The most reasonable theory I can come up with why we are getting these Gen 1-centric raid bosses...they will become "rare" in eggs, replaced by the new generation. The ship has sailed on people buying lots of incubators, be one of the few that consistently buys them when gen 3 is released...and/or buy pokemon storage when it is on sale and/or expanded
GamePress
Best thing to spend coins on?
I used to buy a new egg incubator the second I reached 150 coins. Now with raids I feel like eggs aren't as useful. Certain Pokémon I would have been excited about (namely Larvitar) are no longer worth spending tons of candy on when I can get a fully evolved version of the egg Pokémon, at the same level, and with good IVs. For that reason, I haven't bought any incubators in a while and have accumulated a decent amount of coins.
So what's the best thing in the store to spend your hard earned coins on? Or is it better to save them for special event items that may be added to the store on a temporary basis later on?
Report
Answers
I would say the best thing is bag storage, because it is a permanent upgrade, as opposed to a consumable. Then Pokemon storage, but only as needed. (edit: To devshaw's point, I'm hoping that pokemon storage will be discounted briefly when gen 3 is fully released, as it was when gen 2 was released. So, although my storage is getting tight, I am trying to hold off on buying anymore pokemon storage until December.)
As far as consumables go, I buy the limited incubators only as needed for 10k eggs. I use the infinite incubator for 2k eggs first, and then 5k eggs if I have no 2k's. I buy raid passes occasionally, but not too often, although I think they are a pretty good buy if you use them wisely. Raids are fun, and usually result in getting a decent pokemon.
I have over 4,000 gym-earned coins, but I'm still pretty stingy with them. I keep hoping for a compelling package deal, but it seems like the special boxes usually are roughly equivalent to paying full price for the stuff I want, with a lot of crap I don't want (lures, incense) thrown in for free.
I would say this is all pretty good advice.
Personally, I try to save up enough coins where I could afford around 8 incubators, and/because I generally only use my incubators when I acquire a total of 9 10ks, or immediately when a double stardust event is in effect. Any coins I earn beyond that go to bag and box upgrades, at least they did until I maxed both, now I occasionally buy extra premium raid passes. This practice also tends to let me immediately afford a special box or two every time a desirable deal turns up during an event.
I'd save them for specials, like the highly likely half price sale on Pokemon storage that will happen when Gen 3 gets rolled out in full, or for the occasional extra raid pass. (I'm a free player, so my needs and usages may be different from people who are walking 9 eggs at at time for dust, etc.) But if you don't have anything you need to spend the coins on, don't spend them. Unless Niantic decides to raise the price of everything without any warning, the coins won't decrease in value.
All of these responses are reasonable paths to playing efficiently. One thing to be said for incubators is that they are a significant source of dust generation. Give or take, the eggs can be around 50% of your stardust income if you run full incubators all of the time. If you are moving faster than 2-3 mph or if you aren't stopping to catch (ie just catching on the move or using a go+ etc.) then the dust from eggs will be even greater. Seeing as how dust is the most limiting factor for most people at most levels, this alone may be a reason to spend the resources here. Again, all of this really is a function of what your most pressing need is.
^This. Raid passes feel tempting considering the lack of candy investment since you don't need to evolve the high(ish) IV mons. But after several raids of each boss, you probably have enough useful versions of those mons, and the absolute most dust you can earn from a raid is a mere 500 (1000 during double events), a number outdone by nearly all eggs, even the bulk of 2k hatches. And you get 3x the uses out of an incubator for only 50 more coins than a one use raid pass.
The problem is that they really haven't been discounted, except early on when there was a bulk discount for raid passes. The recent package deals weren't really a discount if all you care about are the incubators and raid passes.
For example, the largest box was six super incubators, six raid passes, and six lucky eggs for 1,480 coins. Six incubators plus six raid passes normally costs 900 + 600 = 1,500 coins.
I figure lucky eggs are worth about 35K XP each, so the six lucky eggs are worth about 210K XP. I'm currently level 39, with 1.4MM XP out of 5MM needed to level up. The 210K extra XP from the lucky eggs is pretty insignificant relative to what I need to level up, and I don't think there is any huge benefit to achieving level 40 anyway. So, for me, the lucky eggs are worth very little.
That means that I would basically be spending 1,480 coins all at once vs. spending 1,500 over time as needed for the same number of incubators and raid passes, with the minor benefit of the super incubators hatching eggs a little faster. It just doesn't seem like that good of a deal to be worth spending that many coins in one shot.
The general perception on my part for every sale has been that the middle box was the best value. Even most recently the only items of value in the "great" box were passes and super incubators. Lucky eggs, I would agree with you (if my perception of your opinion is correct) are the items that become the least useful most quickly. And bear in mind it's completely subjective to calculate the value of super incubators since they've only been available thus far from sale boxes. And it's hard to argue that the super incubators from boxes have been a worse value than regular incubators considering the reduced time they take to hatch, and that there is no baseline price for that specific item.
Once you have maxed out your Bag and Storage, I'd suggest waiting for Special Events - normally you can get things you can't normally get (Super Incubators, Non-Red balls, Berries, etc.), and other things at a huge discount (Raid passes).
Depending on how many Coins you have, I'd still recommend Incubators - it's extra Stardust at the very least. And even if you don't need the Candies as much, it's still nice to get 20-30 Larvitar candies from a 10km egg.
