GO What do you think of the Team Rocket/Shadow Pokemon mechanic?

[TeaWest]

At first I was pretty excited for them but now I'm kindof meh on them. I'll do a rocket stop when I pass one by but I haven't really been going out of my way to do them.

What do you guys think of them?

 

[Hidden Mew]

I think it's a pretty neat idea. It's a cool way to battle against Team Rocket in the game. Plus, the Shadow Pokemon concept does remind me of Colosseum/XD: Gale of Darkness, which is a cool touch.

It would help if these dark Pokestops were a bit more common. Even in areas where there are a lot of Pokestops around me, I'll rarely find a dark one. There have been times where the Pokestop goes back to normal before I even get a chance to battle the Team Rocket grunt. I don't know if they'd want to have a clear time limit like they do with the Raid Battles, but making them more common for more than one hour would be nice. They seem to already increase some of the Shadow Pokemon you can catch and purify, but they'll hopefully include more non Kanto Pokemon down the road. It isn't my favorite update for Pokemon Go, but it is something different and fun.

 

[Felly]

I think it's a neat concept for sure. I'm going out of my way a little bit for the stops right now since I have the special research that needs me to beat grunts and catch Shadow Pokemon, but probably once I finish the research, I won't really go too much out of my way for it. If I see one, I see one and I'll do it if I can. Otherwise, I won't really care too much.

I've only seen one in areas I frequent though, and I happened to get lucky with finding it because I'd just tapped on the stop to spin it for items and a Go Rocket grunt was there. (I wasn't paying attention to the game too much, so I just tapped the stop without really looking at the coloring of it.) I found a couple more on my way home from work the other day and missed them, unfortunately. I'm glad they are available at all times of the day though and not just during certain hours like raids; that'll at least make it a little bit easier for me since I work nights and I won't have to worry about getting out at certain times of the day to do something in the game.

 

[Parissong]

I thought it was a limited time mechanic, which was sort of the main hype around it for me. When I realized they were here to stay, I sort of now feel mediocre about them and shrug whenever I see one, assessing whether I am in the mood to do one.

I still try to catch the shadow rats cuz hey I could get a 100% right? Not such a bad prize. Anybody else feel the same?

 

[Zexy]

Just like most players in my community I was super hyped for them early on, but it died down a bit. Still, there's a lot to be gained from this mechanic:

First, the Hero and Purifier grinds. These are medals that actually give out in-game bonuses (extra Premier Balls on Shadow encounters). I consider this quite a nice challenge and motivating factor to do more, a rather nice change of pace from the relatively easy type medals (except maybe the Dragon one) I had to do more than a year ago.

Each completed Rocket battle gives 500 dust (750 on star piece, that was super relevant during the Blanche dust bonus when not-otherwise-optimal Star Pieces were running all the time). So the Hero grind also helps up the dust grind. Unfortunately, Purifier is a big stardust sink, for now I only purify Rattata/Zubat/etc. (1000 dust only), Snorlax (level 25 Lick/Return is a very solid defender) and the occasional good IV (such that will be at least 96% after the +2 on all stats). I may have to resort to purifying some 3000 dust ones for medal purposes sooner or later but I'm not in a rush

Speaking of IVs, this is a nice way to get good IVs on some Pokemon, especially when with weather boost, the chance on a purified 100% is 1/64, same as Lucky Trade!

It's also a good Potion/Revive sink if you're not raiding/gymming a lot and have excess, better convert them into 500s of dust than tossing them.

And finally, it's the kind of solo PvE content I always would like to have, that's totally free and challenging and rewarding (unlike having to use passes for the not-so-great level 3 raids). And it gives the Trainer Battle battle system some non-PvP relevance.