Niantic launches player v player battles in Pokémon Go, sadly accompanied with issues

Pokémon Go launched on mobile devices back in 2016, with developer Niantic shaking up the traditional formula in a relatively controversial way. Gone was the need to whittle a Pokémon’s health down before capture, the ability to trade your companions over and the battle-based levelling system. Niantic has since managed to fulfil its promise by introducing player versus player battles before the end of the year, however the feature seems to have arrived with some issues.

Introducing players to the revisited concept, Team Leaders Candela of Valor, Blanche of Mystic and Spark of Instinct are available to challenge in order to run through the basics. Initially, trainer battles were introduced to those that had reached the maximum level the game has to offer, Level 40, however Niantic has since expanded the feature to include anyone above Level 10.

Attention: Level 10 will be the lowest level of Trainers that can access this feature. For Trainers levels 10 and below, we encourage you to keep catching Pokémon and exploring the world of Pokémon GO! We have no doubt that you’ll be a level 10 Trainer in no time!

— Pokémon GO is ready to #GOBattle❗ (@PokemonGoApp) December 13, 2018

Despite being a long-awaited feature, trainer battles do carry some caveats. First off, the only way to battle players remotely is to utilise the friend list, with the option only available to those that meet Ultra or Best Friend requirements. Locally, you can scan a QR code with pretty much anyone to enter a battle.

Players have flocked to various social media to explain their lag-filled experience of the new feature, preventing Pokémon from attacking indefinitely or entering Pokémon into battle that have already accumulated damage. End-of-battle rewards have also been noted to differ between players despite Niantic promising that reward distribution would remain equal. Battle requests aren’t being sent via push notifications for some users, however this is less of as bug and more a part of the feature Niantic is already aware of, according to Eurogamer.

So far, users have suggested that changing the smartphone’s clock to “automatic” fixes many of the issues presented, however this is just an unofficial workaround that might not solve everything for all users. Niantic has yet to issue a comment on the state of the launch.

KitGuru Says: While the update might be a little bugged, it’s wonderful to see Niantic hard at work on core features that perhaps should have made it into the base game at launch. Are you happy to see that player versus player battles are now a thing?  

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