How the Pokémon Go Pass April works

Pokémon Go is bringing back its battle pass system, called the Go Pass: April, though only to some random players. This originally had its debut during the Go Tour Unova event, and though it functions pretty similarly to the Unova pass, this new one has a few tweaks.

If the pass is available to you, you’ll have from April 1 at 10 a.m. until May 6 at 10 a.m. in your local time to complete it.

Below we explain how this early access-ish Pokémon Go Pass works, if it’s worth buying, and we detail some of the rewards that we can confirm.

How does the new Pokémon Go Pass work?

First, to reiterate, the Go Pass: April is currently only available as part of a “test” for some players. From what we can tell, this doesn’t seem to be a regional thing — people from the same regions have reported having different passes and some have the pass and some don’t, via reports on The Silph Road.

As for what it features, Niantic stated in their blog that some of the rewards may vary, as the company is testing different options. This includes different encounters, item rewards, and overall ranks. That said, tons of the information out there implies that there is a lot of variance between these different passes.

And, as previously mentioned, it broadly works the same way as the Go Tour Unova Pass, with a few differences, though those vary depending on which version of the pass you got, including:

• Catching Pokémon may reward fewer points (depending on how many ranks your pass has).
• Hatching eggs may reward more points (depending on how many ranks your pass has).
• The daily point limit seems to vary from 100-300.
• Some people may have a pass with only 50 ranks, whereas others have 100 ranks.
• Some people have a weekly challenge that rewards more points.

You will need to check your pass to see the details specific to you, if you have it.

Pokémon Go Pass: April rewards

Unfortunately, because the passes vary from player to player, we can’t give you a definitive list of the rewards you may have. You should be able to see the rewards for your track in-game on the “events” screen that Timed Research usually appears in.

The only rewards that may be mysteries are the encounters — which you can kind of figure out by using the nearby candy rewards. For example, if the nearby rewards give out Machop Candy, then the encounter will very likely be a Machop.

You will get a Xerneas encounter for completing the pass (at rank 50 or 100, depending on which one you got) on the free track and a Lucky Trinket on the paid track.

If you want more specific details, The Silph Road subreddit has seen people post the 50-rank track and the 100-rank track, though individual players have noted that some rewards do vary (such as some players having Poké Coins as rewards).

Is the deluxe Go Pass worth buying?

The deluxe version of the Go Pass costs $7.99. Is all this worth it? As usual, the actual, raw coin value of the items makes it “worth it” (no matter which pass version you got). The more of the pass you complete, the more it’ll be “worth it.”

My personal opinion is that these rewards seem pretty lackluster. No Super Incubators, no additional Star Pieces, and a seemingly very random assortment of candy and encounters makes it pretty “meh” from me. You can see a total-tallied list of the premium rewards you have on your pass by opening the shop page for the deluxe pass and scrolling vertically through the list of loot provided.

Most of the value here will rely on how you personally value the Lucky Trinket.

Again, the Lucky Trinket has no direct value — and its value weighs solely on how badly you want to force a Lucky Friend to do a Lucky Trade. If you’re really desperate to maybe trade that recently-obtained Gigantamax Charizard to possibly yield better stats, it could be worth it — but there’s also no guarantee that you’ll get phenomenal IVs (though the minimum will be a 80% IV Pokémon). The Lucky Trinket itself also expires on May 11 at 11:59 p.m. in your local time, so make sure you use the trinket before then. You don’t necessarily have to complete the trade by then, but you need to use the trinket.

If you’re worried about completing the pass, you can hold off on buying it until you complete it. As long as you buy the pass before May 8 at 10 a.m. in your local time, you will be able to claim any rewards you would have unlocked had you picked up the pass earlier.

This is all to say that you control the money you spend. If you just like having daily goals and battle passes, there’s nothing wrong with buying the deluxe version to get that!