Remote trading has always been a requested feature in Pokémon GO. In these times of social distancing, lockdowns and mobility restrictions, this feature was more needed than ever. And Niantic finally delivered!
I know, I know. This is not exactly “remote trading”, as there is still a trading range limitation associated. But still, it’s a great improvement over what we had in the past. So let’s take it one step at a time.
The first “beta test” had a trade range of roughly 12km (~7.5 miles). After the positive feedback received by Niantic, they increased the trade range to 50km (~31 miles) on Nov 18th. The bonus was due to end on November 23 but in an unexpected turn of events, Niantic extended it until November 30th (1PM PST).
So one thing is quite clear: they listened, our feedback has been taken into account.
Writers’ thoughts on the increased trading range
Some of our writers wanted to share their thoughts about the increased trading range, as well as their experiences and feedback. Keep in mind that they may be quite different to yours, it all comes down to where you live and where your potential trading partners are located.
Kittypokemonsalot (UK)
Kitty hasn’t been able to physically go out and meet up with members of her community since March due to the restrictions derived from the pandemic.
Bar the odd trade done from a car outside someone’s house, her in-game interactions have all been entirely through remote raiding. As many of us, she had stacked up quite a lot of lucky friends and promised special trades.
Here’s what she thinks:
“When Niantic suddenly announced this extended trade distance I got straight onto Google Maps to work out who I could trade with. My local play area and community is spread across 3 towns and several villages, but from where I am based, I could actually reach pretty much the whole area as the crow flies thanks to the 12km distance. I immediately got set to organising a daily special trade for all 4 days, finally swapping Zekroms with one pal, adding another lucky shiny Rayquaza to my collection, getting a shiny lucky Abomasnow ready for Megas, and probably the most tricky trade I had organised, a lucky trade for a shiny lucky party hat Squirtle that completed my party hat shiny set. It was a trickier trade to organise as the Trainer I was trading with is probably one of the most rural in our community, so he usually visits the main town for Community Day but isn’t often seen. With proper Community Days out of the question I had no idea when I would see him, and this finally gave us the chance to trade safely without one of us having to drive 25 minutes out to an area they didn’t know, in the dark of winter, in order to trade. Much safer, and much happier!
I also worked on getting a good number of lucky trades done. I hope to one day get my lucky dex complete which can be hard when you don’t have a regular trade partner. Some of my lucky friends were keen to take advantage of the increased distance so I added luckies of Unown G, Galarian Zigzagoon, Galarian Ponyta, Emolga, both types of Darmanitan, Pawniard, Tirtouga, Riolu and Absol to my collection. I also did a large amount of regular trades in the hopes of getting a lucky, and managed to add lucky Gible and Spiritomb to my collection, out of 36 trades of those 2, 6 went lucky! I did try for an Unown O but had no luck after that session with random luckies, so will be saving mine now for when I do go lucky with someone.
As someone who realistically has to drive and travel to play Pokemon GO with my community, I was thrilled to be able to trade, even with the 12km distance that I know a lot of people felt was too short of a distance. It was exciting to get some special trades done, and to add new luckies to my collection, without having to travel during this pandemic. I’d love to see this happen again, maybe during the Friendship Event? It would seem appropriate! This isn’t something that is going to help deep rural players, but for those on the outskirts like myself, it certainly helped! I usually find as the semi-rural player, most other players expect me to travel to them, rather than meet me part way to trade, so this cut out a lot of travel for me!”
Looks like she had a great time! This was the perfect opportunity to get a good number of pending lucky trades done, as she says. Lots of positive feedback to be heard, Niantic!
BinetCauchy (Croatia)
Binet had a very positive experience as well. Despite not being able to play that much during the weekend, he still took advantage of the “event” and enjoyed it. Here’s what he thinks:
“I was really unable to play the game much this weekend so i was unable to use much of increased trading distance event. But the little the time I had, it was one of the best events yet. Finally I could Lucky trade with my friend that I just don’t see that often anymore. I want to see more of this in the future, maybe give us like 5 a day, maybe give us like 1 with unlimited distance per week. Give us an option to earn it. But do please give us increased trading distance event again”.
Looks like he wants the increased trading range to come back in the future, and I 100% agree with that statement.
Kratos (Spain)
I had the largest amount of lucky friends you could imagine stacked up for ages. Some of them were locals, some others were from neighbouring towns, and of course some of them were from places all over the world.
When the increased range was announced, I was shocked. I started coordinating lucky trades with locals to get rid of the trades that had been pending for so long. And I managed to complete most of them!
My local group went crazy, people were trying to coordinate and finally complete the lucky trades that couldn’t be done before due to the restrictions derived from the pandemic. I was happy to see lots of screenshots being posted in the group, Trainers were happy with their new shiny Pokémon, hundos and even shundos! This is what Pokémon GO is all about. As the admin of that group, it’s always nice to see my locals enjoy that much.
My feedback is also positive. I think that increased trading range is one of the best bonuses we can get, so bringing it back in future events definitely looks like a great idea! Would you like this bonus to be active on Community Days? I think that’d be awesome.
I understand that some players are not as happy because they have nobody to trade with within that range, so I’d say that increasing the trading range a bit more or even allowing lucky trades overseas (with some limitations of course, such as not allowing regional trades) would be interesting concepts to consider for future events.
International trading
International trading, remote trading, long distance trading, however you want to call it, has been a requested feature for a very long time. In my opinion, allowing international trades (with some restrictions) would be amazing and is long overdue.
I’d love to trade with my GO Hub colleagues but unfortunately, I can’t do it unless I meet them during GO Fest. I feel like adding some restrictions to the system would be a must, otherwise regional Pokémon would be too easy to get and lose their value. How about restricting it to lucky trades only while adding some limitations such as the one I just mentioned? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
Distance trading as a bonus for future events
Community Days are in my opinion the best event to bring distance trading back. Now that we have the 2 extra hours after each Community Day to evolve our Pokémon and get the exclusive move, why not adding distance trading to the mix as well?
Allowing distance trading during other events would be nice too, but I feel like Community Days are honestly the best kind of events to see this happen, at least until the pandemic is over or under control. What do you think? Would you like to see this happen? Let us know!
