Players who are currently capped at level 50 will have an opportunity to grind experience points and reach level 80 while those who aren’t level 50 currently will automatically increase to a higher level as part of the new rebalanced system.

Details about which players will jump in level, and by how many levels, will be shared at a later time, the developers said in a statement released Monday. It remains unclear how many experience points are going to be required to reach level 80 upon its release.

Currently, players need to have a total of 176 million experience points to reach level 50, the current maximum trainer level in the game. If the current rate stayed in place, it would require about 1 billion experience points to reach level 60.

However, we already know that the rate is being rebalanced so players can earn levels more frequently, meaning the amount of experience points needed to reach level 80 is likely going to be less than what players anticipated would be needed to reach level 60.

Dozens of trainers gathered from across the region to attend a community ambassador event for Pokemon Go Fest 2025: Max Finale on Aug. 23 at Penn State Altoona. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

That’s good news for pretty much everyone who plays the game.

Additionally, the level-up research requirements for levels 41 to 50 are being removed with the update in October and new research requirements are being added to levels 71 to 80. For readers who don’t play the game, essentially you had to complete four time-consuming research tasks before you could move onto the next level, even if you had more than enough experience points to do so.

They are challenging for some but rewarding for others; it just depends how much you play the game. Personally, I am excited by the challenges that are coming because incentives are included.

Players at level 70 or higher will have an increased chance at becoming lucky friends with other players and new rewards will be added to the level-up progression, like increased storage capacity for Pokemon, items and gifts.

It remains unclear how much of an increased chance level 70 trainers and above will have at triggering lucky friends with others and whether players will have to purchase the increased storage capacity or have it gifted through leveling up.

Dozens of trainers gathered from across the region to attend a community ambassador event for Pokemon Go Fest 2025: Max Finale on Aug. 23 at Penn State Altoona. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

Either way, this is a step in the right direction and it’s nice to see the game’s developers add incentives for many long-time players who might’ve been bored with the game since achieving level 50, which was introduced in December 2020.

Players who achieved level 50 prior to Oct. 15 will receive an in-game special medal and a new avatar pose commemorating their accomplishment. They will also be able to showcase avatar items and poses earned by reaching levels 40 through 50 because trainers will no longer be able to earn them after Oct. 15.

To prepare for the coming change, all trainers have received the following bonuses, which will stack with other event bonuses until Oct. 14 at 11:59 p.m. local time — two times the amount of experience points gained from making nice, great and excellent throws and an additional 3,000 experience points from winning raids and max battles. A timed research was also made available to all trainers level five and above, which will give trainers the chance to earn over seven million experience points.

Even without a lucky egg, an item that doubles the amount of experience points trainers receive, this is a nice opportunity for players to reach nearby milestones before the upcoming update.

Last weekend, during the Go Fest 2025: Max Finale event, I reached 400 million experience points from battling Eternamax Eternatus with dozens of other trainers at Penn State University Park.

Every Eternatus battle rewarded 50,000 experience points upon victory, which could be quadrupled to 200,000 experience points with a lucky egg and purchasing additional rewards at the end of each encounter.

The max finale event itself was a lot of fun. But with the amount of experience points the game has enabled trainers to collect from gigantamax battles in general, the writing on the wall for a new level cap has been around for some time.

Although it remains to be seen how many experience points are going to be needed to reach level 80, I hope the amount is reasonable and not too daunting for the casual player. I personally think somewhere in the range of 500 to

750 million is reasonable, but time will tell.