Niantic acknowledges Pokemon Go Special Trade bug and offers player compensation

Niantic has acknowledged a Pokemon Go bug where monsters evolved in 2023 are considered a Special Trade and offered to increase the ongoing seasonal bonus as compensation.

With Pokemon Go currently hosting its Axew Community Day event for June 2023, trainers are eager to take advantage of the bonuses being offered throughout it.

One of those bonuses involves allowing players to perform an additional Special Trade per day. Unfortunately, a nasty bug has cropped up that directly affects this bonus.

Now, Niantic has acknowledged the bug and claimed the development team is looking for a solution. Until it’s fixed, the developer is offering players a couple of bonuses to make up for the frustration caused.

Pokemon Go Special Trade bug

According to the Niantic Support Twitter account, the developer is “currently investigating” a bug that causes Pokemon evolved in 2023 to be miscategorized as a Special Trade.

Trainers, we are currently investigating an issue where trading any Pokémon that you evolved in 2023 is miscategorized as a Special Trade. Until this issue is fixed, we suggest avoiding trading Pokémon evolved in 2023.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) June 10, 2023

A Special Trade in Pokemon Go revolves around trading Pokemon that meet specific criteria, which costs more Stardust than a normal trade. While Friendship Levels between two trainers can decrease the cost of Stardust, Special Trades will always cost more.

This is a frustrating bug as not all Pokemon evolved in 2023 will meet the requirement for a Special Trade, meaning trainers who want to trade will be spending more resources than necessary.

We will also be increasing the seasonal bonus from "one additional Special Trade per day" to "three additional Special Trades for a total of four per day" until the issue with trading Pokémon that were evolved in 2023 being miscategorized as a Special Trade is resolved.

— Niantic Support (@NianticHelp) June 10, 2023

However, to ease the frustration of this bug, Niantic offered players a couple of bonuses. For one, Axew’s Community Day bonus of “one additional Special Trade for a max of three for the day” has been increased to five total Special Trades for the day and will last until June 10, 2023, from 2 PM to 10 PM local time.

Additionally, the current seasonal bonus of “one additional Special Trade per day” will be increased to “three additional Special Trades for a total of four per day” until this Special Trade bug has been resolved.

While frustrating, it is nice to see swift communication from the Pokemon Go developer, as well as some compensation for the issue.