Pokemon Go players have noticed that Niantic seems to have quietly nerfed the distance players can walk away from a Raid after their team faints.
Pokemon Go trainers are still reeling from the aftermath of Niantic’s controversial decision to adjust Remote Raid Pass pricing and availability, which left many members of the community unhappy.
After the update went live, some players in rural communities claimed these changes made raiding “impossible” thanks to long wait times and few players available to join.
Now, some eagle-eyed fans think Niantic has quietly introduced another nerf to Raids that may make them even more difficult, which centers around the distance you can physically travel while still in a raid.
Pokemon Go players spot in-person Raid nerf
A post on TheSilphRoad subreddit explained the nerf with the title, “Distance you can walk from raid and can still rejoin after your team faints seems to have been reduced to 80m.”
The OP explained that they started a Landorus raid lobby with a normal Raid Pass, invited other random players to battle with them, and began walking. Unfortunately, the Landorus proved to be effective against their team of Ice-types and defeated them.
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They go on to explain that, “Normally when I walk and raid, I can go pretty far (about 300m or so) and still rejoin the battle… But today, I found myself having to walk all the way back to the 80m spin limit of the gym in order to rejoin the raid, which was pretty frustrating.”
Other players in the replies supported the claim and said they’d experienced similar situations. “This happened to me with a Regieleki raid and the raid was expired by the time all my Pokémon fainted so I missed out.”
There was a bit of confusion on whether the distance players could travel had actually changed, but the OP claimed to have tested and measured the previous distance they were familiar with, which “was roughly 250m.”
While this isn’t a make-or-break change for in-person raiding, it certainly limits how trainers are actually able to play in person. Hopefully, Niantic will make some clarifying statements surrounding this change in the future.