Mega Evolution has arrived in Pokémon Go, but it hasn’t been met with the raucous celebration Niantic would have been hoping for.
It was revealed earlier this year that Mega Evolutions would soon be added to Pokémon Go. The feature was delayed but has now arrived. Not all of the mega-evolved forms have been added to the game just yet. It wouldn’t be Pokémon Go if players were given all of something in one go. We’re still waiting for Gen 3 to be added in its entirety after all.
What Niantic didn’t explain at first was how exactly Mega Evolution would work in Pokémon Go. Those familiar with the feature in the anime and other games will know that it is a temporary transformation that only tends to happen during battle. Suffice to say, a unique and inventive way would need to be figured out to bring Mega Evolution to Pokémon Go.
That is certainly the case, but what Niantic has come up with isn’t sitting well with Pokémon Go’s players. Trainers are required to battle and defeat mega-evolved Pokémon in raids in order to attain Mega Energy. The quicker the Pokémon is defeated, the more energy the trainers who took it down win. However, even if defeated as fast as possible, it takes at least four raids to harvest enough energy to mega-evolve a single Pokémon.
That means one Raid Pass per day isn’t going to cut it. Since that’s all trainers get for free, some have accused Mega Evolution of being a pay-to-win feature. The alternative is waiting at least four days just to use the feature on a single Pokémon. Even worse, the effect only lasts four hours. Once that short period is over, the whole process must begin again.
Niantic has also tasked trainers with winning two million Mega Raids in order to unlock Mega Pidgeot, so even more reason to buy as many Raid Passes as possible. The developer claims it is listening to its player base’s collective voice. If so, a potential fix would be to have Mega Evolution be an accessible feature for anyone who unlocks it just once. The time-sensitive caveat could be that it can only be used for an hour per day. Just a thought.
