Niantic Outlines Pokemon GO Remote Raids, Play at Home Features

Niantic unveiled the details for Pokemon GO Remote Raids today. These include new Remote Raid passes, information about how these Raids work, and plans to scale back on Remote Raiders’ power over time presumably since it’s a “mobile” Pokemon game.

The news comes from an update on the Pokemon GO Live website, not long after Niantic first announced plans for Remote Raids in Pokemon GO as part of its efforts at making Pokemon GO play from home possible.

First up, Niantic is introducing the Remote Raid Pass. These will be available for 100 PokeCoins, but there are also plans for bundles in the Pokemon GO shop that include Remote Raid Passes for just one PokeCoin.

These Passes work pretty much the same as the regular Raid Pass — for now. You can join Raids in your Nearby view with up to 20 other players, but Niantic says the number of Remote Raid participants per Raid is limited. How limited, though, they didn’t say.

Remote Raid participants’ attack power will also be limited compared to those participating in Raids on-site, but there’s also no word on when this power reduction will take place.

The announcement reads:

At launch, Trainers battling in raids remotely will have the same attack power as Trainers who are able to battle at the raid location in person. At a later time, the attack power for Trainers battling remotely will be reduced.

Afterward, a Trainer battling at the raid location in person will have higher attack power than a Trainer battling remotely.

On top of Remote Raids, Niantic is adding special research tasks for Pokemon GO players at home that they can get once per day without spinning a PokeStop. These focus on tasks you can reasonably complete from home, so you don’t have to put yourself and others at risk just to have fun.

A slew of other tweaks is coming as well. You can use all the required Candy and Stardust to get your desired CP at one time. You can also use multiple Lucky Eggs, Incense, and Star Pieces at once to enhance their respective effects, up to 200 of each item at one time. Obviously, they’ll disappear after that, so be aware of what you’re using.

Last of all, you’ll get Gift items from Buddy Pokemon instead of from PokeStops.Your Buddy ventures out when your Gifts get low and snags some for you. D’awwww…

For a game built around interacting with the outside world, it’s pretty impressive how Niantic is adapting Pokemon GO to still function while we’re at home.

The original story is over on the Pokemon GO site if you want to check it out. Stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Pokemon GO news as it develops.