Long Raid's Journey Into Night

Raids in Pokémon Go are not an all-day occurrence, but they do last for a good chunk of the day. The first eggs for the raid bosses appear early in the morning before they hatch an hour later, and the last eggs hatch 45 minutes before the cutoff time, which also means they appear an hour before that. Recently though, in my region it was discovered that the cutoff time was set back later, which meant that raids could carry on into the late evening, which is already practically night. It's a bit of a blessing as well as something to reflect upon.

Back when I started becoming active in raids, the first eggs appeared at 5 AM, which means raids didn't actually start until 6 AM, while the last raids ended at 7:30 PM (the cutoff time), which meant the eggs earlier hatched at 6:45 PM and appeared at 5:45 PM. Nowadays, the eggs still first appear at around the same time, but the cutoff time and all related times are two hours later. The first time this happened, many players in my raid group were caught by surprise - how did an egg for a raid boss appear later? Many who were still raiding were only too happy to continue, at least until the raids ended. It was later on that we found out several regions, including ours, had their cutoff times changed.

Even so, our region and others were not the first to receive such a change. Earlier, cutoff times in Europe were changed to a later time, possibly to coincide with Daylight Saving Time. The change was likely received well, which led it to being instituted in other regions. While it would be hard to expect that the cutoff time would be set back even later or removed altogether (thus allowing raids to occur at any time of day and night) for the concern that this may lead to suspicious gatherings, this change has already been welcomed: some of my raid fellows are glad that they can raid in the evening, after their daily activities are done, and I'm glad too because I may be able to get a few more chances in.

Anyone who is really into raids in Pokémon Go has to appreciate a change like this. Raids are already opportunistic and special as they are with their multitude of Pokémon and possibilities, and extended times like this only mean greater participation in them. While they're still restricted in some ways, that is perhaps less of a problem with the changed times to further extend them. If anything, players like me and my raid fellows will still take them wherever and whenever they take place.

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