Wizards Unite is Niantic’s shiny new game and the center of attention for players as it continues its worldwide release. Whether you play Pokémon Go and wanted to see what the wizardry was about, or you have been religiously waiting for the Harry Potter themed game to drop, some features stick out among the rest. In this article, we will be going over the features that leave an impression in Wizards Unite that should be implemented into Go.
Wizards Unite and Pokémon Go Portals
If you have played Ingress, Pokémon Go, and now Wizards Unite, you may notice an inconsistency in the number of portals, or the points of interests, in each game. Ingress was the first, and the players in Ingress have the most control over what portals get submitted to the game, and which ones make it in. Pokémon Go has a beta for Pokéstop submission, but it is only for level 40s in certain countries as of now. What makes WU different from Go is that WU has all the same portals as Ingress does, while Go only has a portion of them.
So why does Pokémon Go have fewer portals? Portals from Ingress can turn into Pokéstops and Gyms in Pokémon Go, but they have a very strict rule set. For help, I referenced this Reddit thread from u/OverWatcher2 on the Rules for Pokéstop Creation. They stated the rules in an easy to understand way, and I paraphrase:
- There can be 1 Pokéstop per S17 cell
- Gyms are created when there are 2, 6 or 20 Pokéstops in an S14 cell
- Ingress can have many portals in one cell as long as they are more than 20m apart
Cells are basically how the land is mapped out, S17 cells being smaller areas of land, and S14 being large areas. Take a look at our Comprehensive Guide to S2 Cells to get a better understanding of cells as a whole.
Back to our point, WU seems to bypass the cell rules and has all the same POI as Ingress does. So why does Pokémon Go have these specific rules, while the other games do not? Is this a test by Niantic to see if they could import every portal from Ingress into a new game? Will they be adding portals to Pokémon Go to create Pokéstops and Gyms where they belong? This could be game-changing to Pokémon if they can give players all the resources that Ingress and now WU, have. Here is an example below of the same area, but the differences in portals that crossed over to each game.
Similar to this that can be touched on, is the amount of ‘spawns.’ There are a lot more ‘spawns’ in WU than there are in Go. Is it related to portal data? Most likely.
A Story Element
WU is immersive, very immersive. It can be said that while Pokémon Go has almost nothing for a story, the story is WU is deep, and there is a lot thrown at you at once that they expect you to wrap your head around. Some say it is great to have that much story and depth, others say it needs to be toned down, but either way, we can all agree that the only story we have in Pokémon Go involves Professor Willow’s special research, and even that is not much of a story.
There does not have to be the fancy voice acting like there is in WU, but a little bit of a story from the team leaders would be amazing. The chat box system they use in WU is fine, easy to do, and all they need is a little bit of creativity to create an immersive Pokémon Go world. Whether or not it is tied to quests or just its own element, Pokémon Go needs a story, and it would help make the team leaders a better part of the game.
Wizards Unite Daily Treasure and Daily Assignments
Pokémon Go has tasks and a daily streak system, but WU takes this to a new level. With daily rewards for just logging in, this entices players to log on every day and gives us a reward for doing so. The other difference is that you do not have to go out to gather daily tasks, as they reset every day on their own. They are the same tasks every day, as opposed to Go’s wide variety of Pokémon and items for doing different things, so it could get repetitive, but these assignments give you coins, potions, energy, scrolls, things you need on a day to day basis.
The other issue with Pokémon Go’s ‘daily streak system’ is that there is no way to check your progress. Forget what day you were on? Well, have to wait till you spin or catch something tomorrow, because there is no way to look at your streak progress.
Wizards Unite Achievements
We could compare WU achievements to the type and achievement medals in GO, but they cannot be shown off to friends on your player card like they can in WU, and frankly, completing your medals does not get you much. In WU, completing achievements gives you items and XP as well as an occasional stamp that you can put on your player card and show off to friends your progress.
Not much else to be said here, the achievements are cool and give you good items when you complete them, something Pokémon Go lacks in the medal system.
QoL Additions
- A Pokéstop timer. Inns have a ‘come back in 4:59 minutes’ timer until you can get more energy from them, and Pokéstops and Gym Photo Discs would benefit from that.
- The Player Card. It may be small now, but the customized avatars, wand, title, and achievement badges you can customize your page with are fun and fresh. We hope that they will be shareable with friends soon, because when you click on a friend’s page, they still appear mostly blank.
- Ingredients and Portkeys wild on the ground. Imagine being able to pick up Revives or Eggs right off of the over-world. That’s basically the same thing.
- Enhance Lures. Dark Detectors can be stacked on an inn up to 3 to increase the threat level of the Foundables that spawn in the area. If this could be done with lures to increase level or rarity of the Pokémon that would be a great addition.
- Professions vs. Teams. If the teams had even the slightest bit of complexity, or ability to level up skills, that would be amazing. Could tie into a story, research with your Team Leader to unlock different bonuses. These bonuses could be different for every team, or the same, it would not matter.
Final Thoughts
We could talk all about the things Wizards Unite needs, but that is a better-suited article for our friends over at Wizards Unite Hub, and frankly, WU is too new to start complaining about all the things they do not have. Pokémon Go, however, is old, and seasoned, and could benefit a lot from these features that Niantic is coming up within their newer game.
