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Pokemon Unite is growing at a rapid pace. Since launching back in July, developer Timi Studio Group has already introduced seven new Pokemon to the roster, as well as a handful of new battle items and cosmetics. We’re already on the third battle pass and the second competitive season. We’ve also just seen Unite’s first seasonal event, which introduced a limited-time game mode called Halloween in Mer Stadium as well as seasonal trainer cosmetics and holowear items. A lot has been added to Unite since July, but how much has the game actually improved? Compared to its main mobile MOBA competition, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Pokemon Unite feels like a flimsy, featureless imitator, and no amount of new Pokemon are going to solve that.
Unlike Wild Rift, Unite has a surprisingly underdeveloped metagame with lackluster rewards. The battle pass offers daily and weekly challenges to earn progress to unlock a variety of currencies and cosmetic items for your trainer, which as I said back in season one, aren’t even worth the price of admission into the battle pass - let alone the grind. The holowear item you can earn for buying and completing the battle pass are usually pretty good, but that’s just one reward at the very end of the battle pass. The problem is that Unite just doesn’t have more interesting things it could even put into the battle pass. Compare it to Wild Rift’s pass, which includes poses, emblems, baubles, custom recalls, icon borders, emotes, and a skin. Unite’s lack of creativity in its battle pass is just a symptom of the overall lack of customization and features in the game.
Beyond the battle pass, the only way to earn rewards in Unite is through the Energy Reward gachapon and the events, which are made up mostly of log-in bonuses and small handful of challenges that haven’t been updated in over a month. Event challenges offer the same basic currency rewards that you’ll find on the battle pass, with the addition of a couple of unite licences for Pokemon you might not own yet. If you set your mind to it, it wouldn’t be difficult to clear out every single event challenge in an afternoon. You can then use that pile of tickets, coins, and item enhancers to buy all of the licenses and items you want, then upgrade them to level 30. Once you’ve done that, the only thing left to buy with your tickets is more clothes for your trainer, since holowear can only be purchased with real money or exceptionally rare holowear tickets.
Over in Wild Rift, it’s a completely different story. Currently there are four different ongoing events, each with their own progression track. There’s a story-driven event called Hextech Heist where you complete challenges to collect clues and investigate different locations in Pilotover to earn rewards, an Arcane experience event that links to the Netflix series, a Riot Forge event that offers rewards based on the Ruined King, and a lengthy new player event called the Wild Rift Journey that provides tons of currencies, champions, and skins playing and winning games. On top of that, there are daily and weekly missions to complete, as well as rewards for earning mastery levels with each of your champions.
It’s a far more engaging set of challenges that make you feel like you’re always working towards a goal when you play. Even if you don’t make progress on any mission during a match - which would be almost impossible - you’re still earning points that contribute to your weekly chest which gives better rewards the more you play. Every time you log into Wild Rift there’s a new challenge and reward waiting for you, but in Unite it always feels like same-old-same-old.
It’s not exactly fair to compare Unite to Wild Rift of course. Wild Rift pulled so much from League of Legends, including 57 of League’s 157 champions and many of its cosmetic options. But it's hard to see Unite continue to spit out two Pokemon a month when what it really needs is a better way to reward its players. If you play Unite regularly, earning enough coins and tickets to unlock all of the Pokemon and upgrade all of the items you need is trivial.
The lack of new game modes and maps certainly isn’t helping with replayability either. Unite simply needs more ways to progress and more rewards to pursue. I don’t mind a pair of green socks every once in a while, but when that’s all you have to offer you can’t expect to keep players coming back for more.