Is there any real incentive for walking anymore?
I mean, besides the obvious advantages of your own personal health. The introduction of raids has made incubators and buddies seem almost useless. I enjoyed being rewarded for my hard work of running 10km a day to stay on top in my city. I really feel they should give daily walking goals that provide stardust rewards or something. Thoughts?
Answers
I'm a player that plays primarily on a college campus and has to walk everywhere. It's amazing how much more dust and candy you get walking everywhere compared to just driving. There are several players my level that drive everywhere but they don't have anywhere near the dust in their mons that I do. Not to mention it's great exercise and nice to be walking around outside.
At a recent raid I did, a trainer noted that I had caught fewer Pokémon than him but he was level 34 whereas I'm 35. He asked if I'd bought a lot of lucky eggs. Only occasionally with gym purchases when I had a lot of evolutions lined up. Then he realized I'd walked more than twice as much as him. Not sure how he managed to catch more than me but I definitely had more xp and dust.
You still have access to stops, access to more items, access to more catchable Pokemon, more dust. I've admittedly slowed down with the incubators as well, but going for a long walk in a park with loads of stops and gyms also has the benefit of having other players available on the spot when a descent raid pops up.
But yeah, if anything, a dust bonus wouldn't hurt.
I still hatch eggs and keep aiming for highest IVs possible (it's just one of those weird goals I have aside from keeping 1 of every species - unless they're shiny and/or are sexually dimorphic). And gathering candy too, even though there's also the rare candy, but I prefer to keep those for rare mons.
Then there's also more freedom to reaching raids and going through parks. Can't just drive a car through some parks here.
I think the price of incubators should be comparable or less than a raid pass. Walking quests would be cool, but I suppose at the end of the day an egg hatching is a mini-quest.
My biggest issue is that my normal running speed (12-13km/hr) is too fast for Pogo. So my runs only net me 20-30% of the actual distance I ran. It would be great to be able to pair a HR monitor to your phone to exceed the 10km/hr limit.
I don't understand, aren't the rewards the exact same?
It might not be as efficient as raiding for rewards, but you get the same amount as you did before, so why not enjoy those rewards? I exercise pretty hard, and I'd love to hatch a couple of eggs and pick up a few candies while I'm doing it, but my workout doesn't cover distance. I have to choose between my actual workout and going on a pokewalk after work!
So feel lucky that your knees let you run and enjoy those eggs and candies!
I think the point is PAYING for incubators vs. before is now worth a lot less. I'm sure incubator sales have plummeted with the new raid system.
Before, if you don't get Larvitar spawns, HATCHING it was the only way to get that mon...Like Dratini's NEVER spawn in the desert...simply NEVER...I've caught maybe 2 or 3 wild Dratinis that I had to drive to the beach to get. Only by hatching did you get good IV mons you normally don't see in your area...This forced people to buy incubators.
Now, with a raid, a rare fully evolved mon can be instantly gotten (depending on area of course) and ALSO, saving 125 candies in the process (like Tyranitar) WITH good IVs.
This is why incubators are worthless now IMO...
With where the game is headed, you can BET that there will be an Ampharos raid coming, Dragonite, Golem, ...
That said, enjoy what we have and don't play too seriously...I would never walk Mareep for candies...
Incubators are not useless, but they are a poor return on your investment compared to a raid pass.
For 100 coins you can pick which mon you fight/catch, likely worth 125 candies, plus rare candies, TM's and other junk but only 100-500 stardust.
OR for 150 coins you likely get AT MOST three random Pokémon, 70ish candies of three random Pokémon, and ~7500 stardust.
The TM's alone make the raid passes worth it since you can change the moveset of a powered mon, rather than evolving, hoping for the right moveset, then powering It up.
It's either raid passes are too cheap or incubators are too expensive.
Incubators should cost 50 coins now, since raid passes are 100 coins. Why pay for 150 coins for less returns?
Another way is to keep incubators at 150 coins, but massively increase the stardust from hatches to minimum (egg distance/km x 5000). Meaning 10 km egg hatches will earn 10 x 5000 = 50000 stardust. 3 of these hatches and you can power 2 raid Pokemon to level 30.
Since I started playing raids I've been checking the walked distance of people from my city. There's a clear correlation between player level and the distance they walked. Generally level 35+ I met had walked more than 1500 km. It gives you access to pokemon, candy, items, stardust, experience, egg hatches, get to know places, exercise, fun..
So, what's the point of walking in PoGo? Everything.
