Pokemon Go community furious after Niantic nerfs Incense: “Johto Tour is gonna suck”

Pokemon Go players are outraged after Niantic unexpectedly nerfed Incense in the mobile title. The major change to the item has some fans threatening to boycott the upcoming Johto Tour event. 

Since launching in 2016, Pokemon Go has been no stranger to having glitches and hiccups. Players of the mobile title were stunned, however, when Niantic revealed that increased spawn rates for Incense had not been a feature but was instead a bug.

According to a developer update on December 17, the item would no longer become boosted while players use it for stationary purposes. The major nerf left some furious as the change will have a profound impact on those playing the mobile app from home.

Niantic / The Pokemon Company

Incense will be nerfed in Pokemon Go’s December 2021 Community Day.

Pokemon Go Incense nerfed and fans are not happy

Throughout 2021, Trainers playing from home during Community Days or Spotlight Hours were able to use Incense to get boosted spawn rates for Pokemon. But in December, Niantic revealed that the item was actually not working as intended and pushed out a fix to revert it.

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“Trainers, for the last few Community Days, an unintended Incense setting boosted stationary gameplay during Community Day,” the dev wrote. “For December and future events, unless otherwise announced, Incense behavior during Community Day will match normal gameplay.”

In a second message to fans, Niantic added that the update would take effect immediately and impact December 2021 events. “For December Community Day specifically, Incense activated during the event will last for three hours and match the seasonal bonus effects only.”

Players stunned by the announcement took to social media platforms such as the r/TheSilphRoad forum to vent their frustrations.

“Out of all the actual bugs that we’ve been screaming about from the mountaintops for months, YEARS even, that drive we faithful players insane and break the game..and THIS is what they fix,” one player said in disbelief. “Wow. Just wow.”

Other fans were upset at how the Incense nerf would impact the game’s upcoming events. “Just in time to ruin Community Day,” a user wrote.

Another exclaimed, “So is this gonna affect Johto Tour as well? This is honestly a huge change that everyone thought was a feature.”

One Trainer even said, “Niantic are slowly killing this game and it’s heartbreaking.”

Niantic’s update quickly went viral online after sparking backlash with the community. Many fans of the mobile app felt blindsided as they had believed the “bug” was a feature for months.

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Only time will tell if the developer will change their minds on the decision. One thing is for certain though – Pokemon Go events such as Community Day or the Johto Tour in 2022 will change in a big way.