Pokemon GO eases gift limits, offers bonuses during COVID-19 crisis

As the coronavirus crisis worsens, Niantic and The Pokemon Company are easing some more restrictions for Pokemon GO to keep the game going.

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Playing Pokemon GO these days has proven a little tougher given the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. It's even harder with a handful of states in the middle of active shelter-in-place orders. So Niantic is doing what it can by easing some of the game's limitations and has announced another series of them on Monday.

Pokemon GO

Last week, Niantic tried to make things easier for Pokemon GO players by offering Pokemon-attracting Incense bundles for 1 PokeCoin. Now it's going a step further by adding a special 1 PokeCoin bundle that adds 100 Poke Balls to a player's inventory. On top of that, the 1 PokeCoin bundles will rotate in the weeks ahead. Starting next Monday, a new bundle will be made available for purchase. That means if you want that batch of Incense or that bag of Poke Balls, you should scoop them up while you can.

But that's not all. In an effort to keep the game going, players are being awarded triple Stardust and XP for their first Pokemon catch of the day. Also, in an effort to keep the game social while also maintaining social distancing guidelines, players can now open 30 gifts a day and carry 20 gifts at a time. Meanwhile, in an effort to promote social distancing, the planned Lugia Raid has been canceled.

Niantic notes that these changes will run "until further notice" and given that the COVID-19 pandemic doesn't look to be slowing down (despite what certain people in government may believe) anytime soon, it's a safe bet that these features will be in place for a while. You can learn more about these changes on the Pokemon GO website. And if you missed it over the weekend, we posted an interview with Niantic's Matt Slemon abou the current state of the Pokemon GO Battle League, which also recently eased its restrictions due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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