What new feature are we talking about? August 27, 2022 marked the culmination of this year’s GO Fest. In addition to numerous spawns and bonuses, the ultra beasts Schabelle, Masskito, Voltriant, and Anego were also an important part of the event.

However, unlike what you’re used to from catching in Pokémon GO, Niantic provided you with a new catching feature in the form of so-called Ultra Balls for the GO Fest finale. Now the trainers on reddit have come to a clear conclusion.

What are the Ultra Balls? The Ultra Balls are special balls that make catching Ultra Beasts easier. They were first introduced in the main Pokémon games Sun and Moon, where they are 5 times more effective than normal balls in catching Ultra Beasts. You can recognize them by their blue-yellow appearance.

Trainers think “the new balls were great”.

What do the coaches say about the new balls? If the trainers of the reddit community are anything to go by, then the developers of Pokémon GO have really hit the bull’s eye. The main reason for this praise is the speed of catching.

The majority of these Ultra Beasts could be found in the Level 5 Raids, but you also had the opportunity to encounter them in the rewards of the special research for “A Radiant Reunion”.

Why is catching them quickly so important? At such an event, the focus is on even more Pokémon, which is why you want to continue playing as quickly as possible and don’t want to spend forever catching a single monster. Niantic definitely achieved that with the Ultra Balls, because catching the Ultra Beasts was mega easy and really fast.

So you didn’t have to use golden Himmihberries to catch them, as you’re used to doing with the legendary raid bosses, but you could also use Sanana Berries to get more candies without any problems and the beasts still stayed in the ball.

Compared to the global GO Fest in June, catching Anego with the normal premium balls available to you after the raid namely took significantly longer and was also considerably more costly in terms of berries. This is also reflected in the conclusion of the players on reddit, who find many praising words about the new balls (via reddit.com):

• glumada: “Catching ultra beasts – this is what a raid on a catching event should be like. I, and everyone I know, have been very happy with how easy the UBs are to catch. [Ultrabestien] were easy to catch during the event. No more wasting time trying to catch a Legendary Pokémon during a short event with high Shiny chances.”

• TakahashiSato: “I agree with you, it was very nice to be able to catch them quickly again, but it’s just part of the game that they’re easier to catch with Ultra Balls. I’m actually surprised they gave them to us and it wasn’t just a visual thing.”

• Target880: “The new balls have been great. During the event last summer, I spent more time catching the legendary Pokémon after the raid than fighting during the raid because you beat them very quickly when you have 20 people involved.”

• BCHiker7: “Yes, it was definitely the Ultra Balls. The base catch rate in the game for the beasts is 2%, just like the Legendaries. So it was the Ultra Balls that made the difference. They even made sure we got Ultra Balls in Special Research.”

• MegiddoZO: “Anego definitely wasn’t as easy to catch when it was with regular premium balls.”

So now that Niantic has finally given trainers an advantage in the Raid, the voices are getting louder for more changes to follow. We show you which ones the reddit users would like to see.

The trainers would like to see these important changes

The introduction of Ultra Balls has shown many trainers how many Pokémon you can actually catch in an event like this, when the wait times to continue playing are shorter and you can secure the monster faster.

Better catch rate: Indeed, the speed in the game has been a huge issue among trainers for some time now. For example, there was a recent comment from a reddit user that catching takes too long due to the animations, which ultimately has a negative impact on the spawns of the daily adventure smoke.

And also in the comments on reddit, some wish that in the future, outside of such events, it would be great if catching was simply faster. So Axume4 could imagine a better catch rate in general and writes:

I know people like the ultra ball reasoning, but the whole game would be greatly improved with higher catch rates. Think about it, you pay 100 coins for a raid. You throw 15 fabulous throws and the thing pops out and flees. Not to mention the time you have to invest to throw 15-20 balls and time them.

It’s about time they improve the catch rate or add a mechanic that improves that. Especially now that experienced coaches are only raiding for XL candy. That means there’s no real reason to do the raid. There is no reason to further demotivate players with an unreasonably low catch rate.

Trainer Dragunov1987 sees it similarly and would generally like to see an Ultra Ball system for the raids in the game. He explains on reddit that Niantic could even say that each player has a certain number of premium balls and a last ball as a kind of master ball, with which the catch finally succeeds.

What is a master ball?
A master ball is a special ball introduced in the main Pokémon series games of Pokémon Red and Blue. This is the strongest ball in the game, because it is guaranteed to catch a monster.

Why aren’t Ultra Balls suitable for this? Even though some trainers would welcome a general introduction of Ultra Balls, they are not necessarily useful to you in the game. This is because they were specifically designed to help you catch Ultra Beasts. However, catching other Pokémon is much more difficult with them.

To improve catching in the Raid for all monsters, you would need a different ball. In principle, Dragunov1987’s Master Ball could be used here, but it is not yet available in Pokémon GO.

Another important wish of the trainers

But the better catch rate and the introduction of new balls is not the only thing that trainers would like to see in the game in the future. The call for a “GO” button in the raid lobby is also getting louder.

Trainers have also wanted this for some time. Especially in smaller raids, trainers play alone or only in a small group, as these are easy to do. Still, even though it’s not foreseeable that more trainers will want to join here, they have to wait until the preparation time is up. And that’s exactly what takes what feels like forever.

The trainers hope that a corresponding button will allow them to start raids faster without having to wait for the preparation time. Target880 writes the following on reddit:

What they should do next is add an “I’m done preparing” button for the lobby. It’s pretty pointless to wait until the timer counts down to zero when you’re ready and no more people can join.

Adds the ability to skip low level raids until at least level 1. I can understand not picking up level 4 and 5 raids where the lobby isn’t full so you have a chance to join even if you didn’t plan it with others.

Some notifications to opt in to would be nice too. After all, you already get notifications that there is a raid, why not one that people are in the lobby so you can join.

Whether Niantic will introduce more features in the future that will improve the game as much as the Ultra Balls from the trainers’ point of view remains to be seen for the moment, though. Should there be any new information on this, you will of course find it here on MeinMMO.

How did you like the Ultra Balls for the GO Fest finale? Do you also think that there should be a better catch rate in the future? Or do you not think that Niantic should change the current system? Feel free to post your opinion here on MyMMO in the comments and share it with other trainers.

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