We should just make all passes remote passes.

Right now, I have about 15 Pokecoins in Pokemon Go. At the same time, I am kinda in the middle of nowhere. So there are no local gyms around, which means I can’t get any coins, and I definitely can’t do any raids. There is one red gym within a reasonable distance, but it not only hasn’t had good raids on it, but it’s also fiercely defended by one person. Simply put, anything gym-related is out of reach for me. No Pokecoins, no gym battles and no decent raids at all.

Especially since that red gym has had no good raids at all. Come on, no one wants an Umbreon with no shiny chance these days.

There is one thing though that could solve at least part of the problem. The remote raid pass allows me to enter raids I can:t reach, or, more importantly, allows other people to invite me to their raids. Which would be brilliant, as I am currently missing out on Giratinas with the unique move Shadow Force. However, I am out of remote raid passes and have barely anything useful from the remote raids I did.

What I do have is 11 normal green premium raid passes. These raid passes can only be used in person, which makes them somewhat useless in my current situation. The only way that premium raid passes help is if you play in the GO Battle League. However, the rewards on a premium pass aren’t that amazing, and just make it easier to get a Pokemon as a reward. That would be fine if the pool of rewards was any good, but it kinda isn’t. The star dust is nice but you can get that on the free path as well.

But what if we just combined the two types of pass? I seriously think people would like that. Rather than having two raid passes that basically do the same thing, why not combine them into a single item. With the power to do anything raid-related and the ability to have more than five, I believe that sales would increase dramatically. After all, people are already buying two types of raid pass, a combined raid pass offers more features. Remote raids, GBL buffs and normal raids in general, all grouped together into a mega raid pass.

At the very least, we should be able to trade between the two types of pass. There are times when you need both, so trading wouldn’t be a big deal. And since both premium and remote raid passes cost the same, there is no losing of any money.

Alternatively, make the free orange raid passes into hybrid passes. Let players choose what to do with their free raid pass, whether it’s local or remote.

Unfortunately, this all simply won’t happen. Niantic are aggressively trying to get people to raid in person rather than playing remotely. Despite the huge amount of money made from remote raid passes, they seem intent on keeping as many things local as possible.

It’s a shame, really. Because remote passes are just so good, and premium passes are getting ignored these days…