Pokémon Go fans are praying for Niantic to change one of the worst raid features

Pokémon Go players are pretty much gathering in their masses to raid Niantic’s headquarters if one crucial raid bug isn’t fixed soon. There’s nothing worse than having a rare, shiny, or legendary Pokémon in your sights and glitching out to a blank screen. For one couple, that nightmare became a reality.

Raids have always been one of the most attractive features of Pokémon Go, setting the mobile game apart from traditional Nintendo releases like Emerald, Sun and Moon, and Scarlet and Violet. Rather than encountering rare Pokémon the old-fashioned way by Shiny hunting, Pokémon Go (along with Scarlet and Violet) has introduced a way for players to engage in raids to battle and capture powerful Pokémon.

For one couple, capturing a Shadow Zapdos seemed like a simple enough task, but one tiresome bug prevented them from taking home the gold. And they drove 20 minutes for it, too. You can read their entire story in the Reddit post below, but the general gist is that the OP and their wife spotted a Shadow Zapdos raid 20 minutes from their home, drove out to battle it (now that’s dedication), and found themselves bitterly disappointed when the game kicked them from the raid and wouldn’t allow them back in. Needless to say, they left empty-handed.

Things seemed to be going well at first, that was until OP’s game bugged out to a white screen. They were unable to heal their first-round Pokémon or rejoin the lobby to have their wife’s back in the fight against Zapdos. Upon closing the game to reload, OP discovered the game wouldn’t allow them, back in, so their wife was overpowered and defeated. They even used up all their Shadow Shards. Ouch.

Many of the comments under the Reddit thread echo OP’s concerns, sharing their own experiences with buggy raid battles. One commenter claimed to have experienced three similar bugs all in one week, but their outcry was ignored by Niantic’s support team.

It looks as if Pokémon Go has been and always will be crash-prone unless Niantic starts taking these complaints seriously. Especially with the prospect of Detective Pikachu’s return and several community events on the horizon for this coming October, something needs to change. If not, Pokémon Go players will be sharpening their virtual pitchforks.