The Case for Pokemon GO to Add Held Items

Pokemon GO could gain a lot by introducing a held item system, expanding its combat strategy, collection, and potential event rewards.

You Are Reading :The Case for Pokemon GO to Add Held Items

Category : Pokemon

Pokemon GO hasn’t left fans wanting for content lately. The groundbreaking AR Pokemon spinoff from Niantic keeps stacking events on top of each other, introducing new Pokemon and limited time raids to entice players. Pokemon GO celebrated its 5th birthday this year, and there’s certainly a lot to celebrate. It’s gone through a lot of changes, transforming from a fairly bare-bones game with only the Kanto Pokedex to a sprawling Pokemon experience with hundreds of Pokemon from across all eight of the game’s regions. Crucial parts of the Pokemon experience, from testing one’s skill against other players to fending off the nefarious Team Rocket, are all available in Pokemon GO now.

Still, there’s other parts of the Pokemon franchise that are still missing. Some elements, like double or triple battles, would be hard to replicate in Pokemon GO, but the mobile game could easily introduce other elements like held items. In the main Pokemon franchise, the item that a Pokemon holds can turn the tide in battle in all kinds of ways, and yet there’s no system for equipping Pokemon with items in Pokemon GO. Held items wouldn’t just make the game’s PvE and PvP more compelling, but they could solve certain long-term issues for Pokemon GO, too.

The Value of Pokemon’s Held Items

In the base Pokemon games, held items do all kinds of things. Some of them restore HP to a Pokemon, others power up their base moves, and others serve far more niche purposes. Pokemon is already a pretty tactical game thanks to its type affinities and turn-based play, but held items add another level for players to consider. The right piece of equipment can make any given Pokemon far more powerful. With that in mind, it’s a little surprising that Pokemon GO hasn’t introduced any way for Pokemon to hold items.

Pokemon GO’s combat is pretty simple, mostly being a matter of spamming a light attack until the Pokemon’s charged attack is ready, with a little dodging and shielding in between. It’s an easy system to learn and play, but there’s not a lot of tactical depth for veteran Pokemon players to enjoy. Held items would be a pretty simple way to expand Pokemon GO’s combat tactics, giving each Pokemon a new edge while giving players more ways to customize their playstyle. It’d mostly be a matter of adding a way to find or earn held items.

Held Items Could Improve Pokemon GO’s Rewards

In terms of earning held items, there’s already a great option built into Pokemon GO. For some time now, players have been upset that they get pretty mundane Pokemon out of Research Breakthroughs for completing a week’s worth of quests. In the early days of Pokemon GO, Research Breakthroughs could earn players all kinds of Legendary Pokemon. Nowadays, players are much more likely to earn a fairly mundane Pokemon with decent base stats. Even if the Research Breakthrough Pokemon is fairly rare, they’re rarely on par with a Legendary Pokemon, which annoys some players who’ve been with Pokemon GO since the beginning.

Held items could solve Pokemon GO’s Research Breakthrough issue. If players can earn exclusive monthly items as a part of a Research Breakthrough, it’d make the simpler Pokemon rewards feel much more worthwhile. That way, even if players don’t like the Pokemon they get, they could at least get something useful to equip on one of their strongest partners. Monthly exclusive items would be a great new way to encourage players to finish Research Breakthroughs during monthly events, too. It wouldn’t be hard to come up with themed items for any given Pokemon GO event, using the base Pokemon games as a reference.

Held Items Could Improve Pokemon GO’s Collection

There’s one more crucial thing that held items would contribute to Pokemon GO: something else to collect. As Pokemon GO ages and grows, it’s starting to run out of new Pokemon to introduce. Even though there’s around 900 Pokemon to find in the core games, Pokemon GO has been around long enough that many players have fleshed out the majority of their Pokedexes, if not the whole thing. In order to keep fans playing and collecting, Niantic could consider introducing held items as a new type of collectible coming from quests and special events.

Held items themselves would be a great collectible in Pokemon GO that’s easy to optimize. Held items could be a way to sweeten the deal of trading Pokemon, for instance, simply charging a small extra Stardust cost to receive a Pokemon with an item. If players want to get rid of held items, they could potentially sell the items to Professor Willow for some Rare Candy or even a few PokeCoins. Storing them in their own item bag like Pokemon GO’s Sticker catalogue would be an easy convenience to arrange, too. All in all, held items seem like they’d be very easy to collect and use, so long as Niantic streamlines the process.

Pokemon GO Could Always Use More Content

Held items could certainly introduce some balance issues. Niantic would have to introduce them very carefully, since they could totally overhaul and imbalance Pokemon GO’s combat. Even so, it seems clear that held items have way more potential to help Pokemon GO than to harm it. It’d give players more things to collect, more ways to fight, and more ways to interact with other players, not to mention all the good that held items could do for Pokemon GO’s events.

Niantic shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with held items in Pokemon GO. After all, Pokemon GO is as good as it is today because Niantic was willing to tweak Pokemon GO’s Gyms, introduce lots of new ways to battle, and expand the raid system. In other words, experimentation as bold new types of content have made Pokemon GO successful. Held items would definitely introduce a lot of new variables for Niantic to manage, but those variables would introduce some valuable new objectives and experiences to Pokemon GO. The game’s 5-year anniversary really highlighted how much it’s changed over the years, but it can’t stop growing and changing now. If Niantic wants to help Pokemon GO stay fresh, then adding held items could be the way to go.

Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS devices.

See more : PokemonWe