Years ago a writer by the name Venastoise submitted an article talking about the future of Pokémon Go and potentially creating new content like adding Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny. Ever since then I have loved the idea of Niantic adding in something I would call Journeys.
For this specific article and portion it would be Kanto Journey. For this, I think it would be best it Niantic created a new tab next to today/field/special to the right labeled Journey.
Kanto Journey
The first step would be Professor Oak starting out by saying something to the effect of “I just want to take a second to congratulate you on so much work done in the last years. You have helped me catch and research so many Pokémon, chase away Team Rocket, and even catch legendary Pokémon. I think it’s now time for you to test yourself to see if you’re ready”. Players would now find the journey tab next to the special tab. In it they would see a bar like icon with a tan colored background with a shadowed figure head in it.
They could click this icon to launch the first stage, first step of the Journey which would be:
- Win 10 battles in Go Battle League.
- Defeat 10 other Trainers in Trainer Battles
- Defeat 10 NPCs (or Trainers)
This brings me to the first new content drop within Journey.
NPCs and Trainers
Niantic already showed this is possible and has done the work with the Kanto Tour Event and Rocket Balloons. I think it would be awesome if they went through Pokémon Red and Blue and picked out 10-15 NPC characters from the game and coded them in.
They could either be attached to stops like in the Kanto Event or attached to the player like rocket balloons and just tweak their spawning times to maybe once every 12 hours. How cool would it be to see Bug Catcher or Battle Girl/Battle boy, Fisherman and Pokémaniac?
This is something they could easily code in and leave in the game.
Back to the Journey
After step one Oak would come back and say “Hey nice job I knew you had it in you to defeat all those other trainers. I am really starting to think you’re ready for your journey through Kanto.
Next let’s see if you can prove yourself again:
- Catch 200 Rock type Pokémon
- Evolve 50 Rock type Pokémon
- Win 20 Raids using a Rock type Pokémon as your buddy
After completing this step Oak says “Well it looks like all that work has brought the attention of a local leader”. Oak is pushed off the screen by a shadowed figure who says “So you think that you know more about rock type Pokémon than I do? I have spent my life dedicated to studying and raising them. I won’t be shown up by some up-starter.” Brock turns around to face the screen. “Show me what you have learned about rock types and I will prove I know more.”
Gym Leaders
The third and final step of this stage of the Journey is now available:
- Defeat the Jr. Trainer
- Challenge Brock
- Defeat Brock
The trainer should be the iconic Jr. Trainer who had a level 11 Diglett and Sandslash. After defeating him Brock appears and you have the chance to challenge and defeat him. His team would consist of Geodude and Onix per Pokémon Red and Blue. After defeating Brock he says congrats and hands you your Boulder Badge.
This brings us to our second content drop.
Gym Badges
First Niantic would have to make a choice, once defeating Brock he gives you a Boulder Badge. I think the logical location would be above your gym badges and medals. They might have to rename the already existing gym badges to something else or just add this new one above, but they could add a block showing Kanto and your badge.
When you defeat Brock you would either win the badge, no border or circle, just the badge. Or, you win the badge with a bronze outline for defeating Brock once.
The whole challenge could restart forcing us back to step one. I think the quest now becomes condensed to a small bar tab similar to other completed special quest.
It would show in the Journey tab but now has a rock symbol in it and the shadowed figure is replaced with Brock’s face next to it.
Clicking the tab would take you back to your progress showing step one. We would be required to go through the process again to challenge Brock each subsequent time. The gym badge could be bronze-defeat Brock once, silver-defeat Brock 3 times, gold-defeat Brock 5 times, platinum-defeat Brock 10 times, emerald-defeat Brock 20 times (getting ahead of myself but leaving that there if Niantic ever extends our badges like they did with platinum).
The second reward would be a pose for your character holding open his jacket to show off his Boulder Badge on the inside like in the show. The third reward could be anything but I come back to poses, costumes or shinnies which I will get to in a minute.
Back to the journey
Now that we have defeated Brock, Oak tells us congrats but it’s time to move forward. Thus, our second tab appears in our Journey tab, a blue coloured tab with a shadowed figure.
Stage 2, step one:
- Win ten battles in Go Battle League
- Defeat 10 other Trainers in battle
- Defeat 10 NPCs (or Trainers)
The second step would be:
- Catch 200 Water type Pokémon
- Evolve 50 Water type Pokémon
- Win 20 Raids using a Water type Pokémon as your buddy
The third step would be:
- Defeat Swimmer (Horsea, Shellder)
- Defeat Jr. Trainer (Goldeen)
- Defeat Misty (Staryu, Starmie)
Again defeating her would award the Cascade Badge either as a stand-alone or a bronze badge to work towards platinum. You would be rewarded shiny Staryu. Her tab would also remain blue but now with a water symbol and Misty all in the tab.
Trainers could start this over while also working towards challenging Brock again. This would continue through all 8 gyms before the final step.
This content would be awesome as these tabs and gym challenges would remain in the game for as long as Pokémon GO is around, giving us content to work towards regardless of incidental or intentional.
Poses and costumes
I know we are all tired of costumes, but I still enjoy them. For defeating Brock maybe you get a guaranteed shiny Geodude with a pewter themed costume. I also like the idea of poses. Maybe the Geodude is flexing his arms and any time you have him as your buddy he takes the pose for others to see. Your Staryu could be holding on arm forward like he is mimicking misty giving the peace sign with an arm extended.
Niantic could drop a lot of merchandise with this as well. They could drop outfits for all the gyms so trainers could buy their favourite gym gear.
You could also purchase poses to match your Pokémon so both you and Staryu are giving out a victory sign or you and Geodude are flexing together.
The final step
Once trainers have defeated all 8 gyms Professor Oak could inform you that you’re ready to take the final push forward.
- Catch 50 Ice type Pokémon
- Catch 50 Fighting type Pokémon
- Catch 50 Ghost type Pokémon
- Catch 50 Dragon type Pokémon
Completing this would launch players into challenging Loreli, Bruno, Agatha, and Lance.
Upon defeating them one final challenge would be available.
- Defeat 50 Trainers
- Catch 500 Pokémon
- Evolve 50 Pokémon
Finishing this would reward you the final battle and that’s to take on Gary. Niantic would have some tough choices here. I think for the Elite Four they would have to keep it 3v3 Pokémon like in current battles, but I think for Gary and Gary only they would expand the battle to 6v6. This battle would be so awesome to see Gary in the game and to pick out 6 Pokémon.
If Niantic somehow knows who we picked as our first Pokémon then they could go with the same lineup in the game – Pidgeot, Alakazam, Rhydon, and either 2 of the following three depending on your starter: Exeggutor, Arcanine, Gyarados.
Finally, one of the following three again depending on your starter: Venusaur, Blastoise, or Charizard. What an epic battle that would be. Winning could reward a lot of different things but I think part of it should be an original blue or ash costume would be cool. I also thought originally this is how we could get shiny Mew. Maybe something different or a second one wouldn’t be too bad.
We would also get a badge to commemorate the journey which again could either be a stand-alone badge with maybe a picture of the Kanto region with champion in text around the border, or a bronze Kanto champion badge and the same winning progression for the previous badges named 1/3/5/10.
Note: I personally like the bronze, silver, gold, platinum chase and also like the idea that you can’t challenge the Elite Four for a silver badge until all 8 Kanto badges are silver, forcing players to work through the Journey again to get their champion badge to silver, gold and platinum
Parting words
I know this was a long article but so much of this has been proven possible already with previous events. In my opinion they drop this end of the summer since we are transitioning back indoor and playing becomes a little more stationary rather than mobile. If released, I think in a year or two from Kanto Journey, Niantic could release Johto Journey.
The same thing just tweaked to content driven by the Johto gyms and trainers. This would give Niantic new content to drop every year or two with each new region’s Journey. Hardcore players would love this content and the casual ones would still accomplish it incidentally at some point just by playing the game.
It would require Niantic adding more Ice, Ghost, Dragon, and Fighting type spawns to regular daily spawns for us to realistically challenge the Elite Four within a decent time. This could also be how we get newer shinnies in the games to come with Hoenn and regions after that.
Niantic could reserve Pokémon based off of the gym leaders to release their shiny through Journeys. I also think for Gen III onward this could also be how we get our mythical shiny. I think it would make it worth the drive knowing I will get my shiny Jirachi after completing the Hoenn Journey or shiny Darkrai from Sinnoh Journey would be my favorite.
There is a lot of content Niantic would have to create but most of the mechanics are already in the game. This would add almost a decade of content for them, have tons of merchandise to sell with and be an incredibly cool status amongst trainers. I would love to join a raid and show off my character in the lobby with my jacket held open and my current number of badges displayed.
Let me know what you guys think should be added or removed, possible reward ideas, changes you would make to the tasks required to complete each step/stage, or tweaks you would make to my ideas in the comment section below.
Article written by Adam, ign: gilgamesh089
