Why Pokemon Go Raid Battles are a game of cat and mouse

Raid Battles in Pokemon Go are supposed to be about jumping into battle against a super powerful Pokemon, but lately it feels like more of a waiting game.

“A Raid Battle is a cooperative gameplay experience that encourages you to work with other Trainers to defeat an extremely powerful Pokemon,” an official Pokemon Go video states. That’s a fair enough description, that’s exactly what they are.

However, the effort to get to that battle has become increasingly arduous. Some of you may say, wait a second, Niantic introduced the Remote Raid Pass, you can play Raid Battles basically anywhere now. While that is true, most trainers who play alone will spend more time waiting in lobbies than playing. Let us explain why.

Nobody wants to waste a Raid Pass

Raid Passes – be it of the Premium or Remote variety – are hard to come by. If regularly participate in Premium Raid Battles in Pokemon Go then you’ll know they come at the expense of hard-earned PokeCoins or real money.

• Read More: Why you should stock up on Reshiram and Zekrom in Pokemon Go

So, the last thing a trainer wants to do is waste one. Unfortunately, wasting them is easier than ever these days.

We’re not talking about not quite having enough time to take the Raid Boss down or failing to catch it either. We mean wasting the Raid Pass by not having a chance to win the battle before it even starts.

When entering a Raid lobby you are often greeted with a big fat zero, indicating how many trainers are currently waiting. For some Raids this won’t change.

That means trainers are put in the predicament of risking one of their Raid Passes because if nobody else joins it is all but wasted. If it is a five-star Raid then it is almost guaranteed you can’t win the battle. More realistically, take the current Reshiram Raids for example, you need a minimum of four trainers.

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Now, the funny thing there could be 10 trainers sitting in the same lobby, all unwilling to risk their Raid Pass, and this is understandable. They have no way of knowing if anyone else is waiting which then becomes a game of cat and mouse. This can result in nobody playing a Raid which we will have noticed at some point.

How to fix it

It’s an issue that has plagued Raid Battles for a long time now. It means players aren’t doing the one thing they want in a Raid – battle Pokemon!

There are a few ways Niantic can fix this though:

• Show how many trainers are waiting in a lobby
• Allow trainers to back out of a Raid Battle without losing their Raid Pass
• If the number of trainers in a Raid Battle is less than x and you lose, Raid Pass is refunded
• Have an option to increase the waiting time from 120 seconds

All of these methods would increase the number of Raids Pokemon Go trainers play, too. It’s a win-win for Niantic. Hopefully they make the appropriate changes soon.