Pokémon Go developers solve the problem of paying to win fear as it introduces an unprecedented $20 premium pass, with its gold bottle cap boosting Pokémon stats to 100%

Pokémon's iconic anime theme song talks about being the best game – but what if there are products in premium games that can help your Pokémon over time?

Well, like in the main series Pokémon Games, click on the smartphone to regenerate Go Pokémon Gold Bottle Caps will be available – Rare Items that will allow you to improve the bio's statistics until it becomes 100% perfect, or in the fan language of Pokémon (a kind of “hundo”). But these items won't be cheap – and don't seem to be used often.

Pokémon Go recently allowed users to participate in more activities in the game remotely and began selling these items that give players statistical lucky friend identities when trading creatures. Now, the introduction of bottle caps marks another new area of ​​the game as it can greatly provide the game's advantages – better, more powerful stats for your choice of Pokémon in exchange for your money.

The first gold bottle cap (single) will be part of the new $19.99 activity pass, Go Pass Deluxe: Recovered New Ancient Man, the hat has been restored, which will be available from Monday, June 23 to Sunday, June 29. The previous passes cost $7.99 or $14.99, offering the most expensive passes. This will also be the first time players have made an overlapping event pass, as the monthly June pass will still be made.

While a free version of the Ancient Admission Pass will also be available, Pakémon Go's first gold bottle cap can only be available in the Pass'Deluxe version, which is a paid upgrade. The free pass will include with the legendary Pokémon (one of the Regi family), three Pikachus in “Dapper” outfits, as well as Stardust, XP and other items. Paid upgrades add Zacian and Zamazenta masks to your in-game avatar, as well as items in premium game such as smoke, incubator and bait modules and gold bottle caps.

If you purchase premium upgrades through the Pokémon Go web store (out of the game) and browsers outside of the annoying platform fees for Google and Google, you will also get 10 maximum speeds, 10 maximum doses, five premium combat passes, 5 maximum particle packs, 5 maximum particle packs, 5 maximum mushrooms, a Max Mushroom, and an Incubutator. Then there are more premium passes: Deluxe: Ancient Recovery + 10 Ranking Bundle, which unlocks the top 10 event passes immediately and comes with more incubators when purchasing through the purchase site.

While all details about the gold bottle cap have been confirmed today, the game’s community has been expecting them to discover traces of the feature in the game’s code for months after the announcement. Various concepts about implementation have been discussed, and fans are looking at how they expect to introduce the feature, how much it will cost and how it will affect the balance of the game.

After today’s announcement, I handed those concerns over Pokémon Go gaming director Michael Starka, who said the feature is designed to ensure that Pokémon Go doesn’t generally become a paid win.

Steranka told IGN in an interview held at the Big Go Fest 2025 Live event in Paris last weekend, Steranka told IGN, who told IGN. “That’s where we don’t think about integration, it can really ruin the economics of the game.

“Items like bottle caps will only be seldom available,” he continued. “So we don't think players will be able to get the best of everything in the best way. Even once you get the bottle caps, people will actually put in a lot of effort to get people beyond training Pokémon to get their stats.”

Once unlocked through the Event Pass and applied to the Pokémon of your choice, the Gold Bottle Cap will start a new feature, Super Training, which requires you to complete the task so that Pokémon's stats can be slowly upgraded over time. Improve Pokémon's attack statistics requires you to use Pokémon to fight when you set it as a friend. Improve your defense when you strengthen your connection with friends by playing, exploring, and capturing other Pokémon together. Meanwhile, Upgrade HP will join you in exploring students as partners, spinning Pokéstops, making money with friends candies or through other adventures.

Sternka continued that further gameplay is needed will also help protect the balance of the game. “It's not a straight thing, you know, spend money and get a powerful Pokémon type system,” he said.

After today’s official announcement, I spent some time on Go Fest 2025, chatting with players, talking about their thoughts on PokémonGO, and the advice I had previously announced, that bottle caps could be introduced at some point in the future.

Amid some excitement about the arrival of the feature, a key issue I hear is the frequency of providing the gold bottle caps – and the advice they carefully provide to keep the game balance and make sure players never feel constantly stressed and unable to spend money.

Today’s announcement describes the gold bottle cap as “extremely rare” and states that “geting one is a special occasion, so choose your intern wisely!” When asked how often the frequency of the gold bottle cap is provided to players, Steranka said that the exact frequency of its availability will still be announced. Still, he confirmed that they are still a rare item, rather than another item that can only be offered through Pokémon Go's in-game shop.

In the past, Pokémon Go has offered a few super rare main ball projects over the past few years – I have heard most players say they think they think fits in the bottle cap frequency.

When I asked about the exact availability of the item, “I don’t think we’re ready to share how often the bottle caps are available, but this is definitely one of the rarest items in the game.”

As for the price of the item, some fans have rationalized the high cost, which may be due to the rare rareness of finding 100% statistical Pokémon through other ways, such as the chance to encounter the creature through a normal gameplay like RAREAD.

Before the announcement, players wonder if other forms of bottle caps can be used, which may improve Pokémon's statistics with scores, or provide them for free. This seems not to be the case.

“Currently, we are launching with gold bottle caps, which will allow you to train with Pokémon to bring any Pokémon to Max Stats,” Steranka confirmed.

It's been a busy year for Pokémon Go, and his development team is now part of Monopoly Go Opanally as it recently closed $3.5 billion to acquire Niantic’s gaming portfolio.

Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social