Pokemon Go players rage as Niantic secretly nerfs Pokestops

Hardcore Pokemon Go players have noticed a nerf to the number of Pokestops they are able to spin in a single day which wasn’t announced by Niantic.

Most casual players won’t have noticed that Pokemon Go has a cap on the number of Pokestops you can spin in a day. That’s because players are normally limited to 1,200 spins a day – a number that isn’t easily reached.

Spinning Pokestops is the primary way of obtaining items for free-to-play trainers, and they also mark locations where plenty of Pokemon spawn. Walking from Pokestop to Pokestop encourages active play allowing trainers to encounter wild Pokemon while never running out of items.

But now, even some of the most active casual players could feel the effects of a secret Pokestop nerf. According to players, the daily spin cap has been cut in half making it harder to grind for items, XP, and more.

Niantic secretly nerfs Pokemon Go stops

Twitter user bfhptpirate was the first to notice the cap. They tweeted, “Yesterday [July 27] at around 22:20 UTC Time the spin cap was lowered.”

They went on to detail how they had lost 300 spins, and estimated the cap had been lowered from 1,200 to 600. The post was later shared on the TheSilphRoad subreddit where more dedicated players weighed in.

While numerous players weren’t even aware there was a spin cap, others were frustrated with the news. They questioned why Niantic would lower the cap when they often try to encourage players to get out and explore.

Others pointed out that Go Fest Sapporo is on the horizon, and events like that made it easy to max out Pokestop spins before the new cap. One user commented, “20 spins every 5 minutes they will hit [600] in under 3 hours.” It should be noted that Pokemon Go Fest is a 12-hour event.

With no official announcement from Niantic, some trainers couldn’t believe the nerf was anything more than a bug. “I assume this must be a bug… I cannot possibly think this is intended, it would simply be a disaster,” TheSorites commented on Twitter.

❗Yesterday at around 22:20 UTC Time the spin cap was lowered:

I've lost about 300 spins so far, my guess is that it has been reduced to 600, can only confirm the exact number later today 👍

— BFHPTPIRATE (@bfhptpirate) July 28, 2022

After further research, bfhptpirate came to the conclusion that the new cap was a bug. They stated, “I believe it has something to do with 48h windows and 1000 Spins, looks like this unintended change is fixing itself.”

The lowered cap was not an isolated incident and seemingly affected players differently. Let’s hope that the bug does work itself out in time for the next Pokemon Go Fest.