Pokemon Go players outraged at Mudkip Community Day after Niantic’s recent nerfs
Niantic recently made a series of unpopular changes to Pokemon Go, and players are livid after experiencing them in full during the Mudkip Community Day Classic in April.
At the beginning of March 2022, Niantic released an update that significantly nerfed Incense. This is an item that can be used to attract wild Pokemon and is a great way for those stuck at home or behind a desk to play the game.
However, the update reduced the rate at which Incense attracts Pokemon from one every minute to one every five minutes. Niantic did increase the duration of Incense by 30 minutes, but the number of wild encounters is still significantly reduced.
As if this weren’t bad enough, Niantic announced ahead of the recent Mudkip Community Day that the event would be shortened from six hours to three. This gives players less amount of time to play with a fifth of the incense spawns they’re used to.
Players revolt after nerfs ruins Mudkip Community Day
Following the three-hour Community Day, players took to Reddit to share their displeasure. A post on r/pokemongo from user Mrwigglebutt gained a lot of attention as players used it as a way to vent their frustrations.
The original post sarcastically thanked Niantic for the recent reductions to event time and Incense effectiveness. They stated, that as a result of the changes, they were able to find zero Shiny Mudkip during the event.
Of the 223 comments, several claimed they shared a similar experience. One comment stated that the changes feel “frustrating and alienating” not allowing adults with weekend jobs to fully enjoy the event. Others stated that they “played religiously” for all three hours, but their rural location paired with the Incense nerf resulted in zero Shinies.
In fact, some players suggested another Pokemon Go boycott if these reductions aren’t changed. In 2021, a large number of players refused to spend money on Pokemon Go resulting in Niantic releasing a statement and reverting the unpopular changes.
To put these changes into perspective, players who stayed at home for the entirety of the February 2022 Community Day could use two incense and encounter roughly 360 Pokemon.
In March, the Incense nerf was in effect, but the event was still six hours long allowing for 72 encounters during the Community Day using only Incense. With the nerf to Incense and event time, the encounter number dropped to 36 (10% of the February encounters) during Mudkip Community Day.