So, the Mythic Blades event is here, and as part of it, Keldeo is being released, but only sort of. Only to those who buy an USD$7.99 ticket (or your local equivalent), via special research. Social media is very divided on their opinion of this ticketed event, especially when we just had a ticketed event last weekend, so let’s take a look at it.
The first thing I’m going to do is take a look at the items you get as part of the ticket, much like I do when I analyse the boxes in the shop. If an item isn’t for sale in the shop I will give it zero monetary value, and I’m not going to assign a value to the t-shirt either because well, it’s a t-shirt, and people tend to only spend free coins on clothing items, that are specific styles/Pokémon designs they love.
| Items | Value |
|---|---|
2×
Incubator
|
300 |
|
2×
Super Incubator
|
400 |
2×
Incense
|
80 |
14×
Rare Candy
|
0 |
12×
Silver Pinap Berry
|
0 |
| Total Value | 780 |
Looking at just the item value of the box, it totals 680 coins, 100 coins is roughly $0.99, or $0.79 depending on your store, means either the ticket is worth less than the coin value, or around about the same (depending on local pricing of course). Is it worth it just for those items? I’m going to say no, especially when compared to the boxes in the shop currently. Of course you get some bonus items in terms of rare candy, silver pinaps and the t-shirt, but they have no true ‘value’. If this is how you want to assess the ticket value, it’s a no from me. You also can’t buy this ticket with coins, so you have to pay with cash money, there’s no option to save your gym coins like there is for a box, the only option is actual money.
So, let’s look at it in another way. You get a brand new (and currently exclusive) Pokédex entry in Keldeo. Keldeo has the same stats as Terrakion, meaning it is a decent Fighting type, one of the top ones in fact, but it will be expensive to power it up and use it, because you are not going to get enough candy to take it to level 40 from the special research, never mind rare candy XL to take it to level 50. It’ll require a lot of rare candy, or walking, and be incredibly difficult to build for Master League PvP if that is what you want it for, and it is far cheaper to build a Machamp for PvE. Even a Terrakion, which is raid exclusive would be easier, as you can at least raid it as much as you like, and we have extra candy and candy XL for trading this season. If you love Keldeo and don’t care about maxing it out, it is a Pokédex entry, and it looks like it will be a rarer one for the moment. As an AR photographer, I love getting the chance to photograph new Pokémon, and I’m very tempted to get this ticket to have access to a cool new Pokémon.
If you are someone who suffers from FOMO and doesn’t want to miss out on a new Pokémon, or if Keldeo is your favourite Pokémon, this ticket may be worth it to you. If not, it might be worth waiting because the chances are this mythical will be available for free at some point in the future, much like Mew, Celebi, Jirachi etc all have been after their initial GO Fest appearances. If it seems familiar that a Pokémon is paywalled, we only have to look back at the Galarian Mr Mime ticket, who has now been featured in several events, and is in the weekly research breakthrough box. Keldeo won’t be as freely available as that of course being a mythical, but it is highly likely it will be in a free special research at some point. I’ve talked extensively about these sort of paywalls before, and did a full review of the Mr Mime ticket. Niantic are relying on FOMO for these sort of tickets to sell well, especially with how uncommon new Pokémon releases are these days.
What else do we get with the ticket bar Keldeo and the items we’ve talked about? Various Fighting type and Water type Pokémon encounters. We have to assume that those rewards are part of the special research, as there are specific incense spawns mentioned for ticket holders that don’t include Water types. If you are using incense, the following Pokémon will appear more frequently:
All shiny chances, two Community Day Pokémon, whether or not you consider the spawns worth it is going to vary trainer to trainer. Do you need the shinies? Are they a Pokémon you love? For me I really want to get Hitmontop and Tympole shiny so I like that they are included, but also, Hitmontop is a wild spawn as part of the Mythic Blades event even without incense, so…. maybe it’s worth it for me personally? I’m not sure. The special research encounters could be rare Water and Fighting types, like Jangmo-o or some of the Hisuian Pokémon, but I suspect it’ll more likely be Pokémon from Keldeo’s generation, gen V, so potentially Mienfoo, Frillish, and other Pokémon of those types from the Unova region. We won’t know until the ticket is live!
The two final things I want to talk about are the cost of the ticket, and the increase of paid events. 8 bucks is not the same to everyone. In the UK for me the ticket is the same as the USD$ price thanks to how weak the £ is right now, but historically in South America in particular, it is a lot more expensive with conversions, taxes, and app store costs. Conversations on social media have highlighted that for some trainers, that $8 is actually a whole days average wage in their country, whereas for many other countries it may be an hour or less wage. The disparity in this cost across the world can be pretty massive, and it is unfair that some people’s ticket while the price is the same, the cost isn’t the same. A days wage versus an hours wage are two very different choices. So much of the world is experiencing cost of living crisis, mass inflation, please think carefully if you can afford this ticket or not, especially in the run up to what is for many people an already expensive holiday season.
For me personally, I’d pay more to go to the cinema, so I compare it with that, it’ll probably encourage me to adventure for a similar length of time depending on the length and complexity of the special research line.
We had a ticket last weekend that people weren’t impressed by, we know the release of shiny Jirachi for Hoenn Tour is ticketed, and this is another ticketed event, all announced in a short space of time. It feels like Niantic are headed towards more ticketed events, it isn’t a trend we want to see continue. GO has always been a game that free to play players could play, just albeit in a way that maybe slower than those who are happy to pay for raid passes etc. Eventually we would all get the same, but with no guarantees, this could be changing. Paywalling mythicals, rather than releasing them via global events feels like people’s FOMO is being preyed upon, they know we want mythicals, and that people are more likely to pay for one. We know two mythicals will be paywalled in the comings weeks and months, both Keldeo and shiny Jirachi, let’s hope this trend doesn’t continue, because some generations have a lot of mythicals!
We did a poll on twitter to see if people intended to buy the ticket or not, and the answer is pretty heavily weighted towards ‘No’ right now.
Are you planning to buy a Keldeo Special Research Ticket? Why yes, why no? We’d love to hear directly from you Trainer.
Keldeo Special Research Ticket information: https://t.co/rPd8M2tbd6
— Pokémon GO Hub (@PokemonGOHubNet) December 6, 2022
Ultimately, the decision is yours. $8 isn’t the same for everyone, and only you can judge if you think this ticket is worth it for you personally. Is Keldeo worth 8 quid? Are the bonuses good enough? Do you, like many on twitter, want to see people not buy this ticket to send a message that paid events like these just aren’t acceptable? Let us know in the comments!
