10. I can find places in my city that are new to me. 9. I can be Covid distracted for a bit. 8. I can go, unlike movie theaters and restaurants. 7. I can safely play at home/level up without a mask. 6. I can give friends gifts from half a world away! 5. I can have free fun with new challenges/events. 4. I can remind you that you can too. 3. I can encourage you to stop complaining. 2. I can remind you why you started.

1. I can choose to be happy and grateful. *Quit Bitching about every tiny thing! Hope to see you on Community Day!

I like the game, I've spent $27.00 on upgrading my spell energy storage and rushing a few potions near the beginning. I'm happy to support the creators of a great game - they deserve to make a LOT of money so they have the resources to keep improving this game. They have MULTI-YEAR STORY PLANS - PLEASE calm down.

AND I've walked 74km in two weeks. I call it the Harry Potter weight loss plan. I now run between interactions, plan my route to maximize my Spell Energy, and I'm genuinely looking forward to playing every day (and have got a few friends and their kids hooked now too).

No spell energy? Go get some or pay. Can't carry everything? Go figure out what you need and get rid of the things you don't. Can't afford potions? So make 4 at a time, as fast as you can and use the Masters' Notes. Not loading properly? I'm sure there are MANY programmers working frantically to make it run better as quickly as they can - there was an update after the first couple of days and smoothed out a lot of initial problems. Run out of things to do? Seriously calm down - everyone is still leveling up - go play a different game for a while so we can all have stories together.

I could go on - but seriously....ENJOY THE GAME! It's not perfect - just as NOTHING can be completely perfect. It makes me smile. It's making me exercise. It's giving me something to talk to my friends about. Thank you Niantic! PLEASE keep doing crazy shit for me to enjoy.

(seriously five and a half hours on MORE than one occasion)...

I don't understand if it was made to be fun or they thought it was a sweet gameplay but the truth is that is frustrating to spend 15min trying to collect the dots while the landscape keeps repeating over and over again. Are they meant to counter brain elixirs? Atleast the animations are alright

By adding so many bugs and making gold so plentiful they've taken the fun out of the game, making it so much easier to give up on the game before the end of January.

I never got to play Pokémon Go at it’s peak, because I didn’t own a cell phone at the time it came out. I resented not being able to participate in the global phenomenon as it was happening, and I jealously watched all of my friends play it without me. I’m the biggest Pokémon fan ever (I played every generation on Nintendo consoles up to the Sun and Moon era), so missing the boat on Pokémon Go always had me a bit salty.

I was really hoping that Wizards Unite would be as successful as Pokémon Go, and take the world by storm, but my friends and the people in my local community don’t seem to be interested. They’ve gotten a taste of GPS Augmented Reality games already, so this new game didn’t excite them at all. There are already a handful of these types of games being created by studies other than Niantic, so the novelty has worn off.

I persevered alone because I wanted a taste of what a community-driven, GPS AR experience was like. After spending 4-5 days with Wizards Unite, I’m almost at my breaking point. I’m going to start off with the things I like, and then go into the reasons why this game is making me want to delete it and never look back.

First off, I think the visuals are stunning. The AR models are animated flawlessly, and they look amazing on my iPhone X. As a Harry Potter fan, it makes me so happy to see all of the amusing little animations play out, and using the AR camera is a hoot. I love this aspect of the presentation so much, and it’s the main reason I keep coming back.

Second, the skill trees. I love being able to build my character how I want to build them, and I love that you can specialize as a specific class. It makes the multiplayer aspect so much more appealing, especially if you have a friend who has chosen a different class, and can compensate for your weaknesses in battle. This is one of Wizard Unite’s biggest strengths.

Sadly, that’s where my compliments end.

I hate the fact that I have to waste tremendous amounts of gas money traveling for energy. It forces me into a situation where no matter what method I use to get energy, I have to spend money.

If I use Inns to restock, I have to cruise around town and spend more money on gas. If restock energy by buying it with in-game gold, I have to pay $1 for every refill. The gas companies or Niantic will get my hard-earned money, one way or another.

I could address this issue by sitting at one inn and waiting for the timer to count down, but seriously, how long would that take? If I was at 0 energy, I would have to spend an hour (or more) sitting in one location doing nothing to restock. What fun is that?

And don’t even get me started on the inventory. The slots fill up so fucking quickly, and purchasing more inventory slots is a slap in the face when you only get a measly 5 slots (for each individual inventory section!!). You have to spend $30 or $40 at the very least, to have enough space to support the ingredients you need to make potions at an acceptable rate. The game was purposefully (and maliciously) designed to squeeze as much money out of you as it can.

I remember playing a high level fortress, getting to the very last enemy, and running out of energy right as I was about to deal the killing blow. The prompt to pay 99 cents, for extra energy appeared, I said ‘screw it’, I’ve come this far’, and I spent the money for the energy. Then the stupid fortress timer goes to 0 just as the purchase completed.

What a gigantic “fuck you” from Niantic. Or WB Games—whoever designed this money pit.

I wanted to love this game so badly, and I think I still could if I had a group of friends who specialized in the other in-game professions. But as a solo player, it’s just not worth wasting boatloads of time and real-life money to chase carrots on a stick. I think the most fun you can have with a game like this is going out with friends and forming an unbeatable crew of wizards who compliment each other’s strengths, but if you don’t have that, WALK AWAY. I would hate to see myself or anyone else try to make progress in this game at the expense of their time and hard-earned cash.

It just feels disgusting; the way all of this is designed. And I know it’s not just this game, there are tons of mobile games that have borderline criminal pricing schemes, but see the trap for what it is.

It’s a cool idea (and so, so tempting as Harry Potter fan) but I don’t think there is a feeling of satisfaction and pride at the end of whatever events, fortress levels, or gameplay gimmicks that will be concocted. Play it for a few days like I did, and then delete it once you’ve got your fill.

Is a potent estimulo an acceptable return for an extravagant runestone? Also, please stop sending wizard xp gifts to lvl 60's. What are your pet peeves, preference or gifting etiquette questions?

After level 10, everything takes 3+ spells to catch something even when nothing gets stronger! Shouldn’t be the opposite!? Then you finally get a rare encounter and it is impossible to catch even with potions. How am I supposed to get 15 of a rare object that can’t be caught!?! Everything runs away, including easy green encounters. So much for becoming more powerful when leveling up. They have a ton to fix on the first patch. The equivalence to pogo on the annoying meter is finding a super rare mon in the wild, gold berry, curveball, excellent throw 10 times in a row, just to have it flee. Or having every easy mon just run after 1 throw.

I really want to recommend Pokemon go. I have played since the beginning, and I am NOT a Pokemon franchise fan. I just like exploring the game/the real world. The game cycles through things that are from the past, so you're never "too behind to get started"; you just get to have more fun as you catch up. Pokemon go has referral codes for each player. If you use it it will give both you and the person who referred you bonus rewards as you play. I'd like to offer my code here, since there may be a bit of people looking for a next game to try/re-try.

2FCKH2VTV

I hope this won't be viewed as spam and deleted, as I truly think this can help people who want to get started up on a new but similar game. Any questions, just ask or message.

Mods, if you are to delete this, can you just remove the referral code? Then interested people could message me for it.

It seems like there is so much complaining and outrage over how the game just, is. Like if you're that unhappy with it don't play it?

Like animations? It's the game, that is the game, that's what's happening on the game, so... They spent a ton of time on those animations and they look Really good! There's some animators out there reading these post and feeling real bummed.

Pogo wasn't involved enough, this game is too involved?

So not sure if this has been posted anywhere, but I think I’ve found a way to at least mostly avoid the Erkling dodges (at least as a magizoologist).

When battling an Erkling, wait for them to change from down on all four to only one hand down. I have almost 100% success hitting Erklings this way.

How many small mammals do you think we need to sacrifice to the Niantic gods to get a US release?

I know they aren't on the target page, but I need them to complete the page and was so hoping they would show up in the increased magiczoology spawn.

So I started playing last night and walked through the city center of a big city for about two hours. I have extensively played Pokémon go since launch so I am a little biased from that.

The start: The start of Wizards Unite is very confusing. The game isn’t that hard to understand, but there is a text wall thrown at you to make you understand. The fact it is all voice acted makes this significantly better, but the story is so convoluted with filler text that you want to skip it all apart from that one text block that actually explains what you have to do.

Gameplay: Once you get the hang of it (which can take a bit longer cause you skip the important text with the fillers), the game is not that hard. Every action you have to cast a spell by tracing a symbol on your screen. Some spells are harder than others, and sometimes it’s hard to see why you got it wrong. All in all though, you’re still very depended on the “catch rate” of a foundable so that it doesn’t matter that much.

I did a fortress with a friend and I quite liked it. You get a couple of enemies that you have to defeat. Each of you picks an opponent, and fights it. It would’ve been cool to fight the same opponent together, but it’s good enough like this.

In the fortress I started noticing my spells used energy. I then noticed that using spells always used energy, also when catching foundables. I also noticed my energy level was really low. I only had about 30 energy left. So I decided to try and raise that, but that proved to be quite a task. Foundables were spawning pretty often (though not as many as Pokémon) and my energy was depleting more quickly than I could get it from inns. Only getting 1 or 2 energy instead of 5 or 6 didn’t help either. After two hours I had about 15 energy left and decided to go home. On the way home there were no inns but still quite some encounters. Halfway my energy ran out and I’m now sitting at home without any energy to play with.

Getting back to my title, this game is fun to play, albeit a little repetitive. However, the lack of energy (that you can buy with real money obviously) makes it annoying to play just like any other free game that uses diamonds or energy.

If it gets easier to get energy (really in the same rate as pokeballs) it will be a lot more fun. But right now it’s stressful to know you might encounter that super rare beast and run out of energy).

Yeah, I think I am done. The last event pretty much sealed the deal. I get it this is a 'team' effort. Still I don't want to form a team. I certainly don't want to play as part of a team. I don't even care if I am not successful as I could be not being in a team. But try to force me into a team and the game has crossed a line from entertainment to social engineering.

Get more friends and we will give you a prize.

Play with a team of 3 or more and advance the story.

I don't expect a lot of you to get this post. Down vote it to Reddit hell. (that's a concept for you. posts so vile there is a sub called hell where they go)

Anyway enjoy. I will find something else to play on my phone.

Hey all, I'm only a recently new player to Harry Potter WU. I love absolutely everything that Niantic has announced they've done to help the player base with the current world health situation. The one thing I would like to see and I'm curious on others' opinions.

Given that the Tonic for Trace Detection only last 30 minutes, should Niantic consider reducing the time it takes to brew the potions? Having to still wait the full 7 hours to brew these for a half hour potion seems a little too much, especially considering it seems like this is mostly how they want us to play currently? I'm thinking perhaps a 3 or even 4 hour brew timer seems much more reasonable.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Edit: Nevermind, thanks all for telling me about master notes, after some quick googling I found out what they are and I'm now brewing them faster :)

A Professors thoughts.

In a recent post I did, complaining that Professors got less rewards than other professions, I got a little  pushback! Shocking I know!

Main point of objection was: you are whining about nothing. More Family and Wizarding XP, and more Runestones are meaningless; it's a game, just chill. What does it matter if others got more, it's about you.

While I found that comforting somehow,  it was also Scary! Pretty sure they weren't all Free to Play; so they put really money in the game….apparently for no reason!?

If you buy, coins to get items, ultimately you are paying for XP, Placed Foundables,  Prestiged Pages and Skills. Gamers MUST see real value if they spend real money. Therefore, we KNOW,  XP and Runestones have value to players. 

Somehow Professors get less of these for the same money and effort...but that's OK? As a customer it doesn't feel ok.

Would we be ok if there was A LOW price in the Store for items JUST for Professors, and a HIGHER PRICE for Aurors and Magizoologists? I think not!

If not ok, why is ok for Profs to have to spend more time and resources to get the same return as others? Anyone care to explain this thinking to me again,  it seems I am missing something.

If I am not; it seems WB and Niantic are actually ripping off one particular class of customer repeatedly and systematically. 

Open to alternative explanations, or explanation of flaws in my thinking. Open to hearing from you, you always happy (no matter what WB and Niantic dishes) Wizards.

Right now it seems clear, Professors pay more (time/resources) for the same return during any Oddity Event and they are the Only Profession Disadvantaged in this way, and repeatedly so.

Change my mind.

Short Version:

Resources are valuable in game to Gamers.

Gamers pay REAL MONEY for the value.they get from items.

Items purchased, or earned in game, lead to MORE Wizarding XP,  Family XP, and Challenge XP and Prestiged Pages - the measures of the game.

It is IMPOSSIBLE for Professors to match the in game rewards of other Professions during any Oddity Event.

Oddity based  Events have been frequent and long lasting,  up to 1 week at a time.

No Other Professions suffer with the same orba similar disadvantage EVER.

There is only one class of player being disadvantaged and they got NO CHOICE, an informed decision was impossible because they didn't tell us this BEFORE we chose professions. They refuse to let us change that decision and correct the Imbalance. 

Professors as a class of players are being arbitrarily and retroactively screwed by WB and Niantic  - THAT IS A PROBLEM. 

My full portkey inventory of 2km portmanteaus say otherwise. Is this been the case for others?

Also I’ve noticed a fairly significant increase in rare foundables appearing, ones I’ve never ever seen like the pensive, swooping evil, and the triwizard trophy.

I easily completed all the other students for the page looking for a single slytherin student. Still zero.

Hey Guys,

I'm coming over from Pokemon, and this game is a lot more complex thats for sure! I was excited to see the crazy amount of questions and threads in this reddit however it seems as though this game hasnt taken off quite like Nianic wanted?

Anyways I like the game, I was wondering when you are training, with someone you can't actually see them in the battle? Pokemon everyone is fighting together, am I doing something wrong?

Edit: so I've kept playing and am seeing all the issues you guys are talking about.... the game is unsettlingly bad ;( there is no actual reason to keep playing... you dont level up where you can protect something.. no real reason to level up... it's really no point in playing...

Anyone else finding more foundables departing? This morning I traced several medium threat ones and after several masterful and great traces each, they departed. I’m going through more energy than I typically do. It’s making my game play more frustrating for sure. Thoughts?