Extra Special Trades & Other New Bonuses Announced For Pokémon GO

The Season of GO begins tomorrow in Pokémon GO. Let’s take a look at the Season’s bonuses!

The complete Seasonal Bonuses of Pokémon GO will become active tomorrow. Here they are, along with our commentary:

• Increased friendship bonus damage for Raids: This is great! It will hopefully help with things like Legendary Mega Raids, which are truly Tier Six raids above that of normal Legendary raids. I do see this as Niantic adding incentive to raid in person, and I see the idea of this as an additive bonus as a great positive.
• Lure Module duration extended to one hour: This is another on-the-move bonus, which to me could be helpful for people who potentially do computer work near a PokéStop or for single-day events where people are walking around in one location.
• One extra Special Trade per day: This is the best bonus of the Season. Special Trades are going to be in general more in-demand because of this, as it can be annoying to coordinate with a Trainer and meet them in person when all you can do is one Special Trade. If you’re a night owl and meet near midnight, you’d be able to get four Special Trades in one fell swoop as the day ticks over.
• One extra Pokémon Candy when trading Pokémon: Good!
• Guaranteed XL Candy when trading Pokémon: This is great as well. Stop transferring those Larvitars and Gible, as swapping them this way will be able to help you build up XL for those rarer Pokémon.
• Guaranteed gifts from PokéStop spins: I’ve never had a problem getting Gifts so I don’t personally see this as a huge incentive. What do you guys think?
• Increased damage for Pokémon participating in Raids remotely: To clarify, this isn’t increased from what we already had. Keep in mind that remote raiders are supposed to do less damage. This increased buff just keeps it as it was.
• Increased Incense effectiveness while moving: This is a holdover from last season and, to me, should be a permanent aspect of the game.