Pokemon Go Has a Ton of Raid Bugs

Like just about everything else in the game, Pokemon Go's raid system has a lot of bugs. While thousands of players are enjoying the chance to team up with other players and battle Legendary Pokemon, many hardcore players are disappointed by how many glitchy the whole system is.

It'd be one thing if the glitches were harmless, but since players are spending money to participate in more than one raid a day, some Pokemon Go players are dropping cash on a flawed system.

So if you're struggling to catch or beat Raid Bosses, here's a list of glitches you're probably dealing with:

Last Ball Bug

The most problematic Pokemon Go raid bug is one that a lot of players didn't think existed until a couple of weeks ago. When Pokemon Go first added Legendary Raids last months, some players noticed that they could never catch a Raid Boss with their last Premier Ball.

At first, people shrugging off the alleged bug with reports that either they or their friends had caught a Raid Boss with their last Premier Ball. But when players started posted video of a Magikarp Raid Boss escaping from a throw with a 99.9% success rate, the theory gained a lot of steam.

Sure enough, Niantic acknowledged the bug a few days later and accommodated players by giving them an extra Premier Ball with every Raid Boss catch encounter, which in their eyes cancelled out the missed opportunity caused by the glitch. While the bug hasn't been fixed, at least Niantic found an easy way to "fix" the problem.

Bonus Bugs

Players get bonuses at the end of every Raid Battle, which translates into more Premier Balls that players can use to catch Raid Bosses. However, most of the Bonuses seem to be broken, resulting in a lot of players getting the wrong amount of Premier Balls.

The most common screwed up bonus is the "Team Control" bonus. Players are supposed to get two extra Premier Balls if they beat a Raid at a gym their team controls, but this bonus seems to be given out at random. There's not an explanation for why the Team Control bonus doesn't work. Some folks think it's because the gyms turnover too fast, while others think that it only works if you actually have a Pokemon defending a gym when the raid takes place. Either way, the bonus isn't working the way it's supposed to.

Nintendo launches special 'Pokémon' and 'Fire Emblem' bundles

You may want to check if you can cancel your Fire Emblem Warriors or Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon pre-orders. Nintendo has just announced a special FE Warriors edition for the Switch and a Veteran Trainer's dual pack that includes both new Pokémon games. The special edition FE Warriors comes with a copy of the game for Nintendo's hybrid console, three CDs' worth of music from the game, character art cards and a dual-sided poster. It'll set you back $80, or $20 more than just the game itself, but if you get weak in the knees for special edition collectibles, then that doesn't sound so bad. Nintendo has also revealed that the game will be available in North America on October 20th, at least for the Switch.

It's still unclear if the 3DS version of FE Warriors is getting the same special edition treatment and if it'll come out at the same time, but 3DS (and 2DS) gamers can look forward to the Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon dual pack. The bundle comes with both games, 16 art cards and a digital code for 200 Poké balls. This one will cost you $80, the same amount you'd have to pay if you're buying both games separately. It also costs as much as the dual Steelbook edition, though, so you'll have to decide whether you want a nice case or 200 Poké balls.

These special bundles will be available on the same day the games become available: FE Warriors will come out in North America on October 20th, while you can start playing Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon on November 17th.

Here Is Why Brock And Misty Are Returning To The Pokémon

After being re-written out of Pokémon history in the latest Pokémon movie, Brock and Misty are coming to the Pokémon Sun Moon television anime. But only for two episodes. That figures!

The latest issue of Televi-kun has the following announcement:

Brock and Misty will appear in September 14 and the September 21 Sun Moon episodes, during which Ash will be journing back to Kanto, and he’ll meet up with his old pals.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

How Niantic Hosted 2M Players In Yokohama By Learning From Pokémon GO Fest's Mistakes

While we sit here debating the merits of upcoming exclusive raids and whether or not Legendary fatigue is real, Pokémon GO did manage to have its biggest, most rewarding, most successful live event to date in Yokohama, Japan this past week.

Last month, things could not have gone worse in Chicago during Pokémon GO Fest, where the enthusiastic crowds quickly soured as they reached Grant Park to find long lines and the game only rarely working throughout the day.

Yokohama was a different story. The lengthy event, which had rare spawns, shiny Pikachus and new raid bosses, culminated in a massive stadium gathering for the release of Mewtwo, which was given away for free to players if they could beat it, thanks to Chicago’s auto-catch system being in place. Two million people participated in the event, by the end.

It was a far cry from GO Fest, and should hint at future live events where the game suffers from fewer technical difficulties.

So, what changed? I recently spoke with Niantic who laid out exactly what they did to make Yokohama run much more smoothly than GO Fest. Here’s what they said:

• Niantic had all of the major Japanese carriers on notice and they turned out in force to keep the data flowing and keep Trainers happy.
• Niantic designed an event that spanned the entire island around the Pikachu Outbreak event (Pokémon GO Park) and the nearby city (more than 4 sq km), allowing the hordes of Pokémon GO players to circulate through Parks and other interesting areas.
• Niantic carefully distributed spawns of special Pokémon such as Unown, Shiny Pikachu, Chansey and Larvitar across the area so that Trainers were incentivized to capture and move through the greater festival area rather than staying in a single location.
• Niantic designed a tightly scripted finale event (Pokémon GO Stadium) where thousands of the luckiest Trainers were able to battle together to catch the famous Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo in a festive finale with fireworks and a giant projection of Mewtwo. Special work was done to segment the servers for this finale raid to enable the best play experience.

In short, a larger location (Grant Park was a relatively tiny space compared to the Yokohama zone), better coordination with cell carriers and extra care given to the servers so they could handle the load made it work.

‘Pokémon Go’ Fest Rewards: Free Lugia and PokéCoins finally start rolling out for event attendees

"A Japanese fan catches a Meowth in ‘Pokémon Go’ using the game’s augmented reality technology."

In spite of Niantic’s best efforts, they were forced to take a loss on July 22’s Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago. As part of a mea culpa for the way the event went down, Niantic promised not only to refund attendees’ money but also to give them a complimentary Gen 2 Lugia and about $100 worth of in-game currency, or 14,500 PokéCoins.

Niantic has already begun rolling these rewards out, and we’ve got more information on them below.

Pokémon Go Fest: You won’t be able to check your Lugia’s stats until you power it up

On the Silph Road thread talking about the rollout of the rewards, players noticed something odd about their complimentary Lugias — specifically when players tried to check their IVs.

“Mine came in as CP 2019 with 15 Attack, 15 Defense and an HP of 133,” wrote thephlyingmonkey. “All the IV checkers are stating that it is an impossible combination.” Players quickly figured out that you need to power your Lugia up at least once using the 15 candies provided before you’re able to assess its IVs. The results left players pleasantly surprised. Multiple players reported their Lugias as having 98% perfect stats.

“Seems like gifted Lugias all have above 93% IVs,” wrote asura152. One player questioned why Niantic didn’t just give everyone a perfect IV Lugia for attending the event, but given how difficult legendary raids are, we’re not going to look a gift Pokémon in the mouth.

Pokémon Go Fest: The complimentary PokéCoins could drastically increase your quality of life in-game

The real prize for Fest attendees is the $100 worth of PokéCoins that are set to land in your account. If you’ve received your Lugia but not your 14,500 PokéCoins, restart your app and they should be deposited.

To get a comparable amount just from gym battling under the new system, you’d need to earn the max amount of PokéCoins (50) per day for 290 days. So “windfall” only scratches the surface of what you’re able to do with it.

If you live in an area with a lot of PokéStops, it would be prudent to spend some of those coins on increasing your backpack’s storage. For 1,000 coins you can get an extra 250 units of space, perfect for making sure you’re not throwing regular PokéBalls in the trash to make room for better items.

The Ultra Box might not be a bad idea either — it comes with premium raid passes, Pinap Berries, incense and lure modules. Whether you’re planning on doing heavy raiding or want to catch as many Pokémon as possible to justify your expanded Pokémon storage, it’s got a little something for everyone.

Or you could just blow it all on incubators and Lucky Eggs for maximum hatchery. The choice is yours.

More Pokémon Go news, updates, tips and tricks

Raids are here — and not just for ordinary Pokémon. Check out our coverage of the legendaries now in-game, Lugia and Articuno. If that’s not enough, check out our tips for making the most of raids and what counters you should focus on finding, as well as what to do with the Golden Razz Berries and TMs you find after completing them. Find out what went wrong at the Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago while you wait for the debut of theEuropean Safari Zones in August and September. Finally, check out some reporting on the issues plaguing rural players a year after launch, how the game created a spacefor black female gamers and how Pokémon Go can continue to build its community.

Here’s the schedule for when Legendary Pokémon will come and go in Pokémon GO

Ever since the first Legendary Pokémon (read: ultra strong, ultra rare Pokémon that require groups of 10-20 players to capture) appeared in Pokémon GO shortly after the upset that was GO Fest, one thing has remained unclear: were the Legendaries here to stay?

Niantic had multiple in-game events/bonuses running in parallel with scheduled ending times, and no one seemed to know if these ending times also affected Legendaries. Everyone seemed to have heard something different, and no one really seemed to have a clear answer.

Niantic CEO John Hanke has just released the most official answer yet, releasing a proper schedule for the comings and goings of the next few Legendaries to hit the game.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Articuno (Team Mystic’s mascot) was released on July 22nd and will be available through Monday, July 31st
• Moltres (Valor’s mascot) will be released on Monday, July 31st and will be available through Monday, August 7th
• Zapdos (Instinct’s mascot) will be released on Monday, August 7th and will be available through Monday, August 14th

Curiously, no word yet on whether Lugia (the other Legendary released on July 22nd) will hang around.

It may seem weird to have something come and go like this — particularly something that most players will want and be upset to miss. But releasing them all at once would keep people interested for a day or two, max — staggering them like this keeps them popping back in for weeks at a time.

And will these birds ever make appearances down the road, after their initial in-game stints are through? No word on that yet, either — but I’d bet on yes. It would be a bit weird (and self-defeating) if newcomers were never able to get their hands on them. For many, Pokémon has always been about completing a collection; if your collection will always be missing some of the game’s most substantial ‘mon, why bother?

Verizon points the finger at Niantic for problems that led to Pokémon Go fiasco

When it comes to figuring out who was to blame for turning the first real-world Pokémon Go event into a disappointing disaster, Verizon is pointing its finger at Niantic.

The wireless carrier's engineers worked with Niantic, the game's developer, before the event opened in Chicago on Saturday, a Verizon spokesperson told Business Insider. Verizon boosted its capacity for the event, and had representatives in place to make sure its network was up and running.

"This was not a Verizon issue," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that company engineers "reported that even when attendees were experiencing issues accessing the game itself, other applications like YouTube worked just fine — which indicated the issues were outside of Verizon's control, like an issue with the game's server itself."

Niantic representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Verizon's statement.

An estimated 20,000 people showed up at the Pokémon Go Chicago event in the city's Grant Park expecting to catch some rare Pokémon. Most left disappointed after the game stopped working. Not everyone was affected by the outage; players on T-Mobile generally had a better time accessing the game throughout the day.

Since the end of the event, attendees and others have been speculating about what caused the game's outage.

One theory: The game went down due to server issues at Niantic, thanks to the increased activity on the app. That wouldn't be unusual. At the height of the game's popularity last summer, the game was plagued with outages and bugs.

Unfortunately, Niantic, which is partly owned by Nintendo and developed the game on its behalf, has declined to discuss the outage.

Another theory: The problems with the app were due to a lag in cell service, Verizon's denial aside. Again, that wouldn't be unusual. Cellphone carriers' networks often get overtaxed during big events or moments of crisis — such as the Boston Marathon bombing — when thousands of people attempt to use their systems at once.

"When you get a really big surge in capacity on a cellular network, it's not unusual to get the problems that are attributed to it here," said Bill Menezes, an analyst at Gartner who specializes in unified communications, network systems and service.

Most networks are set to handle a normal day's traffic, and network providers rely on Cell on Wheels (COWs) to increase their capabilities for big crowds, Menezes said. That's essentially what Verizon did, according to the company's spokesperson.

Despite not commenting on the outage, Niantic was quick to ensure its (former) fans that they would be getting refunds, as well as $100 worth of in-game coins.

Tickets to Chicago’s Pokémon Go Fest event sold out in under 10 minutes for $20 each, and many tickets were later resold online for hundreds of dollars, with many attendees traveling from outside of the country. Pokémon Go is the first big success for Nintendo with a mobile phone game.