Pokemon Go players are slam Niantic over “useless” Fall 2022 Breakthrough rewards

Philip Trahan
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Pokemon Go plays have called out Niantic for its lackluster and “useless” Breakthrough rewards for October and November 2022.

The topic of lackluster Pokemon Go rewards has been a hot topic among the Pokemon community for some time.

Some players feel that Niantic’s updates have been on a downtrend for some time now, with updates and rewards feeling less and less meaningful as time goes on.

Some trainers have taken issue with October and November 2022’s Breakthrough rewards, calling the Pokemon involved “useless.”

Pokemon Go players slam Breakthrough rewards

A post on the Pokemon Go subreddit sparked the conversation around recent Breakthrough rewards. “What possessed Niantic to make this the breakthrough reward,” asked user spammybomber.

“Excellent-ultra-curveball throws with a golden raz and it still broke out. It is also one of if not the most useless mon in the entire game. What happened to getting legendary mons from breakthroughs?”

The post was referencing Shedinja, which served as October 2022’s Breakthrough reward, but it seems players aren’t excited over November’s offering either.

Reddit user KPsPeanut said, “Cheer up. November’s is Starmie (not shiny).” The comment itself received over 1,500 upvotes with tons of replies agreeing that a non-shiny Starmie is an equally poor offering.

“I get why they don’t dish out legendaries to try and sell raid passes…but still to give us a plain a** Pokémon and not even a shiny chance is piss poor,” said LiamJonsano.

Pokemon Go veterans will remember that Niantic hasn’t given out Legendary Pokemon as Breakthrough rewards in some time, there was a period of time when they were given out consistently.

In 2018, the Kanto Legendary birds, Johto’s Legendary beasts and birds, and plenty of other Legendary Pokemon were consistently given out as Breakthrough rewards until the end of 2019.

Unfortunately, the developer hasn’t offered a Legendary Pokemon as a Breakthrough reward since December 2019, so the odds of them reappearing anytime soon seem quite low.

About The Author

Philip is a Staff Writer at Dexerto based in Louisiana, with expertise in Pokemon, Apex Legends, and general gaming industry news. His first job in the games industry was as a reviewer with NintendoEverything.com while attending college. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication focusing on Multimedia Journalism, he worked with GameRant.com for nearly two years before joining Dexerto. When he's not writing he's usually tearing through some 80+ hour JRPG. You can contact him at philip.trahan@dexerto.com.