Bonus Counter balance, data and plans

In anticipation of next month's adjustment to Bonus Counter goals, I wanted to take a moment to explain a little more about why they are happening, and when they will stop. It's been a very common question: "The bonus counters were fine for X years, why change them now?" And it's a very good question. A question I have tried to answer by explaining that activity has been on the rise and so in order to maintain balance and avoid the issue of every day being a bonus day, they have to be adjusted to account for it. But it's difficult to just accept that answer. I'm not satisfied with an answer that relies on "source: trust me bro". When I say I have data, I mean it, but you know what would be helpful? Compiling that data into a way that can be understood. So that's what I have done: assembled the data in a way that breaks down the numbers and explains the needed adjustments. Let's get started! :)

---

Let's begin with some numbers. Here is a table showing the average daily progression recorded for each Bonus Counter, for each year from 2019 to the present day. (Click it for fullsize) I am using 2019 as the "start" year because that is the year that the Bonus Counters had their last "big adjustment" before this year starting tweaking them again. However I am using 2020 as the "reference" year because in the middle of 2019 I halved Shiny odds for Hypermode users (and doubled Albino chances for everyone - the goal was to reduce the amount of "Shiny spam" caused by Melan hunters, as this was making shinies totally worthless. It worked, but obviously Sei's counter took a hit.) It is also important to note that this is actually under-counting: Bonus Days (both regularly activated ones and Special ones from Fabulous Friday or MCW) are not counted at all in this data - this means that the activity spikes from those days are completely ignored, but it also means that the reported numbers are lower because those Bonus Days still take time, time that is counted as 0 progress and so brings the averages down. Okay, so that's a big wall of numbers. Let's have a graph: And now you can very clearly see exactly what I mean when I say that activity has drastically increased lately. Things were stagnant from 2019 to 2022, and then 2023 happened and activity rose significantly, and is continuing to rise rapidly. THIS is why Bonus Counters and other site-wite goals need to be adjusted to accommodate.

---

Here's another table. This one shows the average number of days it took the community to fill each Bonus Counter, again broken down per year. And its corresponding graph: You can see from this that Counters used to activate anywhere from every 7 to 10 days. Eltafez's GP Discount is a high outlier (which is fine, since it's less relevant to day-to-day gameplay), and Shazi's Shelter Adoption bonus has historically been a low outlier (which I apparently never noticed...) But again, notably, there is a significant downward trend - even with me making adjustments to the goals this year, the speed is still increasing!

---

So what does "balance" look like? How do I decide that? Well, when I first set up the Bonus Counters, I had a vague idea of how often I wanted each one to activate. It was kind of a neat pattern, really, but ideally each Counter would have an average between 6 and 13 days, and by giving each one a unique target average, they would generally avoid falling into patterns (eg. if one had an average of 4 and another of 8, it would be easy to fall into the "trap" of them lining up every single time). Here is a list of numbers showing the "intended" number of days each Counter is "supposed" to take to fill up, and for each one I have calculated (and then rounded) the Bonus Counter target that would be needed to achieve that intended average. And here I will list them in table form, along with what the targets were in 2020, and what they are right now.

Counter	2020	Current	"Balanced"
Niet	75M	100M	150M
Garthic	400M	600M	675M
Suríya	325k	500k	660k
Ravyne	500k	800k	1.15M
Novie	250M	350M	550M
Shazi	300k	500k	500k
Eltafez	1M	1.25M	2M
Sei	3777	5277	8777

Some notable points: • Shazi's bonus has achieved balance! • Ravyne's bonus power was nerfed at some point in the last few years. While I will be keeping the ability to have "fractional" Gem gains to add more granularity to the bonus range, I intend to raise both the minimum and maximum values of that range again. • I am still considering the idea of having Sei's bonus also count Albinos and affect Albino chances, which would indirectly double-count/buff Melanistic Pokémon. Doing so would of course necessitate a higher target. For now, though, this is the "balanced" target counting only Shinies. • The "balanced" goals are based on 2024 activity so far. As time goes on, assuming activity continues to rise, the goals will shift further. Conversely, if activity declines for whatever reason, the targets would come down accordingly.

---

I hope this helps to explain why things are changing. I will be continuing to make adjustments to the Bonus Counters each month to try and approach a healthy balance for the game. Additionally, I will be shifting the Type Race goals. In a sense this one is literally moving goalposts, on both ends of the field. Currently the first 7 Fragments are earned between 0 and 100k points, while the second set of 7 Fragments are from 100k to 300k points. I will be sliding this over so that the first set is between 100k and 200k, with the second set between 200k and 400k points. At this point in time, with the overall increased activity, getting 100k points as a team is basically guaranteed, and last month even the lowest scoring team scored over 200k. This adjustment should hopefully provide further motivation to push ahead and keep the competition going! I am considering some other ideas that may help provide motivation to teams that are struggling, but those are still very much "seeds" of ideas. I will get back to you on this when they have had a chance to grow into something more refined.

Well, I’m excited about the melan boosts for Sei.. Too many boosts is game breaking. It sucks, but anyone who’s ever played any game can see why you have to reset the goals. It looks like you put a lot of thought and effort into it.

i'm confused. what are the adjustments next month for the bonus counters? were they in an update i missed?

Next month's adjustments will be made, well, next month. And I will announce and explain them when they happen. This post just explains why the adjustments have been happening this year and why they will continue.

Please take a look at the Site-wide Goal Adjustments announcement. That should help lend context to this, just in case you didn't see it. ^^

I'm sure there are plenty of people that won't be thrilled but it's hard to argue with numbers. I really appreciate the explanation, for a while I've been curious to see the exact information you just gave us.

Happy to see all the graphs and charts used! very easy to understand even though I'm usually not too well versed in this :3 Thank you for the transparency

I honestly enjoy having less consecutive bonus days, there was a point of feeling like I had to log in every day and click for hours since there was a bonus nearly every day. Thank you for explaining with data and the like!

I am absolutely no good at numbers and struggle to understand them but the graphs helped tremendously. It all makes sense, and my only question was what happens if activity drops but you answered that too. Thank you for all the info and explanations!

Thanks for sharing all this!! Your hard work and passion for this site are really evident, and it’s very appreciated. :)