Oh, Good—A $20 Item
Evidently, rendering these Gold Bottle Caps in Pokémon GO is *really* expensive.
On the heels of an upbeat piece about Pokémon GO vacations and family bonding, it’s time for more discouragement here at The PoGO Journal a.k.a. The Pokémon GO Wet Blanket Headquarters.
This time around, the subject is Hyper Training, a feature soon to be implemented in PoGO to coincide with Pokémon GO Fest: Global. What is Hyper Training? I’m glad you asked, dear Reader! As the primer on the official Pokémon GO website explains, “Hyper Training is a new way for Trainers to increase a Pokémon’s HP, Attack, and Defense. By completing GO Pass Deluxe: Ancients Recovered, Trainers will be able to earn a Gold Bottle Cap. This item is used to start Hyper Training that you can complete to increase all of a Pokémon’s stats!!” That double exclamation point is copied verbatim from the text, by the way. Evidently, this new gimmick is so exciting that it requires extra emphasis. It’s that big of a deal.
OK, so how does one Hyper Train a Pokémon? Dear Reader, you are so inquisitive! Hyper Training is made possible through a one-time use item known as a Gold Bottle Cap. As long as the Pokémon is a Good Buddy or Higher—and not a Shadow Pokémon because reasons—you’ll be able to choose which stats you’d like to train. Once you’ve given your target Pokémon a Gold Battle Cap, you’ll need to complete tasks in line with the statistic you’re looking to buff. For Attack, you’ll need to battle alongside your Buddy. For Defense, you’ll need to “strengthen your bond” with your Buddy by catching Pokémon, “exploring,” or playing with it. For HP, you’ll need to earn Buddy Candy by walking, spin PokéStops, and go on “other adventures.” What adventures? Damned if I know, Trainer.
Sounds great, right? The ability to completely max out a Pokémon’s stats? That Shiny you’ve wanted to be a hundo and thereby turn into a “shundo” can now be yours. Because this is Pokémon GO we’re talking about here, however, you should immediately be asking yourself one question: “What’s the catch?”
As it turns out, there are several potential catches which stand to limit if not completely diminish your enjoyment of the Hyper Training feature. Already, we know that Shadow Pokémon are ineligible to be hyper trained, so that 100% Shiny Shadow Mewtwo you’ve been pining for—the shashundo(?)—that’s off the table. Also, once you use your Gold Bottle Cap, you have 365 days to complete all tasks. Most likely, you’ll be able to fulfill all requirements well before the deadline, but that they’re giving you a whole year to finish the necessary research is a bit disconcerting.
The snag which looms largest, meanwhile, is the price tag because of course there’s a price tag. For US$19.99, you can upgrade your free GO Pass: Ancients Recovered to a GO Pass Deluxe: Ancients Recovered. So, in addition to the complimentary track which rewards Candy, Poké Balls, Stardust, XP, and encounters with “dapper” versions of Pikachu and one of the Regis with a special background, you’ll get Candy XL, “premium” items like Incense, an Incubator, a Lucky Egg, and Lure Modules, Zacian and Zamazenta Mask items for your in-game avatar, and yes—the coveted Gold Bottle Cap. Bask in its glory, Trainer, for it is both golden and a bottle cap!!
If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you probably have some idea of how I ultimately feel about the Deluxe upgrade. Let me first acknowledge that, as far as value goes, this may well be worth the two sawbucks. In addition to the premium items being eminently useful, the inclusion of the masks dovetails with my ongoing mission to, at any given time, make my avatar look ridiculous. As someone who, in real life, has low desire for achievement in the realm of the sartorial, I appreciate the ability to deck out my fictionalized self in the kinds of clothing I wouldn’t normally wear. On more than one level, therefore, GO Pass Deluxe: Ancients Recovered might be a solid investment, if not a steal.
The potential benefits notwithstanding, there are elements I don’t like here. One is the timed aspect of the Gold Bottle Cap’s utility. I don’t care if the various tasks required to augment your Buddy Pokémon can be feasibly completed in well under a year. If you pay real-world money, I feel like you should be able to take as long as you damn well please to finish the research. You bought it—it should be yours. If Hyper Training is as much of a “long and challenging course” as the website declares it to be, it vexes me to think that some players won’t be getting the full value out of their purchase.
The other major problem I have with the Deluxe variant of the GO Pass is that it ties an item with implications for PvP play in with a purchase. Master League is already a haven for battlers who not only spend on PoGO, but spend heavily. For those Trainers who have accrued enough Rare Candies XL through countless Raids, this opens the door to the use of Mythical Pokémon in a format currently dominated by Legendary Pokémon, the likes of which can only reasonably be fully powered up by way of volume (i.e. $$$).
Sure, it will still take a significant span to perfect any Mythical Pokémon not fortunate enough to possess optimal stats, but being a paying customer will give you a head start on the process. Pokémon GO game director Michael Steranka confirmed to IGN that Bottle Caps are “only going to be available very, very rarely.” Just how rare is that? Will their frequency be akin to that of Master Balls, which have seen a grand total of three released to date? And when, if ever, will F2P users get a crack at a Golden Bottle Cap? It doesn’t appear as though the opportunity will manifest anytime soon.
All in all, I’m happy that some players will finally be able to max out the stats of Mythical Pokémon, Shiny Pokémon, and other prized Poké-possessions which may have been close to ideal but weren’t lucky enough to find 100% IVs. Depending on its viability for competitive play, they might even stand to employ their trainee Pokémon as more than a mere glorified Rocket Grunt beater. But even if Hyper Training isn’t pay-to-win per se, for the time being, its existence goes to show that spending real-world money is clearly the way to get the most enjoyment out of PoGO. As someone who doesn’t commit funds to the game, I often feel like an outsider as is. This Pokémon GO Fest, that sentiment will unfortunately only intensify.
I mean, it is very tempting. I have a Best Buddy Shiny 96% Raticate that I wouldn't mind seeing get the bump to shundo status. At this point, though, I'm committed to F2P. Joey Rats' stats are locked in place indefinitely.
Denmark, eh? Have some salty licorice for me. 🇩🇰
Well no one can say that JoeRattata hates anything you have to pay for *just because* you have to pay for it. Your assessment of this is a pretty reasonable take, and while I personally have no interest in a gold bottlecap (do bottlecaps have any significance in Pokémon or is this just super random), if there's value there, that's cool.
But it's obviously another step in exploiting the diehards and getting the whales to pony up as much as possible. And while every app does that, it's certainly more annoying when competitive play is involved and you're not just holed up in a dark room crushing candy alone haha