Please Don’t Put Balls in Bundles and Boxes

After wasting a bunch of hard-earns coins in Pokemon GO, I haven’t really been looking that the boxes in the Pokemon GO shop. Normally, I’d have very little coins because I’d spend them all on raid passes. But raids have been unappealing lately, so I finally got myself 480 coins, ready to buy something nice.

The Pokemon GO shop has got various useful things within it, and mostly works as a “pay to go faster” shop than anything else. For example, if you have eggs you want to hatch, then get super incubators and hatch eggs quickly. Or just do what I do and walk one single egg at a time, because super incubators are expensive. The same applies to pretty much everything else in the shop. If you are patient enough, you can acquire most of the shop’s wares without spending a penny. That being said, money does make things easier. Pokecoins have an approximate 1:1 ratio when it comes to real money, and the smallest option is €0.99 for 100 coins.

There are also limited time boxes in the shop. They come in various colours and forms. But by default, you get a daily free box with 4 random pokeballs or normal potions; there is a 480 coin small bundle and two large bundles for 1480 coins, one aimed at raiders and one aimed at hatchers. We also get Community Day boxes and other various boxes depending on events.

Boxes are supposed to be better value for your money

Anyway, I’m getting a tad distracted. But I want to talk about what the three main boxes include. As of writing, the Special Box (480 coins) offers 2 premium raid passes, 3 Star Pieces, 2 super incubators and 50 Pokeballs.

Now, normally, this wouldn’t be that bad. There are people who run out of Pokeballs. My brother does, since he has his little Bluetooth Pokeball thing. But obtaining more isn’t difficult, unless you live in literally the middle of nowhere. Gyms, Pokestops and gifts all contain Pokeballs. Gifts from friends tend to give most Pokeballs, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll have tons of unopened gifts from friends.

In the case of these boxes though, Pokeballs are just, well, filler. Outside of hardcore players, evens and community days, pokeballs are plentiful. And in various events, extra Pokeballs are handed out like candy. For community days, there is always a free box containing 30 Ultra Balls.

My point is, it feels almost counter-intuitive to put the most common resource into a bundle. It’s even stranger when an entire 25% of the box is dedicated to the most common resources. The problem gets worse with the other boxes. The big boxes cost €14.80 each and offer a lot of premium items. However, yet again, 25% of the current Ultra box consists of easily-obtained Poke Balls.

Pokeballs are otherwise weirdly expensive.

However, the price of the Pokeballs in boxes compared to just flat out buying Pokeballs is insane.

Because of this, the value of boxes no longer feels right. Why would someone spend 460 coins on 100 Pokeballs, when you can spend 480 and get 50 Pokeballs, along with three premium items? Compared to the price of normal balls, the box looks like it’s a LOT of value for its money.

At the end of the day, yes, the boxes are kinda a good value for money (especially if you have gyms to get 50 daily pokecoins). But putting Pokeballs in these bundles is an unnecessary way to pad out the boxes and make them seem more valuable than they are.

And if you do need Pokeballs, because you’ve run out? Don’t bother buying them from the shop. You’re better off sitting still for half an hour, spinning a gym or pokestop and opening some gifts…