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Is The Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto Worth It?

is it worth it?
To pay, or not to pay

I have been going back and forth in my mind, trying to decide if buying the Pokemon GO Tour: Kanto event pass is worth it. I don’t want to miss out on the event as it sounds really fun and there are lots of potential Shiny Pokemon to catch. That price, though, is a little intimidating. I figured if I’m struggling with the decision, then others may be too. If you are one of those people, then read on, hopefully we can figure this out together.

Let’s start at the beginning, you’ve played through Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow, Fire Red and Leaf Green, Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee, and you’ve already filled your Kanto Pokedex in Pokemon GO! Do you really want to do it all over again? But wait…they can all be Shiny and a handful of them have boosted Shiny rates. It’s time to weigh your options, to see if this event is really worth it for you.

What’s The Deal

There is a portion of this event that is accessible to Trainers who do not wish to purchase a ticket. These perks include:

  • Some of the Kanto Pokemon spawning in the wild
  • Access to Legendary Raids featuring Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, and Mewtwo
  • Research Tasks that must be completed in the event time frame
  • Increase Trade range

That doesn’t sound too bad, all that just for free. So just what does the ticketed portion include? Putting all the fluff aside, all the fancy words that Niantic uses to make this event seem more attractive, let’s look at what you will actually get for the price of admission:

  • All Pokemon from Kanto will be appearing and all can be Shiny, however some will be exclusive to a different version of the event that you cannot access and will require trading to acquire.
  • Event exclusive research story
  • A second longer event exclusive story that concludes with a Shiny Mew encounter
  • Early purchase bonus of the January and February Community Day special research story (a $2 value)

In my mind, I read that as a long, possibly stressful, line of tasks and $2 worth of more tasks, for the semi-high price of $12 (also known as $16 in Canada where I live.) So $16 minus $2 is $14 which is basically the price you are paying for the Shiny Pokemon you have to catch. (You could put a dollar value on the Shiny Mew, perhaps, but for now, we will leave that alone. No other items are being given for the cost of the event. However we will most likely be getting some decent rewards for completing the research tasks, but as we are not being told what they are, I don’t believe we should be including them in the price of the event.

Now you need to consider if this is worth it. That all depends of how much you value a Shiny Pokemon and how many of them you actually need.

The $hiny Factor

These trophies of our hard work, hours of hunting, hatching, raiding, how much value do they actually have?

That’s all dependent on you and what you are doing with them. Do you train them up and use them in competitive battle? Do they sit in a box with 100 other Shiny Pokemon, occasionally being shown to friends? Maybe you are like me and are working towards a Shiny Living Pokedex!

Whatever the reason for collecting these different colored creatures, you need to seriously look at the real value, for you, and decide if this event is worth the investment. I looked up the event exclusive Pokemon spawns which you can do here. Each version has exclusives and different spawns with boosted Shiny rates. Using Pokemon HOME, I determined which Shinies I don’t have and noticed there is one shiny I need from each version, cool that didn’t help me decide. I thought if there were multiple with boosted rates that might convince me to buy a ticket for the event. Looks like that one Shiny, in my case, is costing $14, no correction, the CHANCE of encountering that Shiny is costing $14. Yikes, not a very compelling argument.

Everything is Better With Friends

Pokemon is a game best played with others. The Kanto: Tour is no exception as you will need to trade with nearby trainers in order to complete the collection and receive a Shiny Mew.

Do you know someone else who is willing to spend the money in an attempt to also “Catch ‘em All?” If you do, you two (or more) can spend the day together staring at your phones and gloating over who caught more Shiny Pokemon. That in itself adds to the dollar value of the event because now you are enjoying it with others. It is no different than going out to the movies, you pay for that experience.

One thing that has been weighing heavy on my mind, is how this trade feature will work, within the event. Do Pokemon traded need to be caught during the event for it to register to your collection? Will the Pokemon that have been cluttering up the storage of your trading partner since 2016 work to get the job done? I have been unable to get clarification on this, but if it is the latter, then finishing the final part research shouldn’t be that difficult. However if the former is to be taken as fact, this could prove to be a much more arduous task and could result in many people not being able to complete the research and thusly, not getting the Shiny Mew. I don’t consider myself psychic, but I can predict there will be many people upset they paid all this money and did not get their Shiny Mew if this is the case.

In the end, you need to decide for yourself whether this is worth it to you. I do hope that this gave you some insight and clarity and will help you make the right judgement call.

See you around, Genesect!


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