As Pokémon Go announces a seismic shakeup of its Mega Pokémon, IGN has chatted with the smash hit smartphone game's developer on the inspirations for the move, what's changing for the better, and what the future of Mega Pokémon looks like in the game.
Today, Niantic announced the addition of a new, tougher Super Mega Raid tier with tougher battle mechanics but better rewards, a fresh currency to engage with Mega and Super Mega raids, and a fourth Mega Evolution tier for your Pokémon to grind for an unlock more bonuses.
Niantic says Super Mega Raids will require upwards of seven players, who are strongly encouraged to bring Mega Pokémon into the fight in order to break shields thrown up by the boss during battle. New and existing Mega Pokémon will feature in Super Mega Raid battles over time, and will reward more Mega Energy once defeated. This will come in handy for levelling your own Mega Pokémon to the new Super Max tier, which provides further boosts and allows you to re-Mega your Pokémon every 24 hours.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, is the introduction of the new Link Charge currency for Mega and Super Mega Raids. The idea here is that this, like Max Particles, provides a separate method to access in-game content that doesn't just rely on raid passes (though you can still use raid passes for Megas if you choose). How exactly this will be balanced, however, remains to be seen — though Niantic says it will provide better value. Read on for more detail on all of the above in our chat with Pokémon Go's senior producer John Funtanilla.
Hey John, great to chat with you again. Let's start with Super Mega Raids — is the pitch here that they're going to be the equivalent of Gigantamax in terms of difficulty and launch cadence? Will we really need seven or more players as has been indicated?
John Funtanilla: Yeah, the mission with Super Mega Raids is similar to Gigantamax and we want to lean into the community play aspect of the game that's gone very well. We want to make sure that we're gathering folks and we have seen a lot of success with that — communities of sometimes hundreds of players in San Francisco going up and down on the piers playing together. That really inspired us and we know that was happening all across the globe. Not to say that there wasn't also some Trainers that also did low count lobbies and were challenging themselves to beat these Gigantamax battles with four or five players. We're very careful with the tuning and we were kind of surprised by that, but we do feel like if you're a really talented player, you understand the systems, you are able to do different strategies that beat these raids. For Super Mega Raids, it's kind of the same thing. We are targeting around a seven to eight player headcount to win, and that's pretty sizable, but again, it's related to how big your communities are, and being able to find the communities. I can go into it a little bit later, but I would say yes, expect same kind of level of difficulty for Gigantamax and there's some mechanics in there that require group play.
Right, there's mention of shield breaking mechanics which sound interesting. I find Gigantamax battles fun because they do require extra strategy, but I know you always have to balance that with the fact your playerbase has a mix of hardcore players and more casual 'Korean grandmas'. You have to fit both those things, to some degree. So, were there any learnings from Gigantamax that you applied here to the new Mega changes?
John Funtanilla: Gigantamax was such an ambitious effort. We really wanted to introduce a whole new system. As you know, there's the three Max moves, there's Power Spots. It was a massive, massive effort to finally bring in and actually unlock Gen 8 into the game. For Super Mega Raids, it's kind of an incremental approach. It's a little bit more challenging than normal raids, but other than that it does play using a normal raid battle format. We explored different mechanics and we didn't want to veer away to something that was unfamiliar to players — so we added different iterations on top.
Walking through what this type of battle is, Trainers will need to bring in a Mega Pokémon — it's not required, but we definitely encourage you to bring one in to take down one of those shields. And when we're playtesting internally, people are bringing in Mega Pokémon, and when that last person comes in, there's this big climactic moment where the shields break. There's an amazing visual but not only that, though, there's a huge amount of damage that's done to that boss. And so you get to that powered up form, you're trying to chip away at it, you're yelling at other players to bring in their Mega Pokémon. If they were knocked out, tell them to relobby, heal that Pokémon, bring it back in. We really wanted to lean into that. And that's why I keep saying we wanted community play to be kind of streamlined for this one, it's less tactical than Max Battles but we wanted that excitement, that energy that comes from that moment.
Nice, and then just to clarify — could you get into a situation where maybe no one has any Mega Pokémon left, could you still break the shields at that point?
John Funtanilla: That can be a state that does happen, maybe one person doesn't have a Mega Pokémon. There are ways that we try to alleviate that. So we've recreated the first time user experience, so this time we put the tutorial right in front of you as soon as you log into the game and that triggers and you'll catch your first Mega Pokémon. You'll understand the utility of it, you'll catch another Pokémon of that species to understand that you get more Mega Energy. So there is an update to this, but we've tried to kind of lift the total tide for the entire feature and include UX improvements.
I think some of the big reasoning that we gave for actually diving in and improving the Mega system is that we felt that players — looking at the data — weren't engaging with Megas as met as much as we'd seen, especially for something as powerful and with as much utility as they have. That was the biggest thing — improving things all across the board so by the time you get into the Super Mega raid you feel prepared.
So unfortunately it is a scenario that can happen, but we're hoping that a player realizes that they don't have a Mega Pokémon involved, they back out to the lobby, they come back in and they're going to be that one person that breaks the shield. And I've seen that many times. So I think after players have gone through this a few times, hopefully they'll understand like, 'Oh, I should bring a Mega Pokémon in. I see everyone with their Mega Pokémon and there's toasts and texts that keep saying bring a Mega Pokémon in.' So yeah, we're making it easy for players to have a Mega Pokémon and reminding them to bring it in.
And a quick one: is the reason the Primals don't count as Megas here lore-related? As they're not technically Megas?
John Funtanilla: 100% lore. They're not Mega Pokémon. They have the same kind of power, but The Pokémon Company created the lore which is that technically they're not identified as Mega Pokémon.
Let's discuss Link Charges, which are the third sort-of currency for interacting with battles in Pokémon Go, on top of the existing raid passes and Max Particles. Obviously people love looking at datamined information and drawing their own conclusions, and there's been conversation already around Link Charges potentially offering more activities to do for free but also being another currency to keep track of, and separately work within the limits of.
John Funtanilla: I saw that reaction from players too. You know how it goes, players will see things with a limited amount of information, but obviously there's still a huge portion of the feature coming out and players are yet to experience it for themselves. I did want to set the perspective on that which is that we had a lot of learnings from Max Particles. So yes, there's the system where you can get a daily free raid pass, there's a system where you can engage with Power Spots and get Max Particles, and then we have Link Charges, which is the new currency. I think the biggest thing here is we want to give players access to premium content. We also want to make sure that we're encouraging and incentivizing engagement into our social features.
"When you use Link Charges in person, it's actually cheaper than using a battle pass..."We just put out the Weekly Challenges. We have community check-ins, we love the gifting feature. Those are things we want to encourage and we see players engaging with these a lot, but those lead directly towards the Niantic mission. And with Link Charges, for us, these are ways for players to have flexible access to premium content. When you use Link Charges in person, it's actually cheaper than using a battle pass, so there is some kind of discount there. We always want to encourage IRL play and as long as you're doing some of the social actions I mentioned, we reward that effort. And with community check-ins, we understand that's a high value effort action. We reward that, we give you a ton of link charges, you check in, you're good, you're set.
So you do get a lot of Link Charges and we learned from Max Particles to increase the cap higher. There are some other aspects where we understand that the content is very, very premium and it's difficult to challenge. So with Super Mega Raids, remoting into those does have an added cost of extra Link Charges, and again, it's like a balance that we have to form with the system. With economy, I think it all comes down to flexibility. If you're a player that doesn't want to pay too much, but you love engaging with the game, you love engaging with your community, gifting, things like that, we want to make sure that you have flexible ways to access that content.
Have you nailed down how many Link Charges you can hold at a time, how many you'll need for a Mega Raid (is it just one?), how many you'll need for a Super Mega Raid?
John Funtanilla: The tuning will definitely be in different denominations than raid passes. Raid passes is like one for [a specific battle]. Link Charges are again like a currency. We're still tuning it, and that's likely going to be something that we're looking at as we're playtesting it internally, reviewing it with the team. Again, the stance we want to take is that playing in person will be cheaper, and it's going to be cheaper than a battle pass, and it's not going to require a battle pass. That's a fundamental part of the system.
And I guess the same question on how much it might cost to buy Link Charges in the shop. Can you give an equivalent to buying a raid pass?
John Funtanilla: It'll be better value, 100%. The final tuning, we're still getting to that, but better value is the main thing that we keep driving here.
While we're talking raid passes, something I've come up against in my community is the issue with remote raid passes in Max Battles — where players sometimes fail a battle, can't rejoin, and don't get that remote pass refunded. Max Particles are only consumed when a battle is successful, but remote passes get used up regardless. Are you aware of this, and how will it work with remote battles using Link Charges?
John Funtanilla: 100%. I think the biggest way to look at it, is we learned so much from the Max Particle system. We really pushed for Max Particles not being consumed until you win. Raid passes, meanwhile, are applied to the gym or Power Spot when you join the battle and that means until you win, you can keep trying. Max Particles and Link Charges [work similarly], so those will be consumed at the end of the battle once you win. That's a key learning that we wanted to carry forward.
For remote raid passes, I totally understand and that it might not be as favorable. There is still that leeway again that you can keep trying, though for remote passes you do have to somehow get back into that same gym and that does mean that the player, whoever invited you or if you joined their lobby, they've got to get you back in there. I do think there are some aspects to improve for that, but when we introduce new systems, we're trying to learn from that. We're trying to make it better.
We're constantly talking with the player experience team for raiders, and they're looking at players trying to understand what problems are coming in. So we see that a lot and we try to build ways to reimburse if there's a crash, things like that. I understand it's not the best system, but we're trying to improve it with everything that we put in the game.
The timing of these changes happening now feels interesting, because not only do you have the longer-term player behavior around using Megas that you mentioned, but you have the first new Mega Evolutions from Pokémon Legends Z-A coming into the game at Go Tour, with Mega Malamar and Mega Victreebel. Certainly from player behavior I've seen, Megas have felt like one-and-done releases which don't really benefit the community or new players — and it sounds like you've seen data that suggests they're underused too.
John Funtanilla: Yeah... I mentioned earlier the core problem is that from the data we're looking at and player behavior, players are not fully realizing how powerful Megas are. You get that CP stat increase when you Mega Evolve, you can use that in raids, you get boosted ally attacks, you get increased candy. These are things where we only see the most hardcore high level players interacting with it. That's a problem. It's such a great feature. It's in its third or fourth iteration now, and so we wanted to bring that to the game.
"Players are not fully realizing how powerful Megas are..."And for Super Mega Raids, it's the same thing. Is the utility of your Mega Pokémon worth evolving, worth bringing into Super Mega or original Mega Raids? We want to make sure you feel like your Pokémon are powerful and are meaningful. It didn't matter if it's a 1500CP Mega Beedrill or a crazy Mega Rayquaza. You both are truly important to the battle and you both can take down a shield. That was important for us, we wanted players all across that gradient to feel like they can come in and make an impact on that. And if you can't provide damage like a level 50 player, you're still breaking a shield, you're still helping the community.
Then there's the new Super Max level. This is just a start and I thing I can't really talk too much about right now, but when I say that Pokémon is invested in Megas, we are truly invested in that. We have a roadmap for the year. This is just the beginning of that rollout for players right now. It might not seem like there's a lot, but there's the Super Max level coming out and there's going to be new systems built on top of that.
Part of today's announcement mentions that bonuses vary by Pokémon when Mega Evolving. Is that just due to typing, like a Grass-type Mega gives advantages when catching Grass-type Pokémon? Or will there be specific bonuses for specific Mega Pokémon, almost akin to Adventure Effects?
John Funtanilla: You're asking all the right questions. I can't speak to a lot of that right now, we just need to have that space open and it allows us freedom to create different things there. We do have to leave it open-ended because if we want to design something cool and a different Pokémon at that Super Max level is different from another, that's something that we can design. I hope players will enjoy it with Super Max level coming out and understand that there's a much longer runway that we're kind of cooking in the lab right now.
One thing you have confirmed as forthcoming is the ability to spend Mega Energy to boost up your Mega Level. How are you balancing the cost there versus the lengthy process now?
John Funtanilla: Yeah, so to get to Super Max level will be a good chunk of Mega Energy and that's why I do think it'll be important for players to keep raiding that Pokémon and collecting Mega Energy to use it for that sink. For that last level, you won't need to continuously Mega Evolve, it'll just be one sink for you to spend your Mega Energy on.
And then once there, you can Mega Evolve it every 24 hours without expending Mega Energy, right?
John Funtanilla: That's correct. We looked at it, there's not a lot of players that get there. Some players are trying to optimize and Mega Evolve and they have a tag, but for the players that do get there, it's going to be rewarding for sure. So yeah, it is going to be free, you get that cooldown, you can use it again.
You mentioned a long runway for Mega features, there's also now a much longer list of Mega Pokémon. Are there any learnings there from the release of previous Mega Pokémon? It felt like it was taking a very long time for every Mega to release, and we got to the point last year where most of the remaining few were launched quickly to clear the decks for the Z-A additions. What can people expect the cadence of new Mega Pokémon to be going forward?
John Funtanilla: It is crazy to think we've reached the end of the road for the existing Mega Pokémon —
You are sat in front of a picture of Mewtwo, so I should point out that people are still waiting there...
John Funtanilla: [laughs] I know, what is this guy doing here? But yeah, the biggest thing there is that we took a look at all the features in the game. Megas were underneath the magnifying glass for us. We were trying to figure out what to do with this. Partly the reason for all of this was that we're were nearing the end of that [initial batch of Mega Pokémon] runway. But also we need to do some really, really exciting stuff this year and need to make sure we have the right foundations for that. For the new Mega Pokémon from Z-A, the DLC, there's such cool things to work with there.
For Super Mega Raids we can probably kind of map that to how a community might behave. I would like to see, around every one to two months, a big gigantic, Super Mega community raid day. We're still trying to figure out the best thing that works. The biggest thing to anchor it to is how we'd like to see people be able to interact with their communities.
On Mewtwo, would the 10th anniversary of the game this summer be a fitting time to finally launch its Mega Evolutions?
John Funtanilla: We have a lot to show to the players. You're kind of seeing all the foundations for that kind of being put down now and even in the last few years, almost in the shadows... All I can say is that the 10th anniversary for Pokémon Go, the 30th for Pokémon, means you can expect a really, really exciting year.
Image credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
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