Pokemon GO player proposes giving Purifying mechanic a “real purpose”
Shadow Pokemon are arguably one of the best additions ever made to Pokemon GO. Not only are these creatures a callback to the early 2000s era of the franchise, but they also sport their iconic Shadow Boost, lowering their defense by 10% in exchange for a 20% increase to their attack stats.
However, many players online believe that purified Shadow Pokemon can be a bit redundant. Purifying a Shadow Pokemon removes its Shadow Boost and forces it to learn the Normal-type charged attack, Return. Thankfully, it also increases their IVs by two points and makes powering them up much cheaper.
User Entire_Pineapple4732 on the Pokemon GO subreddit has come up with an idea to make Purified Pokemon more useful in Niantic's mobile game.
In their post, Entire_Pineapple4732 begins by stating that Shadow Pokemon should take bonus damage from Purified Pokemon. While this would be incredibly helpful for Raid Battles and Team GO Rocket encounters, it would drastically impact and potentially ruin Shadow Pokemon in the competitive scene given their existing defense debuff.
Also check: Pokemon GO CP calculator
Entire_Pineapple4732 also suggests a "Chill Pill" consumable that can remove the Frustration charged attack. This item would be obtained from Purifying Shadow Pokemon.
While this would be a great item for competitive players, this would contradict how Shadow Pokemon are designed, as Niantic purposefully made them to be as faithful to their main series counterparts as possible.
User Classic-Anybody3615 points out that Pokemon GO's present Purifying mechanic does have its benefits in some circumstances.
According to them, a purified Mega Evolution has the potential to be consistently more beneficial for a trainer compared to the standard variety. Purified Sableye also makes great use of the Return attack in Great League, making it better than its standard or Shadow forms.
The hypothetical Chill Pill item previously mentioned does have some potential to be added to Pokemon GO. However, it provides a benefit that is typically reserved for an event that only occurs a few times a year.
Niantic will surely notice how valuable this consumable would be if released and likely make it a premium item that can be purchased with PokeCoins rather than a free reward.
Also check: Pokemon GO Evolution Calculator
Should Niantic rework Purified Pokemon in Pokemon GO?
As they currently are, Shadow and Purified Pokemon are as accurate to their main series counterparts as Pokemon GO can allow them to be. In the main series, Shadow Pokemon were creatures that often acted against their trainer's wishes and had their own exclusive moves. Many of these attacks had downsides to their use.
Purified Pokemon are supposed to be better than Shadow Pokemon, exchanging their exclusive moves that were super-effective against every type of creature for a regular Pokemon that obeyed commands while potentially having a special move unlocked upon purification.
Niantic making the Shadow Boost grant an additional 20% attack completely flipped this dynamic on its head, making Shadow Pokemon better than Purified ones.
With this in mind, it may be healthy for Niantic to consider lowering this Shadow Boost as a way to incentivize more players to purify their Pokemon.
For more information on the game, check out the articles below:
- Ditto disguises
- Sierra counters
- Cliff counters
- Arlo counters
- Giovanni counters
- Team GO Rocket Grunts