Some X-mas news

Some kind of Christmas event has started, and with it a few new things were added to the game.

You've probably already noticed some new pokemon. Filling out the dex is always fun.


Then we also have three new package deals.


Winter Box, 480 coins

• 2 incence
• 2 standard incubators
• 5 star piece

Great Box, 780 coins

• 4 super incubators
• 10 razz berries
• 10 star piece

Ultra Box, 1480 coins

• 8 super incubators
• 10 pinab berries
• 25 star piece
• 10 lure modules

Star piece? According to this piece of news it's a consumable item that lasts for 30 minutes and increases star dust gain by 50% for that period. I'm unclear if it's an in-game shop only item or if they are distributed yb other means as well, like poke stops for example.

For the purpose of this post I'll assume that it's either a shop only, or at least a stupidly rare free item. In any case they are a very welcome addition to the game.

In that case the package deals have to be compared to each other. As usual I'll assign the berries an exactly zero value.

The Winter Box comes with 300 coins' worth of incubators and hence it's a matter if you think that 5 star pieces is worth more than 180 coins. I'd say it is, but I have difficulties assigning a value to them. We're talking two and a half hours with 50% extra star dust.

I'm not entirely convinced that this is indeed a good deal though.

For 780 coins the Great Box will yield 4 super incubators, which even if valued at 150 coins each is 600 coins worth of incubators. In this scenario the remaining 180 coins yields twice the amount of star pieces. Five hours with 50% extra star dust for 180 coins is a no-brainer.

This is a good deal aimed at the walking player.

The 1480 coin Ultra Box comes with 1200 coins' worth of super incubators, once again if we value them at 150 coins each. Basically anything thrown in after that is likely to push the package deal way above the remaining 280 coins.

In this case 10 lure modules is a little problematic. It's either a sweet 900:ish coins' worth of modules, but at the other hand a lot of players are wading around in those.

25 star pieces, at the other hand, is simply fantastic.

This package deal is also the best designed for long sessions of playing with the package as your only boost since 10 star pieces go hand in hand with 10 lure modules. This assuming that you're not the only one adding lures to poke stops. The remaining 15 star pieces are a perfect boost for consuming those eight super incubators.

I'd argue that this deal is superior to the other two by a very wide margin.

Oh, there are pokemon out there with a christmasy look as well. Just like last year.