Raising the Pokémon Go Level Cap

In Pokémon Go, the Trainer levels exist in order to rank them based on their capabilities and overall achievements. These levels are not without limit, however; at present, that limit is Level 40. It has been speculated that this limit or cap can and may be raised any time soon, but nothing has come to fruition. This remains an idea that would be neat if it were to be realized. Yet like every great idea, this one has many considerations of its own.

First is the actual feasibility of the idea itself. Since levels are purely based on experience points (XP), it is simple to define additional level tiers above Level 40 based on them and then to apply them to all current players, particularly since players continue to accrue (accumulate) XP even after having achieved Level 40; this had been postulated in prior speculation. However, it may also be desirable to redefine lower XP level tiers for the purpose of level expansion, especially as the accrual of XP continues. The former seems easily implementable; the latter might involve lots of recalculation.

The next issue is how many levels to expand. Popular speculation has suggested upper-tier expansions to 45 or 50; I'd like to think that the latter is preferable. The reason is that later on, it would be a trivial (maybe, not so trivial) matter of simply dividing each tier by half and achieving a level expansion to 100 so that Trainer level could be on par with the main series. This is supported by the fact that when Pokémon in the game are powered up, they actually go up by half a level - which may need to be discussed further some other time - and the expansion to 100 would simply turn these "half-levels" into full levels.

Because Trainer levels have a relationship to Pokémon, a level expansion plan would have to involve adjustments of the latter's CPs to accommodate them into the new system. CPs have been adjusted before for specific Pokémon, even without level changes, so this process would assuredly come into play with level changes. Whether or not they are comparable as they are before is another matter entirely, one that the level changes would very much determine. There may be some hope in seeing some Pokémon grow a bit stronger with the changes.

Beyond sweeping in-game changes, though, any changes/expansions to the level system would result in implications outside of the game. Many groups of Trainers have been formed that are significantly tied to the Level 40 limit; an expansion beyond 40 will surely necessitate some changes, as the "40" would become less meaningful to whatever the limit may become. In general, any views that have been established with the Level 40 limit will have to change along with whatever level changes that may occur.

It is scintillating to think about what level changes might be brought about with an expansion of the Trainer level in Pokémon Go, particularly by raising the level limit or cap. Yet at the same time, all the changes that may occur may be more significant than they seem, both inside and outside the game. They would be significant regardless for the level system, which would allow more fine-grained ranking of capabilities and achievements with further refinements to it.

One year ago: Working with Shuffle's Item Limits
Two years ago: In Pursuit of Collections