Niantic finally add much-wanted Pokemon Go Raid Battle feature

Are you tired of wasting Pokemon Go Raid Passes on empty lobbies? Well, all trainers can now rejoice, as Niantic have finally added a new feature to Raid Battles which will fix this.

There has long been complaints within the Pokemon Go community about wasting Raid Passes. Previously Raid Passes, be it a Premium Battle Pass or Remote Raid Pass, would be consumed upon entering the Raid Battle lobby.

This was particularly frustrating in four and five-star Raids where, often, there wouldn’t be enough trainers join to have a realistic chance of defeating the Raid Boss. This meant you could lose your Raid Pass with no possibility of victory.

Massive change to Raid Battles

Now though, the Raid Pass will be consumed when the Raid itself starts. This was confirmed on the Niantic Twitter account: “The [Raid] pass will now be consumed when the Raid Battle begins instead of when you join the lobby.”

This is a massive and much needed change to Pokemon Go Raid Battles. Instead of wasting Raid Passes and even sitting in lobbies for nearly an hour at a time without even a battle, Raid Battles will now be far more populated.

Trainers will be able indicate their interest in participating in a Raid without risking a hard-earned Raid Pass. The result of this will be more Raids and less waiting! Relatively, it’s a small change, but in terms of trainer satisfaction it is huge.

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The next step is some form of indicator that shows trainer interest in a particular Raid as opposed to having to check each individual lobby. That being said, most Raids depending on your location will now be populated.

Due to this change there could even be a scenario where Raids become too easy to win. Who knows, Niantic may even have to make them harder to compensate for this.