The Weird Thing I Miss in Pokemon Go – Team Rocket Grunt Battles

It’s funny what I find myself missing. Due to, well, the world collapsing and a lot of people staying indoors, Pokemon Go has been a bit of a weird thing. But even with the world being what it is, I recently moved house. Because of that, I no longer have stupidly easy access to Pokestops. Sure, I managed to get a Pokestop at the end of my road, but the density of Pokestops just isn’t there. And because of this, I can’t do the thing I weirdly enjoy most in Pokemon Go.

I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because the grunts are easy targets. Once you get used to them, they are very easy to defeat. The rewards aren’t amazing, but eh, 500 stardust for the cost of one Hyper Potion isn’t that bad. And you get a Pokemon at the end of it. Frankly, Grunts were actually one of the easier ways to get Larvitars and Dratinis… until they disappeared.

There’s no Team Rocket Grunts to fight!

Well, there are a few Grunts scattered around. But there aren’t that many. And considering how quickly Grunts disappear, you can’t always walk to them in time. Because Pokestops with Grunts don’t have timers, unless you see them as soon as they spawn, you can’t always get to them. Sure, they do stick around for 30 minutes, but you don’t know how many of those 30 minutes have passed. And no one likes walking to a Team Rocket Pokestop, only to see it vanish before your eyes.

And with fewer Pokestops around, it’s even rarer to see a Grunt. I can just about see 5 Pokestops from my home (sometimes 7 if my GPS wanders) but that’s a very small sample size. And a small number means few chances to see grunts.

More specifically however, some types of Grunt have disappeared completely. I haven’t seen a Dragon-type Grunt in about 6 months. In fact, the ones I mostly see are Ground, Ghost, Fire and Grass-type Grunts. With the occasional (always female) “prepare to be defeated” Grunt, who has a stupid Lapras. Seriously, that Lapras hits like a truck and makes her other Pokemon (normally a Poliwrath and a Gyarados or Dragonite) look like chumps.

Team Leaders are weirdly MIA too.

I’ve actually genuinely not seen a Sierra in two months. I’ve seen a handful of Cliffs. But Arlo seems nearly as common as normal Grunts… only when I am out and about. He tends to pop up the most, and is the only Leader I’ve seen lately in two places at once. It’s probably just weird coincidence though, since it’s a one-in-three chance to see any of them at a specific Team Rocket Leader Pokestop.

Most days though, my Rocket Radar is empty. Spark pops by and says there’s no one around. He seems genuinely sad that there’s no one to fight.

The research tasks though, I can live without. They’re the same every month and they’re frankly worthless. Yeah, so what if your shadow Legendary does more damage? It’s also at an abysmal CP and, most likely, is a 0 Star legendary. Because Shadow Pokemon don’t have the nice high base IVs that normal raid and egg Pokemon have.

But there ARE Grunts to fight sometimes!

At midnight. When, really most people shouldn’t be wandering around. While the Team Rocket leaders all dutifully disappear at 9-10pm (depending on your location), Grunts continue to spawn… whenever they want. I’ve actually seen back-to-back Grunt spawns at the Pokestop at the end of my road. But what with it being midnight and me being in my PJs, I don’t want to do these grunts.

Seriously. I’m not going to put half-decent clothes on, as well as socks and shoes, and jog down to the end of the road to fight a grunt. Sure, I miss fighting Grunts, but I don’t miss fighting them THAT much!

Actually, it’s rather surprising that Grunts are out so late. Especially since everything else, from Giovanni to Raids, disappear in the evening…