the rollout of the Campfire app, the reality of the gameplay experience from Trainers living in rural areas becomes all the more apparent.

It’s Just My Opinion

Maybe I’m too casual of a Trainer, but I don’t see a huge caveat in limiting Remote Raids to 6 per day. Typically, I’ll do one raid with my free raid pass, or up to 3 if I’m really wanting the Pokémon that are up for raids at the moment.

However, for rural Trainers, they see a 95% increase in single Remote Raid Pass prices, and a 75% increase in 3-pack Remote Raid Pass prices. Add a daily participant limit to that, and it just feels like Niantic siphons more money out of you as a dedicated player while limiting your gameplay.

I feel like it would be better if it was just one or the other—increase prices or limit the number of Remote Raids. If Niantic only raises prices without limiting the number of Remote Raids you can participate in, then Trainers experience a tradeoff from being able to participate from anywhere—it’s like paying a premium for convenience. If Niantic only limits the number of Remote Raids you can participate in without raising the pass prices, then Trainers don’t experience less value for financial loss, because the amount they spend is capped. When it’s both, the argument that Remote Raids are affecting the intended gameplay experience is lost on me, because it feels more like your gameplay has its limits while they reap financial benefits.

Of course, I don’t know if this really provides more financial benefit to the game developers in the grand scheme of all their monetization avenues, but I do feel that a particular demographic of Trainers become blindsided with this change. I hope this isn’t the start of Remote Raid Passes becoming obsolete, since I think they offer a way to continue playing with your friends, no matter the distance.

Pokémon Types: Easy Ways To Remember Which Types Are Effective Against Others

Every Pokémon is assigned at least one type, which represent the attack moves they can effect against other Pokémon in battle. Each type will have its own strengths and weaknesses, and personally, I’m only able to remember so many of them, especially in time-sensitive situations, like swapping out my Pokémon to have the upper hand mid-battle.

So, I’ve compiled a list of memorization methods that I’ve learned to best keep track of type effectiveness without needing to pull up a chart. This might not cover every single Pokémon type, but it should cover enough ground to make most of your battling knowledge more effective.

Psychics Are Weak Against Common Fears

Correlation is causation. Fear plagues the mind, so for Psychic types, where the mind is central to their abilities, common fears like Bugs, Ghosts, and the Dark will be most effective against them.

Normies Can’t Fight

Think about it this way: if you live a normal, unbothered life, when faced with fight-or-flight, would you be able to fend off against a skilled fighter? Fighting types are most effective against Normal type Pokémon.

Water Breaks Down

The obvious one is Water putting out Fire. Water also erodes Rock, and affects crops by over-saturating the Ground.

Water Gets Controlled

Electric currents amplify using Water as the medium, and plants like Grass absorb water to grow. So, Water types would be weakest against these two types.

You Can’t Fight What You Can’t Touch

Fighting types can’t fly, so their attacks would not reach Flying types. Fighting types have their concentration compromised when it comes to cute and charming Fairy types and mind-puzzling Psychic types.

Fire Gets Smothered

To put out a fire, you need to smother its flame. Effectively, Water, Rocks, and Ground elements like dirt will do the job.

Steel Causes The Most Damage

Literally the hardest. Steel will break Ice, and generally, would break most Rocks.

Steel is also effective against Fairy types, and you’d have to know ancient lore to rationalize this: fairies cannot come in contact with metals like iron, because they will burn.

The Elements Affect Flight

If your plane flight is delayed, it’s usually because there’s a storm. So, Electric and Ice types are particularly effective.

That’s all I’ve got for now! How do you best remember Pokémon type effectiveness?

Read This Before You Purify Your Shadow Pokémon

If you’ve come across Team GO Rocket in-game, you’ll have encountered Shadow Pokémon. If you’ve defeated a Grunt or a Team GO Rocket Leader, you’ve had the opportunity to capture a Shadow Pokémon. Once you’ve captured them, you have the opportunity to purify them—or not.

So should you? Let’s go over your options.

What Are Shadow Pokémon?

Shadow Pokémon visually have a dark aura surrounding them, presented as black and purple flame-like wisps emitting from their bodies. You’ll find them when you encounter Team GO Rocket, and have the opportunity to capture one when they are abandoned by a Team GO Rocket member after you defeat them in battle.

Shadow Pokémon have a charged attack called Frustration, and each of their attacks come with a Shadow Bonus, which deals extra damage, just like the Weather Bonus effect that wild Pokémon captured during specific weather conditions have.

Situations To Consider Purifying Shadow Pokémon

In Pokémon GO, there currently aren’t any big tradeoffs in purifying Shadow Pokémon. However, if you care about the resources you have, here are some of the benefits:

  1. High Potential for Full IV: From personal experience, I only find it effective to purify Shadow Pokémon if their IV (individual values) appraisal is close to 3 stars. IV is important when considering how strong your Pokémon will perform in battle, and purifying a Shadow Pokémon in their near-3 star state has the potential to raise their IV stats.
  2. Ease of Powering Up: When Shadow Pokémon are purified, you spend less Stardust and Candy to increase its Combat Power, making for more effective use of your resources to strengthen that Pokémon.
  3. Unlock Charged Attack Return: Every purified Shadow Pokémon learns the charged attack Return, which charges up very quickly and can be useful to deal more damage quicker in battle.
So…Should I Purify My Shadow Pokémon?

The short answer: it depends on the resources you have available.

If you don’t have a lot of Stardust or Candy for that Pokémon, maybe it’s not worth purifying right at this moment. Additionally, if its IVs aren’t that high, maybe you’re better off transferring it to Professor Willow in exchange for Candy rather than purifying it.

However, if the IVs are decent, and you could see that Pokémon filling in a spot on your battle team, I would consider keeping it. If you purify it, it costs less resources to strengthen it. If you don’t, Shadow Pokémon are still powerful in their own right with the charged attack Frustration—they just cost more to power up.

There are no cons to leaving Shadow Pokémon as they are if you have enough resources, but purifying them gives you a chance to improve the Pokémon’s IVs while reducing the amount of resources you use to strengthen it.

To purify or not—it’s a pretty lukewarm decision to make, in my opinion. You don’t win a lot, but you also aren’t losing either. Hopefully this helps!