To Be Honest, This Go Wild Event Is Kinda Boring
I kinda understand why we have the Go Wild event. It feels like a stop-gap between the massive Go Fest event in the summer, and the regional tours in spring. But this Go Wild event kinda doesn’t really have much going for it, apart from Toxel and Toxtricity. And even then? It’s… it’s just eh.
I suppose it’s better if you buy the ticket for the event. You get extra stuff. Some raid passes, some Max Particles. Things like that. Nothing mind-blowing though. You do get a Toxtricity and extra candy and half hatch distance, but Toxtricity is all over the place, and the ticket costs €15. There’s also the promise of increased shiny chances, but this doesn’t guarantee shinies, and no one knows what the boost is, and whether it affects things like Legendaries and Dynamax raids.
The raids are… good, I guess, but with both Primals and Origin Pokemon, it’s hard to focus on one thing. It’s made worse by the fact that the Primals don’t get their special moves (Precipice Blades and Origin Pulse), and the Origins only have a 1/10 chance to get their special moves. That’s made even worse by the fact that Roar of Time and Spacial Rend aren’t Elite TM-able. Brother got a shiny Palkia, but it ain’t got the right moves so it kinda doesn’t work, and he can’t even fix it. Sure, the event in February pulled something similar, but for ticket holders, you were at least guaranteed the special move on which ever path you took, and you could trade for what you didn’t have. For GO Wild, it’s not guaranteed for anyone, not even people with tickets. And only ticket holders get additional special trades. In GO Fest, everyone got an additional special trade.
The only really cool thing is the Mighty Pokemon. These wild Pokemon are super hard to catch, have a higher chance of being XL/XXL and have guaranteed 3* stats. But they’re also pretty darn rare. In three hours of play, I saw four of them, and one fled. You’re supposed to use Safari Balls to catch them, but people without the ticket are very limited on them, and the Safari Balls are NOT a guaranteed catch. I used a golden berry and got an excellent throw on a Golem and it still broke out and fled, and I used two on a Pidgeot. The Safari Balls though are fucking stupid – better than an Ultra Ball, but they only last 8 hours. You get 2 free ones from research, but the second one requires using the first one, so, if a Pokemon breaks out of that first Safari Ball, you’re basically out of luck unless you either bought the ticket or luck out and get one from spinning a Pokestop. The chances of that happening seem to be 1 in 20. Which is bad.
In fact, there’s almost nothing for people who don’t buy the ticket. No bonuses, nothing. Sure, you can do the raids and max battles, but that all comes out of your pocket. Sure, Go Fest heavily pushed the ticket too, but at least F2P folks got a free Cosmog out of it and a mini free research. The only bonus F2P players get is the ability to earn more Max particles (1600 instead of 800). That being said, they’re REALLY pushing multiple tickets at once. The base ticket only gives you 5 raid passes a day (GO Fest gave you 10) and there are multiple extra tickets to get more stuff. Really, this should have all been included in the main ticket.
The event also sucks for solo players. Thankfully, normal Toxtricity is in 4-star raids, so if you don’t have good Excadrils, you can get a non-Dynamax version. Gigantamax does need 4 people with dedicated counters, but normal Dynamax Toxtricity IS doable as a solo player… IF it has Acid Spray as both of its moves (or maybe Discharge at a push). If it has any other moves, namely Power Up Punch or Wild Charge, you are NOT beating it on your own. It’s fucking bullshit though that a T4 and a T6 max battle BOTH cost 800 MP to do. T4 should be 600 particles, since T4 is 400.
On top of all of that though? The spawns are kinda lame and uninspired. Nothing but poison and electric types, because Toxtricity is poison/electric. Sure, there’s a new costume Snorlax, and the two Pikachu costumes are back (of course there’s Pikachu), but the wild spawns are uninspired outside of the Mighty Pokemon. Woo, Voltorb, Magnemite, Bellsprout and Spinarak. Great. The only new shiny is Toxel, which is locked behind 10km eggs. And since, even with the ticket, you only get a 1/2 distance bonus, getting one is going to be tricky.
Still, this event could have been more exciting, and it could have had a little more for non-ticket buyers. Heck, it could have had more for ticket buyers as well.