Niantic has just made an unannounced change to the way players acquire the Sinnoh Stone in ‘Pokemon Go,’ and players are not happy.
‘Pokemon Go’ has recently seen the release of the 4th generation of Pokemon, also known as Sinnoh Pokemon. Niantic has been rolling out these Pokemon for the past two months, and of the Sinnoh Pokemon already released, 11 are unique. These Pokemon are as follows: Rhyperior, Electivire, Togekiss, Mismagius, Roserade, Magmortar, Honchkrow, Gliscor, Weavile, Porygon-Z, and Dusknoir. They are unique because, unlike the rest of the Sinnoh region Pokemon, these are evolutions of Pokemon from previous generations. In the main series, these fan favorite Pokemon were largely underwhelming and outclassed by other Pokemon, and these Sinnoh evolutions served to improve their standing in the meta game. In ‘Pokemon Go,’ these Sinnoh evolutions have been anticipated for quite a long time, which is why players are currently very frustrated with Niantic’s recent update.
In order to obtain one of the 11 Sinnoh evolutions, you need to use a Sinnoh Stone on them. Previously, a Sinnoh Stone was a guaranteed Research Breakthrough reward, which means you were guaranteed to get one after a week of field tasks. Players did not like having to use a special stone in the first place, but having said stone as a guaranteed weekly reward was a fair compromise.
That has all changed, as Niantic has now made the Sinnoh Stone one of five random Research Breakthrough rewards: 1 Sinnoh Stone, 3 Rare Candies, 20 Poke Balls, 5 Ultra Balls, or 5 Pinap Berries.
There are no drop rates for the random rewards listed, but it is safe to assume that the Sinnoh Stone will have the worst drop rates because it is the most exclusive reward. This change was unannounced and makes acquiring one of the 11 Sinnoh evolutions that much harder. A few of the Sinnoh Evolutions are top tier Pokemon in the current meta, but most of them are average at best. So players just wanting to complete their Pokedex could end up waiting for months to do so, just because the evolution stone they needed is now a random reward.
In order to make up for this, Niantic is going to have to add more ways for the Sinnoh Stone to be acquired, lest they face the risk of more backlash from disgruntled players.
