Pokémon Go players think they’ve dug up secret Elite Raids nerfs—and they aren’t happy

Pokémon Go players have had a lot to complain about in recent weeks, from the controversial Remote Raid Pass changes to radio silence over the Regidrago makeup event, laughable item shop deals, and more.

But while all the attention has been on those issues, some players claim another has seeped through the cracks. They believe the catch rate in Elite Raids has been secretly nerfed, and they’re not thrilled about it. Based on the experiences of some players, the base catch rate appears to have lowered from six percent, the catch rate for EX Raids, to a much lower two percent, the catch rate for Legendary Raids.

This has spawned a lot of theories as to why it’s happened.

In one player’s view, the likeliest explanation is that assuming the nerf is true, Niantic might have made Elite Raids in the past, like the Hoopa one, have the same catch rates as EX Raids as a temporary bonus to encourage players to try it before it became a feature, and now it is, they’ve dialed it back to the intended catch rate.

Alternatively, they may have used the previous raids to determine what the catch rate should be, and after finding it to be too easy, decided to crank it up a notch.

Other players believe Niantic considers the items received from Elite Raids to be the primary incentive, and catching Pokémon in them is nothing more than a bonus, hence the lower catch rates.

There are also a handful of players who insist there hasn’t been a nerf at all. Instead, the catch rate of Elite Raids is dependent on the Pokémon within them, and since Hoopa is a Mythical Pokémon and Regidrago and Regieleki are Legendary Pokémon, that explains the difference for this particular event running at the moment.

One thing they all seem to agree on, however, is Niantic needs to be more transparent about things like this moving forward to stop Pokémon Go players from having to figure out what’s happening for themselves.