10 Fixes Pokemon GO Desperately Needs

When Pokemon GO first released, that tracker in the corner was every trainer’s lifeline to their adventure. Seeing a Pokemon pop up and watching the leaves go down as you moved closer was the best. Unfortunately, it was glitched and has been removed for the time being. Without it, Pokemon GO is even more random and sort of unbearable. Nothing is worse than seeing an outline for a Gengar and having absolutely no idea which way to go.

Since Pokemon GO uses Google Maps, it relies on landmarks and registered locations to place PokeStops and Gyms. Unfortunately, more rural areas don’t really have many of these leaving players in those locations lacking the amenities that players in the city have tons of. If Niantic could take the time to balance out those areas, Pokemon Go would provide a much better experience to everyone.

This is a problem that Niantic is fortunately aware of. When you beat a Gym, you don’t automatically claim ownership of it. You have to exit the battle, click on the gym, choose your Pokemon, a whole list of steps. In that time, poachers can quickly claim it before you realize what’s happening. This needs to be fixed. There is no worse feeling than putting in all the work only to have someone else claim the fruits of your labor. It leaves a sour taste in a trainer’s mouth as they watch someone else rake in the free PokeCoins.

Glitches abound in any major game, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be fixed. Pokemon GO has had its fair share and the developers have been working hard to address each one, but there are still some weird ones. For instance, there seems to be a type glitch where you’ll catch a Bug-type only to find out you’ve received a Normal-type instead. Weird.

It’s cool that Niantic and the Pokemon Company are trying to use geography to dictate the types of Pokemon you can encounter during your adventures, but we all know that there’s more than one Bug, Normal, Rock, Water, etc.-type pokemon out there. Sure we expect to see Bug and Grass-types in the park, but does that mean we only get Weedles and Oddishes?

Pokemon GO relies on your area to decide which Pokemon you can encounter. This means when searching for specific types you’ll need to travel a bit to check out different geographies. This works pretty well for the simple types like Water, Bug, and Grass, but becomes sort of convoluted for things like Electric, Fire, Fighting, and Ghost. You would thing going around areas with lots of lights and industrial buildings would increase your chances at an Electabuzz but that doesn’t seem to be the case. If Niantic and/or The Pokemon Company could provide some further insight into how exactly this works, it would save a lot of headaches as it addresses the confusion.

We get it, you need to fill those gray areas with something. But does it have to be Pidgeys, Rattatas, and Spearows? It’s understandable that the developers don’t want to place too many rare Pokemon just anywhere, but there are certainly a lot more common creatures to choose from.

Candies. I never thought I’d see the day where candies would become the bane of my existence. To level up and evolve Pokemon in Pokemon Go, you have to continuously catch or hatch the same Pokemon in order to obtain more of its specific candy. No amount of battles will do anything for you, which is pretty odd and awfully time consuming. A new mechanic to help out with that would be great.

This is less of a fix, and more of a way to help keep the game lively. The first generation can only carry players so far, so adding in new waves would be a way to keep it all lively. It’s been almost a month since Pokemon GO was released, and no new content has been introduced. Sure, the developers are most likely  waiting on the game to be released in more territories, but while they wait fans are growing restless and all of the games issues are becoming more apparent.

Niantic has been trying hard to keep Pokemon GO up and running. Addressing glitches, attempting to keep fans in the loop, and thinking up cool things to add. Their communication hasn’t been the best, though. There are still a lot of unanswered questions along with tons of vague responses from the developer. We understand that the pressure  is on due to how popular Pokemon GO became in such a short time, but Niantic is expected to grow with, and that means being able to retain that transparency that fans expect in the modern age of gaming.