The release of Johto Pokemon in Pokemon GO last week reignited many people’s interest in the game! As a consistent player since Pokemon GO was released last year, it’s nice to see more people playing again. Developer Niantic has done a lot of things right with this update – introducing new berries that let you increase the candy received from a Pokemon, or stop it from moving around so much, moving previously rare 10km egg Pokemon into 5km eggs, and 5km egg Pokemon into 2km eggs to make way for Johto Pokemon, adding a cool new “First Throw” experience bonus for catching Pokemon with the first Pokemon you throw, and giving you more candy for catching evolved Pokemon.
Overall, it’s been a pretty great update! But there’s one thing that’s driving me crazy so far, and others on the internet seem to agree.…
That’s right – the kind nurse Pokemon Blissey is making defeating Pokemon Gyms almost impossible unless you have super high level Pokemon! As someone on level 25 with only a handful of Pokemon (none super effective!), it’s been almost impossible to defeat even a lowish CP (~1700) Blissey in the 90 second time limit!
Some people have rightfully pointed out that defeating gyms with friends overcomes this issue, but there are plenty of solo players out there. Not to mention, training your own team’s gym is a solo endeavor, and adding a Blissey to your team’s gym at the wrong moment can make it impossible for your team mates to level up! To make it worse, Niantic had also slowed down some of the fastest Pokemon moves in the game, making it even harder to defeat Blissey in the time limit. This has thankfully been corrected, though the power of these moves has been seemingly dropped again.
I guess a lot of people got luckier than I did during the Valentine’s event, as I’ve been seeing Blissey everywhere. Hopefully it gets nerfed soon, or a lot of casual players will be out of luck in getting into any gyms! Then we can move onto the real tragedy of this update – my first 10km egg in months just hatched into a Pineco! (What were you thinking, Niantic?!)
