The Gigantamax function has been available in Pokémon GO for a few weeks now. MeinMMO author Paul Kutzner is critical of the feature and a recent innovation.
When Gigantamax was announced, it was said that this would be the hardest challenge in Pokémon GO. And with this announcement, Niantic was right.
After even groups of 40 people had problems at the beginning, Niantic has now adjusted the feature slightly. Still, it doesn’t appeal to me personally. And the recent announcement of a new item for the feature is also the wrong approach in my opinion.
Dynamax in Pokémon Go – This is how you compete in the gigantic battles
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Feature excludes the majority of players
Why don’t I like the feature? The fact that Niantic is bringing a function into the game that requires you to meet certain requirements is of course completely legitimate. After all, you have to make sacrifices if you want to be the very best.
Finally, a sensible team with strong Pokémon is also required to successfully participate in raids and the battle league as well as to defeat the Rockets. And for the 5* raids you also need additional trainers.
The fact that the Gigantamax fights can only be done on site is in itself a legitimate decision for me. After all, this is also already known from the crypto raids.
But I think the combination of these criteria is critical. This excludes a large number of players from this feature. Players in more rural areas will have great difficulty finding enough trainers for a Gigantamax raid, and even players in big cities can have problems.
I also find the recent announcement of the Dyna mushrooms for Dynamax and Gigantamax critical in this context. This item will double the damage of your Dyna and Gigantamax monsters for probably 30 minutes. It looks like this item will be available in the shop for 400 PokéCoins or 3 mushrooms for 1,000 PokéCoins.
Instead of adjusting the requirements for Gigantamax battles so that more trainers can enjoy the function, the message here is that you can definitely take part in the battles if you live in more rural regions or simply find fewer trainers for it – if you spend your PokéCoins on it.
If the prices known so far turn out to be correct, it will also take quite a bit of effort to get the mushrooms without spending real money. Finally, you would have to earn the maximum number of coins in arenas for 8 days to get a single mushroom.
Coins that I personally prefer to invest in remote raid passes and occasionally in increasing capacities.
Gigantamax Riffex was out and about as part of the GO Nature Zone and I really wanted to catch it. But it became clear relatively quickly: no chance. There are usually two of us playing Pokémon GO, and there’s no way that would be enough to beat the monster.
When it comes to legendary raids, we like to go into the raid lobby if we’re lucky, because one or two more trainers often show up at events and are then enough to take on the raid. But you don’t have to try that at Gigantamax – around 20 trainers don’t even show up here by chance.
In the end we had success with Gigantamax-Riffex: the notification came via Campfire that a large group of trainers would be trying to do it fairly close by. So we went out again in the evening, in the dark and cold, to take part. And fact: There were around 22 trainers organized here that you could join.
The Gigantamax Riffex was beaten and captured. We were happy that it worked and it was also a cool experience to play with so many people at the same time. At the same time, this rushing off to get it done somehow, in the dark cold of winter, has nothing to do with relaxed play. But if you’re not traveling with a group of ten to twenty people, there’s no other way. From my point of view, this is also too difficult – even though I actually think the Gigantamax fights are a very cool feature.
The majority of you are also critical of the feature
Recently we wanted to know how you feel about the Gigantamax battles and whether you will take part in the battles. 980 votes have been received from you and the results (as of November 28, 2024, 2:30 p.m.) look as follows:
While 20% of you are not at all interested in the feature, only 7% said they will take part in it. Almost one in three, 73%, will not take part in the fights due to the high demands or see the difficulty in filling the high number of trainers.
It remains to be seen whether Niantic will intervene regarding the Gigantamax function or whether it will remain a feature that only very few trainers can enjoy in the game. And who knows: maybe my opinion about it will change just as it did about the Dynamax function itself.
Of course, there is also a lot of content waiting for you in Pokémon GO outside of Gigantamax battles. One of them is the Fusion Raid Day, which takes place in December and brings you back 2 of the strongest attackers in the game: All information about the Fusion Raid Day with Necrozma.