Key Takeaways
- The first details about Pokemon Go’s Reward Road have been revealed as testing for the new feature has begun.
- Players have estimated it will cost $500 to get the 3,000 points needed to claim all of the Road’s rewards.
- Points reset at the end of each month which means spending $500 a month to get everything.
Eight years on from its hugely successful launch, Pokemon Go continues to grow and change so that the mobile game can continue to keep players interested and potentially entice new fans to join the fun. It seems unlikely the app’s new Reward Road program will be all that appealing to most who play Pokemon Go whether they’re new or have been around from the start considering the amount they’ll be expected to spend to truly benefit from it.
Niantic is currently testing Reward Road in Australia and New Zealand ahead of a potential worldwide rollout for the controversial new feature. That means players have been able to share their first impressions, whether they’ve given it a try themselves or have been receiving information second-hand from others who have, and there are a few things about how exactly this new rewards track will work that have rubbed Pokemon fans the wrong way.
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The basic premise of Reward Road is that players spend real-world money and get bonus in-game items in return. So additional stuff on top of what you’re paying for such as incubators and premium passes. Reddit user Cinder_Quill shared a screenshot of how exactly the Reward Road works on TheSilphRoad subreddit. It explains that purchases made using PokeCoins will not count towards your Rewards total and that your points will expire pretty quickly, more on that in a second.
Details About Pokemon Go’s Reward Road Have Been Revealed
It’s Going To Cost A Lot Of Money To Reap All Those Rewards
Reddit user aznknight613 replied to the post noting that the $5 ticket for Pokemon Go’s Eggs-pedition event gets you 30 points on the Reward Road. Assuming the dollars-to-points conversion is the same across all purchases, that means players will need to spend $500 in-game to get 3,000 points and reap all of the bonuses available on the Reward Road.
That alone has likely already turned many of you off to the idea of walking this new road in Pokemon Go, but if there are a few of you still interested, the time limit placed on your points may well change your mind. Go’s Reward Road points have an expiration date. If you don’t spend them by the end of the month, then they’ll disappear. That means you will need to spend $500 on Pokemon Go in a single month to walk the Reward Road from start to finish.
That’s the end of the calendar month, by the way, according to the terms and conditions you can read above. So not 30 days from when you buy the points, but a hard cutoff at the end of each month. That means if you accrue points on December 31 and then don’t spend them right away, those points will be gone by the following day.
As noted, the Reward Road is still in a testing phase at the moment. It might prove to be so unpopular that the idea ends up being scrapped, or at least heavily tweaked. Then again, if enough of Pokemon Go’s biggest spenders are willing to drop $500 a month on the game, maybe the Reward Road will be rolled out unchanged.
One of the most successful mobile games in history, Pokemon Go uses augmented reality to fulfill your dreams of becoming the trainer you’ve always wanted to be — from catching ’em all to battling raids and hatching eggs.