"Trainer level is becoming a worse indicator of trainer strength with how common "empty experience" is now."

#PokemonGO: First off, I thought "empty experience" was a perfect term for this as many people know what empty calories are. Basically, just calories you intake that have little to no nutritional value. The same concept has been occurring in Pokemon Go for some time now, but in regards to experience. This is experience you obtain, but it comes with little benefit to the actual trainer, primarily visible in a lack of stardust. This is primarily seen in Legendary Raids.For example: Consider 3 trainers who start at Level 29 and seek to obtain 2,020,000 experience. This would bring them up to to being very close to Level 33. For each, I will calculate both the experience and stardust they obtain to achieve their goals. I will also say how many Pokemon they could level from 20 to 30 using the stardust they obtained. There's a bit of rounding in the calculations to simplify things.Trainer 1 gains the experience through hitting excellent curve throws on all her Pokemon (also obtaining first ball bonus) and also conducts lucky egg mass evolutions. Assume that for every 4 catches, she's able to evolve one Pokemon. This is a pretty generous number. For her to obtain roughly 2,020,000 experience, she would need to catch 3,960 Pokemon and evolve 990 Pokemon with lucky eggs.Calculations:Experience: 260(3,960) + 1,000(990) = 2,019,600 experienceStardust: 3,960(100) = 396,000 stardustLeveled up Pokemon: 396,000/75,000 = 5.28 -> 5 Pokemon can be leveled from 20 to 30Trainer 2 isn't as good at Pokemon Go and can never catch a Pokemon with his first throw. He also can't even curve ball or hit a nice throw. But like Trainer 1, he also conducts lucky egg mass evolutions. We'll also assume that for every 4 catches, he's able to evolve one Pokemon. For him to obtain roughly 2,020,000 experience, he would need to catch 5,771 Pokemon and conduct 1,442 evolutions with lucky eggs.Calculations:Experience: 100(5,771) + 1,000(1,442) = 2,019,100 experienceStardust: 5,771(100) = 577,100 stardustLeveled up Pokemon: 577,100/75,000 = 7.69 -> 7 Pokemon can be leveled from 20 to 30Trainer 3 is grinding for experience primarily through winning raids and he's determined that if he does 200 Legendary raids and catches all those Pokemon, he'll get the 2,020,000 experience he needs.Calculations:Experience: 10,000(200) + 100(200) = 2,020,000 experienceStardust: 200(100) = 20,000 stardustLeveled up Pokemon: 20,000/75,000 = .27 -> 1 Pokemon can be leveled from 20 to 23Trainers 1 and 2 are representative of what a level 33 trainer meant in relative strength before Legendary Raids were introduced. Trainer 3 is representative of what a level 33 trainer could currently mean in strength post introduction of Legendary Raids. In reality, trainers 1 and 2 would probably have earned even more stardust than I showed because I did not include catching stage 2 or 3 evolutions, and I kept the # of catches per evolution a relatively low number. You could also see Trainer 3 as someone who has only done 100 Legendary raids but has popped a lucky egg at each. This would half the amount of stardust they had obtained over their journey.I don't think this is necessarily a problem in the game, but it's an issue to be aware of when people start discussing trainer levels. There are now trainers in their 30s with weaker rosters to bring to raids.TL;DR: Many trainers now are grinding for experience using Legendary raids, but this experience comes without an ability to actually power up their Pokemon. Trainer levels can now be somewhat deceiving whereas they used to carry more significance when raiding first began. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2ycfBSR