Niantic included a large number of temporary bonuses for Pokémon GO players around the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic. As October approaches, Niantic has also started to remove some of the temporary bonuses and make some of them permanent.
According to a post in the official Pokémon GO Blog, the following temporary bonuses would remain to improve the overall gameplay experience of Pokémon GO :
• Players can carry a fixed number of 20 Gifts in their Item Bag.
• Users would get three times the Stardust and XP for first Pokémon catch of the day.
• Incense duration will be 60 minutes.
People will be encouraged to spend some time outside, go for walks, exercise for their physical and mental health by maintaining social distancing and abiding by the health and safety recommendations. A few temporary bonuses will be modified from Thursday, 1st October, 2020 at 1pm PDT (GMT-7). This includes –
• Hatch distance will get back to normal for eggs.
• Increased effectiveness of Incense would be applied only while walking.
• Your Buddy Pokémon would provide Gifts only if the players have nearly run out. This will happen for only one time in a day.
• Players would have a higher chance of getting a Gift when they spin a PokéStop. However, getting a gift is still not guaranteed.
There will be more incubators in boxes at the in-game shop.
Niantic is at present monitoring the ongoing global situation and are also working to reschedule the planned five events to 2021. It would completely depend on when a vaccine is found to control Covid-19. For now, players know about the bonuses they need to take advantage of before they disappear on 1st October.