Quirky Raids

If you've been playing Pokémon Go since last year, you will no doubt be familiar with raids as a way to battle against certain (Legendary) Pokémon and be able to catch them in return. Change is apparent and inevitable, as with the transition of featured Legendary Pokémon from the three birds all the way to the current land-sea-sky beings. But it seems the changes that occur with certain parts of this system make it seem like it is quirky as well, based on the experiences of me and my raid group.

The most quirky part of this system is probably the Ex-Raid. I've already detailed some of the speculations regarding this part in another post, but that seems to not be the whole story. I and my raid group have kept suggesting possibilities for Ex-Raids, but they have not been realized or lack the resources to do so. Despite this, Ex-Raids keep happening, most recently on Sunday (which I did not go to for obvious reasons, and also because I did not receive an invite), and will happen again next Monday (but I also did not receive an invite). For both, I didn't receive an invite because I needed to deal with other things and couldn't fulfill the prerequisite raid victory, but strangely enough, some of those who did fulfill the prerequisite also did not obtain invites. The scheduled Monday Ex-Raid is also far quicker than before, now only separated by about a week.

Even the changes that have occurred with regular raids may seem quirky. I've noted that this has happened, and now quite a few of the Pokémon that used to appear have been replaced with sensible yet lopsided selections; a good number in particular are Water and/or Ice types. This makes sense to deal with Rayquaza, but it does seem like it's more about that than anything else. A few in my raid group have expressed longing for certain old Pokémon, and I do too. This may become more quirky when Rayquaza exits, but that remains to be seen.

With all the changes that have occurred and the quirks that appear, it might seem things have gone from stable to questionable, as does our quest for confirmation. Still, much of the system is unknown and may never be fully known; perhaps the quirkiness is only in our minds and the game actually makes sense. We'll continue to raid regardless in the effort to catch Pokémon.

One year ago: Secret Garden