Let’s Talk About Storage in Pokémon GO

For as long as Pokémon Video Games have existed, there has been storage for Pokémon and items, Pokémon GO following suit with this from it’s initial release in 2016. But what sets Pokémon GO apart is it’s Game as a Service model, including your bag and Pokémon storage being an upgradeable and pricy commodity. And as we sit on the eve of the highly anticipated Galar region being released into GO, we need to talk about why storage is a real problem for many trainers.

I expect most players will fall into one of three categories; casual players sitting at under 1000 total storage, hardcore grinders who are at the storage limit and still hungry for more, then there’s the players in the middle who have upgraded their space quite a bit but still managing to avoid upgrading. Each of these will face their own issues with storage, so we’ll try to address them all here.

Introduction to Storage

To fully understand the reason players face storage shortages, we need to first look at how Pokémon GO sets you up from the start and how you progress from there. As of today, a new account will be given 300 spaces for Pokémon and Items, with the ability to expand this by purchasing 50 additional spaces for storage for the price of 200 Pokécoins each time. The maximum amount of storage available has been regularly increased throughout the life of the game as the table below shows. These increases have usually coincided with a major release of new Pokémon, GO Fest, one of the regional Tours or a December Community Weekend.

It’s worth noting here that for the release of Hoenn, Niantic increased the starting amount of storage by 50, as when the game launched in 2016 accounts started with 250 spaces for Pokémon and Items.

Game Bloat

That last sentence about Niantic increasing the starting storage is important right now, because with six other generation debuts in Pokémon GO we haven’t seen that same increase to the initial amount of space given freely to players. With about 850 of 1025 Pokémon now released, a brand new account simply wouldn’t have enough space to store even one of each evolution family currently available. But despite Pokémon GO living up to the “Gotta catch ’em all” motto, trainers tend to have multiples of the same species of Pokémon clogging up their storage for one reason or another:

• Different forms
• Shiny Pokémon
• Lucky Pokémon
• Hundred/Zero percent IVs
• Pokémon with Legacy/Community Day moves
• PVP candidates
• XXL/XXS Pokémon – Especially if you want to win Showcases!
• Costumed Pokémon – The Pikachu line has over 50 costumes!
• Rare/Regional Pokémon for trading

This is only a small sample of the collections players may have sitting in their storage, and it also doesn’t take items into account. Since the game’s launch, we’ve had new items for evolution, new lures, raid passes, new berries, TMs, Rocket Radars and Purified Gems all added in and contributing to game bloat.

Speaking of Items

There’s a resounding difference in Pokémon GO when compared to the main series games in terms of items. The most common Pokémon games on the Nintendo Switch all have the same mechanic of dealing with items, your item bag can hold every single item available in the game, but can only hold a maximum of 999 of each. GO on the other hand can seemingly hold 9999 of each item that isn’t limited, such as Remote Raids passes or infinite items. I say seemingly because it’s possible to hold over your bag limit in items by just completing Routes and spinning Gyms without a Daily Free Raid Pass in your bag. Which begs the question, why are we able to hold more of a single item in GO than the maximum storage should allow?

Well, when you consider that the daily catch limit is currently just under 5000 Pokémon, it does make sense that items like Pokéballs and berries should be able to be stockpiled to support those hardcore players that regularly hit that limit. What doesn’t make sense, are the hundreds of evolution items that are so far down in your item back, it’s no surprise that players run out of bag space! I’m sorry, but who is going to need to evolve more than 100 Porygon at any one time?

The Cost to Upgrade

Now we come to the crux of the issue with storage, the overall cost to keep up with the ever growing releases in GO that require space. As of writing this, to reach maximum storage for Pokémon you would need to purchase 8000 worth of storage, and for items it’s 7000. To break that down further, bearing in mind that this assumes no special deals in the in-game shop that would affect the price:

While some players have no problem dropping cash on the game, those that play as Free-2-Play gamers will undoubtedly struggle to get their storage maxed out, especially when you consider the additional premium items they might want to invest in such as incubators and raid passes to make the most of event bonuses. 

Conclusion

Now that Pokémon GO is into it’s ninth year, maybe it’s time for a storage overhaul or at least a few tweaks that could help level the playing field to help new players catch up quicker to the limits. Here’s just a few ideas that could help out with the situation, be sure to share your own:

• Increasing the starting storage of items and Pokémon to 600, doubling the current amount new accounts would have, while also giving all accounts a one time increase of 300.
• Failing that, giving a free increase of 50 for each maximum increase we’ve seen for future increases instead of trying to backdate it. Essentially giving all accounts 10% of each new increase for free.
• Adding “pockets” to the Item bag, so things like TMs and Evolution Items no longer count to your total space, but limit them to 99 of each item. This would need additional work for the TM system to work in earnest.
• Less costumes… They’re fun for sure, and we expect them for the likes of Pikachu, but do we really need another evolution line with flower crowns. Unless we’re talking Cowboy Hat Caterpie, of course. (Editor note – Noooooo not the costumes, I love the costumes! More!)