Pokemon GOhasn’t left fans wanting for content lately. The groundbreaking ARPokemonspinoff from Niantic keeps stacking events on top of each other, introducing new Pokemon and limited time raids to entice players.Pokemon GOcelebrated its 5th birthday this year, and there’s certainly a lot to celebrate. It’s gone through a lot of changes, transforming from a fairly bare-bones game with only the Kanto Pokedex to a sprawlingPokemonexperience with hundreds of Pokemon from across all eight of the game’s regions. Crucial parts of thePokemonexperience, from testing one’s skill against other players to fending off the nefarious Team Rocket, are all available inPokemon GOnow.
Still, there’s other parts of thePokemonfranchise that are still missing. Some elements, like double or triple battles, would be hard to replicate inPokemon GO,but the mobile game could easily introduce other elements like held items.In the mainPokemonfranchise, the item that a Pokemon holds can turn the tide in battle in all kinds of ways, and yet there’s no system for equipping Pokemon with items inPokemon GO.Held items wouldn’t just make the game’s PvE and PvP more compelling, but they could solve certain long-term issues forPokemon GO, too.
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The Value of Pokemon’s Held Items
In the basePokemongames, held items do all kinds of things. Some of them restore HP to a Pokemon, others power up their base moves, and others serve far more niche purposes.Pokemonis already a pretty tactical game thanks to its type affinities and turn-based play, but held items add another level for players to consider. The right piece of equipment canmake any given Pokemon far more powerful. With that in mind, it’s a little surprising thatPokemon GOhasn’t introduced any way for Pokemon to hold items.
Pokemon GO’s combat is pretty simple, mostly being a matter of spamming a light attack until the Pokemon’s charged attack is ready, with a little dodging and shielding in between. It’s an easy system to learn and play, but there’s not a lot oftactical depth for veteranPokemonplayersto enjoy. Held items would be a pretty simple way to expandPokemon GO’s combat tactics, giving each Pokemon a new edge while giving players more ways to customize their playstyle. It’d mostly be a matter of adding a way to find or earn held items.
Held Items Could Improve Pokemon GO’s Rewards
In terms of earning held items, there’s already a great option built intoPokemon GO.For some time now, players have been upset that they get pretty mundane Pokemon out of Research Breakthroughs for completing a week’s worth of quests. In the early days ofPokemon GO,Research Breakthroughs could earn playersall kinds of Legendary Pokemon. Nowadays, players are much more likely to earn a fairly mundane Pokemon with decent base stats. Even if the Research Breakthrough Pokemon is fairly rare, they’re rarely on par with a Legendary Pokemon, which annoys some players who’ve been withPokemon GOsince the beginning.
Held items could solvePokemon GO’s Research Breakthrough issue. If players can earn exclusive monthly items as a part of a Research Breakthrough, it’d make the simpler Pokemon rewards feel much more worthwhile. That way, even if players don’t like the Pokemon they get, they could at least get something useful to equip on one of their strongest partners. Monthly exclusive items would be a great new way to encourage players to finish Research Breakthroughs during monthly events, too. It wouldn’t be hard to come up with themed items for any givenPokemon GOevent, using the basePokemongames as a reference.
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Held Items Could Improve Pokemon GO’s Collection
There’s one more crucial thing that held items would contribute toPokemon GO: something else to collect. AsPokemon GOages and grows, it’s starting to run out of new Pokemon to introduce. Even though there’s around 900 Pokemon to find in the core games,Pokemon GOhas been around long enoughthat many players have fleshed out the majority of their Pokedexes, if not the whole thing. to keep fans playing and collecting, Niantic could consider introducing held items as a new type of collectible coming from quests and special events.
Held items themselves would be a great collectible inPokemon GOthat’s easy to optimize. Held items could be a way to sweeten the deal of trading Pokemon, for instance, simply charging a small extra Stardust cost to receive a Pokemon with an item. If players want to get rid of held items, they could potentially sell the items to Professor Willow for some Rare Candy or even a few PokeCoins. Storing them in their own item bag likePokemon GO’s Sticker cataloguewould be an easy convenience to arrange, too. All in all, held items seem like they’d be very easy to collect and use, so long as Niantic streamlines the process.
Pokemon GO Could Always Use More Content
Held items could certainly introduce some balance issues. Niantic would have to introduce them very carefully, since they could totally overhaul and imbalancePokemon GO’s combat. Even so, it seems clear that held items have waymore potential to helpPokemon GOthan to harm it. It’d give players more things to collect, more ways to fight, and more ways to interact with other players, not to mention all the good that held items could do forPokemon GO’s events.
Niantic shouldn’t be afraid to experimentwith held items inPokemon GO.After all,Pokemon GOis as good as it is today because Niantic was willing to tweakPokemon GO’s Gyms, introduce lots of new ways to battle, and expand the raid system. In other words, experimentation as bold new types of content have madePokemon GOsuccessful. Held items would definitely introduce a lot of new variables for Niantic to manage, but those variables would introduce some valuable new objectives and experiences toPokemon GO.The game’s 5-year anniversary really highlighted how much it’s changed over the years, but it can’t stop growing and changing now. If Niantic wants to helpPokemon GOstay fresh, then adding held items could be the way to go.
Pokemon GOis available now for Android and iOS devices.
