If Pokémon Go‘s goal was to increase the anger among fans yet again ahead of their next Community Day, they’ve sure done it with the newest paid Special Research called Spreading Cheer. The reaction to the newest event’s optional quest has been mostly negative.
There have been several events and seasonal themes planned for the game, but the ire from the community hasn’t dulled even a little bit, especially with the name of the newest paid ticket, Spreading Cheer, which is the Special Research that goes along with the upcoming Togetic Community Day.
The ticketed research costs $1 and many players used to grab it up with the promise of items and rewards when completing it. In the same blog post where Niantic changed how Remote Raid Passes work, it also stated that they would be in the rewards for Special Research in the future. The fact they are not included in the first batch of rewards has fans upset and frustrated all over again.
In a screenshot shared to Reddit, one user showed that the rewards from the Spreading Cheer Special Research included 2,000 Stardust, 3,000 XP, and 20 PokéBalls. That’s pretty lackluster even for a paid Special Research that fans didn’t expect a Remote Raid Pass from. There are reports of some players getting the Remote Raid Pass from the rewards, but it seems to be an incredibly rare drop.
The Remote Raid Passes were simply added to the pool of possible rewards for research breakthroughs, but most players are upset that there isn’t a 100 percent chance of it dropping. Essentially, players have to get lucky in order to receive one, which is akin to buying a loot box and hoping for rare rewards in other games.
Many players are commenting that this is the first time they haven’t bought the Special Research for an event, and many are boycotting the game entirely in response to the change. Although there has been plenty of outrage around the game in the past, this is probably the most upset the community has been as a whole. For now, Niantic hasn’t made any comment about the changes, so players will have to wait to see if they go back on their changes in response.
