Outcry about difficulty of Gigantamax battles in Pokémon GO

The debut of Gigantamax Pokémon into Pokémon GO has not been well received. Reddit, X and other social medias are awash with complaints and criticism about how hard these Max Battles have been to complete.

Often, some Pokémon GO events draw criticism from players in rural areas who don't have the numbers to take on some of the games harder bosses locally. However, todays criticism isn't confined to those players. Even Trainers with huge communities have faced difficulties taking on these battles.

One such criticism, posted on /r/TheSilphRoad has over 1,100 upvotes at the time of writing. Reddit user Hoppip94 outlines that for their community of 5 people these Max Battles are totally impossible. Usually, a group of five would be enough to take on most Raids, if not, additional Trainers can join using Remote Raid Passes.

Gigantamax Max Battles required at least 30 people this weekend. Some have reported failing with groups even larger than that.

This is in part down to how few Dynamax Pokémon are avaliable, but also because these Battles were incredibly high difficulty. Coordinating 30 or more people is no small feat, as one Reddit user points out.

Additionally, every Power Spot spawned a Gigantamax Pokémon every hour. Max Particle limits mean Trainers can only do two or three battles in a single day (without spending money). This makes things different from Raids, in places where there is no coordinated group. In big cities, people unknowingly amass where a Raid Egg is about to pop. For Gigantamax, Pokémon GO players today were aimless, with battles all over the map. This meant people were not naturally concentrating at certain locations.

Now, it is not unusual to see complaints about Pokémon GO on Reddit. However, the outrage about how Gigantamax is playing out is some of the most widespread criticism about the game for some time. Community Ambassadors have even cancelled scheduled events due to not being able to handle the coordination needed.

Big content creators, like FleeceKing, have also spoken out in a hope to push Niantic towards adjusting the experience for those wanting to take on Gigantamax Pokémon.

It has even been reported that maximum 40 player lobbies have failed to beat Gigantamax Pokémon this weekend. It seems the huge variance in success is down to if Trainers have powered up their Max Moves, including unlocking the healing and shield moves, Max Guard and Max Spirit.

Notably, to level up your Max Moves you need to spend Max Particles. This means that days where you invest in Max Moves, you can do less or no Max Battles. This means most Trainers have not invested into moves, preferring to do Battles.

The question is if Niantic will make any adjustments to Gigantamax Max Battles for the future. Changes for Sunday is unlikely, but Gigantamax Gengar debuts next weekend and Gigantamax Toxtricity is debuting during the GO Wild Area.

One common suggestion is for Pokémon GO to allow Trainers to team up remotely. That could be through an invite system, or through Power Spots pooling lobbies.

This would allow Trainers who wish to coordinate large in person groups to still be able too, but also provide a way for rural Trainers to take on these battles.

The community has spoken loud and clear. Stay tuned for any updates to Gigantamax Max Battles in Pokémon GO moving forward. Also, stick with esports.gg for the latest esports news and more Pokémon GO updates.