Pokémon Go player reaches ridiculous F2P milestone, but the journey ends here

A Pokémon Go player reached an impressive milestone while in Team Harmony, but the community reactions were somewhat underwhelming.

In a Reddit thread dated Oct. 23, a player proudly shared their achievement of reaching the game’s highest level possible while playing in Team Harmony, which means they didn’t join an official team.

The player reached level 40 but won’t be able to go higher than this, even though Pokémon Go‘s max level is set at 50. “Congrats although level 40 is also the last level you can achieve unfortunately,” one player wrote.

This is an impressive achievement in Pokémon Go. But in the comments, players expressed frustration over this being the highest they can go.

While you can get to level 40 by only earning XP, higher levels feature specific requirements. To get to level 41, you have to win 300 raids. But if you haven’t chosen a team, you are unable to participate.

At this point of the game, players only have two choices: either remain forever at that level or give up on their sacrifices and join an official team to keep earning more levels.

Being part of this unofficial team is a significant commitment, and giving up on it after hundreds of hours must be difficult.

These players form what the community calls “Team Harmony.” It’s dubbed this because they don’t take part in fights between the three other teams, making them Pokémon Go’s equivalent of pacifists.

It can be part of a player’s identity, especially since choosing this path comes with a lot of sacrifice. Players who don’t choose either Instinct, Mystic, or Valor will also miss many bonuses from the game, including winning PokéCoins.

They have no way of getting these bonuses without paying, which means they are unable to expand their storage or their inventory if they’re F2P.

“[It] is probably the hardest hurdle I’ve had to deal with. Lots of space management, and hard sacrifices,” the player responded when asked about this challenge.

“I suppose I should probably join a team,” they replied in another comment. So maybe this isn’t the end of a journey for them but rather the start of a new, shiny one.