The Implications of Remote Raiding

In a recent discovery uncovered by Pokeminers, it seems that we're getting a long-requested feature in the near future: remote raiding. Soon we'll be able to join in on raids with our friends despite the recent trend towards social distancing and self-quarantine, giving us more chances to fight and catch powerful and potentially important Pokemon safely. But how is this going to shift Pokemon Go's gameplay meta, and what effect is it likely to have on the community? In order to get ready for this monumental paradigm shift, let's take a look at what we know about this system, what we don't know about this system, and let's try to theorycraft a future where this system is a reality.

First, let's set the foundation of this new system by establishing what we do and do not know. Keep in mind that we only have the datamining done by Pokeminers to go on as a basis, so our exact information-base is a bit stark for the time being. Keep in mind that any of this information could change at any time! You can also check the Pokeminers Redit Post on the topic for more in-depth information on these points.

What We Know

• Remote Raid passes will be separate from normal Battle Passes, so your daily and Premium passes won't work for this system as-is
• Remote raid passes will be available from the shop, and you will only be able to carry so many at a time.
• Remote raiders will deal less damage! This is extremely important in a metagame based largely on DPS, and means that this won't be the end-all fix to raids that some players have long dreamed about
• The friend that is physically located at the raid site will be the one to send an invite to remote friends
• Remote and local raiders will be differentiated in some way on the raid screen
• The number of remote raiders allowed at a given raid is limited! If too many join, apparently it will be possible to start a new lobby. 

What We Don't Know

• Will remote passes be available to be purchased via Pokecoins, or will they be cash-purchases like exclusive content has been as of late?
• How much will remote-raider damage be lowered?
• How many remote raiders will be available per lobby? Will it be a limit of X number per physical raider on-location?
• If remote passes have a limit on the number that can be held, will there be a daily/weekly/etc. limit on how many can be purchased?
• Will there be a limit on the distance that can be covered by a remote raid? In other words; if I'm in the United States, could I potentially join a remote raid in another country?
• Will this system have a minimum friendship level requirement?
• Will bonuses such as best friends and local weather still count? And if so, will it count the local weather of the remote player or the raid (The latter is far more likely)
• Will this system be limited to the time-frame of the Coronavirus scare, or will it become a new long-term system?
• Will remote raiders get full rewards/Premier Balls?
• Will remote raiders be able to help trigger EX raids?
• When will this be officially announced/made available?

We still have numerous questions, but just enough information to make some extrapolations and work on some theorycrafting.

As with any new system, this change has a few potential pros and cons attached to it.

Pros

It's Remote Raiding!

The biggest pro is in the name; we'll finally be able to join in on raids even if we don't have time to go out and play! We could raid on our lunch hours or recess from school, while waiting for real-life events, or while otherwise unable to go out. It's a feature that's been requested since Raids were released, and it's finally coming!

Fewer Missed Legendaries

If you're anything like me, then you may have a Legend-sized hole or two in your Pokedex (in my case Virizion). We can't always find time to raid, and low-priority Legendary Pokemon can be a real drudge to go out and raid. This will give us less of an excuse to miss these Pokemon, and make even the low-priority Pokemon more obtainable.

More Resources

Again; if you're anything like me, then self-quarantine has made your resources a bit scarce. While Go Battle League has shored this up to a certain degree, a severe lack of raiding has given some of us a deficit of items such as Fast TMs.

A Wider Community

We here at the remote Gamepress team are already excited about being able to finally raid together, and so are many other long-time friends located far apart! It will finally be possible to globalize this traditionally local game and work together with many of our non-local friends!

New Raid Goals

With players undertaking self-imposed special challenges such as solo raids and draft, the changes imposed by remote raiding may end up bringing out some new creativity on this front. Perhaps a remote solo (doable by the local person not attacking)? Or maybe solo+remote? Or even dual-remote? It should be interesting to see how this evolves!

Cons

Planning and Raid-Group Drama

Have you ever gone to a raid with your local group only to have someone complain about the group not waiting an additional 10 minutes? Or had a raid set, only to find out that someone bailed our at the last second? While this is likely to be less of an issue here, it is one more layer of potential problems. On top of that, having remote-raiders take up raid slots may irritate some larger raid groups, making the system a bit more annoying on some levels. As such, it seems that remote raiding is going to be more suited for smaller, more close-knit groups.

Remote-Raider Real Estate 

Let's assume that the number of remote raiders allowed is 5, and we have 5 people at a raid. If each of these players has 1 player that they want to invite, then they're just fine. But what if one or more want to invite 2 players? This is where it could become a problem, though this is also based somewhat on how much of a damage hit remote raiders take, as that will determine if splitting a lobby is viable or not.

Raiding Cliques

If you're a part of a raid group, then you probably know that one group of 3-5 players that always goes off and does the raids themselves. If they can drop in a remote raider or two to seal the deal, then they could potentially become a self-contained raiding machine (assuming that they aren't already) and become entirely exclusive. On a less condensed level, this also makes local community a bit less important and may spread out groups a bit more. That said, this point is largely based on how much of a damage-hit remote raiders take, how many can join, and if Niantic will impose limits to how many remote passes can be used in a given time period

Other Points

Neither pros nor cons, these points are observations that may/may not have an impact, though the nature of this impact is largely up to the observer.

Sub-Accounts

While Niantic doesn't expressly endorse sub-accounts, they are very much a thing, so we're going to discuss them here. Now this is very much a stretch as it's based on something that we don't even know for sure, but sub-accounts could change the game if the number of remote raiders that can be invited is X per present account. Let's say that each player can invite 2 remote raiders. I'm at a raid and want to invite my 2 friends, so that's 3 slots taken up. Now if I bring my sub-account and want to bring 2 more, that's 6 accounts right off the bat! In this light, it could be possible to have 4 players fill up an entire lobby of 20. This is largely based on a somewhat skewed interpretation of the aforementioned "limit" on remote raiders, but regardless this is worth considering!

PvP/PvE Shift

Just take a look at our top pages and top Pokemon on any given day and one trend becomes very clear; Pokemon Go has shifted from PvE (raid)-centric, to PvP (Go Battle League)-centric. This has been helped along by the Covid-19 scare and the increased rewards of Go Battle League. Remote raiding will likely shift a bit more focus back to PvE play, as raiding goes back on the table for many players. This could be a small advantage for players that already have their teams for different leagues ready as other players may focus a bit more on raid-teams, but on the other hand it may also condense the PvP-centric players a bit more, making Go Battle League a bit harder. Or it could have absolutely no effect at all! Time will tell.

As previously stated; DPS is the king of raiding, so dropping it for remote raiders will make them far less viable in general. However, just how much less viable is based largely on just how much of a drop this entails. In order to understand how this will impact raiding a bit more, we recommend that you check the following resources:

We'll do a bit of general rounding here in order to simplify, but these are some generalizations as to just what impact specific nerf-levels are likely to entail.

Damage Dealt: 90%-75%

At this level, the actual drop in damage is largely a slap on the wrist. Many two-man raids will still be doable, and the addition of a remote raider or two could very likely tip the scales. This would make the system an invaluable way to shore up a short-man and ensure that many, many more raids will go completed. Honestly, at this level the effectiveness of the system is arguably too strong, as a single on-site raider could potentially be enough to take on virtually any Tier 5 boss depending on the number of remote raiders allowed.

Damage Dealt: 75%-50%

At this point, many duos will need 2-4 raiders if only one is on-site. A few remote raiders could very well tip the scales, though the space would generally be better filled by an on-site raider for the most part

Damage Dealt: 50%-25%

This seems a slightly more likely range, with 50% being a very strong guess. At this point, duos will need at least 3-5 players to finish, and remote raiders become more of a drag than a help on large raid groups. They will still be useful if short a few players on smaller group, but in general their usefulness would be severely diminished. At this level, teams would matter to an extremely great degree, as reward balls from damage would be basically non-existent most of the time, and team bonuses would be the best chance at more balls most of the time.

Damage Dealt: 25%-10%

This is the level where remote raiders are little more than a token "may I please try to catch this Pokemon too?" case. Adding them to a group would largely be for charity towards the unfortunate players that couldn't join in person, and they'd be basically unthinkable in terms of large groups. On top of this, a severe lack of reward balls would vastly reduce the number of balls available, making Go Battle League a far more attractive resource for remote legendaries.

Maxing Damage:

As shown above, the hit to damage could potentially be very heavy to remote players, meaning maximizing damage is very important. For this reason, planning out your team could very well become paramount to making this new system work. Effects like Best Friend Bonuses, Weather Bonuses, and Best Buddy Bonuses could become extremely important to make up even the smallest bit of land lost to the system. And one more bonus needs to be discussed as well....

In a semi-recent update, Shadow Pokemon were given a boost to damage and a drop to defense, making some of them the top raiders in the game within their given types. At this point, a good Shadow Pokemon or two might make remote raiding sting a bit less in the face of the damage drop, though the cost is fairly hefty!

As time moves on, this system has the potential to be very good. Right now, we have the chance to capture the Ground/Flying Type Pokemon Landorus-Incarnate, which is in-and-of itself a very strong Pokemon. However, the near future is when this system could become extremely enticing as we're likely to see the start of the Tao Trio's introduction to Pokemon Go!

Zekrom is set to become the new Electric Type king, Reshiram will likely become our new Fire Lord, and Kyurem - Black in particular is set to become a massively oppressive Dragon attacker. Note that we're not taking Shadow Pokemon into consideration with these statements.

On top of exciting new Pokemon, we will also see fewer cancellations, and more accessible special raid events 

With remote raiding, special movesets like Lugia's (hopefully) upcoming Aeroblast will become far more available and less likely to be cancelled, while raid events like Lick Gengar will be far, far more accessible assuming damage isn't hit too hard in remote raids.

At the end of the day, this could very well cause a huge shift in paradigm moving forward, though just how much of a shift remains to be seen behind many currently hidden variables. Time will tell where remote raiding will bring us, and just how long we'll have this potentially great system. Either way, it's obvious that Niantic is listening to us, and is trying to be accommodating in this trying time. On behalf of the Gamepress team; thank you, Niantic!