Pokemon Go players call out “broken” Party Play preventing access to Routes

Scott Baird
Party Play mode group in Pokemon Go with phones

Pokemon Go players are calling out Niantic due to the Party Play feature preventing them from accessing Routes with their friends, along with other limitations that are spoiling the mode.

The new Party Play mode in Pokemon Go is being called out by fans online, as it doesn’t work with the game’s Routes feature, even though both are highly-promoted additions to the game. This is despite both modes seemingly being tailor-made to work with each other, as they encourage cooperation with other players.

Pokemon Go’s Party Play mode lets up to four players team up to complete special challenges and use unique powers when facing Raid bosses. Party Play mode hasn’t been available for long, so it’s still facing some teething issues in terms of how well it works.

Party Play would be a natural fit for the Routes feature, which lets you plan a route other players can follow, possibly earning them some Zygarde Cells. The Routes feature has seen several improvements since launch, with trainers now able to access them from a lower level.

Pokemon Go’s Party Play mode doesn’t work with Routes

Party Play mode has already come under fire for its strict time limit, but it turns out that it has more problems than fans initially realized. Users on the official Pokemon Go Reddit are complaining about how Routes are inaccessible while in an active Party, making both of the modes incompatible with each other.

Players have been slamming the mode as being a “half baked feature in a game that is replete with half baked features” and “this party feature is so bad. Rewards are terrible and they lock you out of other features.”

One possible reason for the incompatibility is that both Party Play and Routes are fairly new, so Niantic might want to ensure that the former mode is fully operational before tying it into others. It’s just surprising that they don’t work together, considering how close their release was to each other.

It’s likely that Party Play and Routes will work together in the future, especially once both modes have had more work put into them, but nothing has been announced by Niantic yet.

About The Author

Scott has been writing for Dexerto since 2023, having been a former contributor to websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, Screen Rant, The Gamer, and TopTenz. A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started as a film student before moving into journalism. Scott specializes in Pokemon, Nintendo, DnD, Final Fantasy, and MTG. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.