I read five days ago on Pokemongohub.net about Draconius Go, a rip off from Pokemon Go. However, I never expected that a site dedicated to Pokemon Go would write this in their conclusion:

Draconius GO is a great game, especially for Rural players. It is a clone of the Pokemon GO formula, but it’s an improved clone with some interesting features. […] We recommend Draconius, not as a Pokémon GO replacement, but as a good AR + GPS game for anyone who’s a fan of the genre.

Since then, I’ve encountered it on Forbes.com and some Pokemon Go youtube channels (Trainer Tips and ProdigiesNation).

My curiosity was awakened and I installed Draconius Go. Here I gather my thoughts after a couple of days playing.

Before I start, I thought it would be only be fair to tell how I played. First, Pokemon Go: I’m a level 29 PG player in a minor city in Belgium, I play daily a little bit and I never spent money. For Draconius Go, I am now level 12 and reached this also without spending money. Pokemon Go is intensively played in this city while Draconius Go is -almost- totally unknown. I played Draconius Go for two days intensively.

The Positives

The top 3

Easy on the battery

Nice extra features such as a form of PvP, daily quests, treasure hunts, treasure chests randomly appearing, Mother of Dragons who hatches special eggs, magic spells, really usefull items

Pillar of Abundance (=’pokestops’) and other interaction spots are everywhere! Discovering new places, evenly spread and yes… Finally rural playing

Other positives

Fast boot up, strong connection, little to no lag (in heavy contrast to PG)

Character customization

Cool theme (dragons!)

Two worlds (normal and ‘Rift’)

Moving portals is an awesome mechanic

Easy on the battery

Does not take over sound

Easy to understand ‘who is strong against who system’

Libraries to retrain abilities of monsters

Almost no competition at the moment = easy winnings

No overcomplicated CP system: I don’t need another website to see how good my monster is..

A slightly better battle system

Overall better user interface (easier healing, categorization of monsters)

Only two teams (red and blue) with a balance mechanic

Random surprise monster encounters

The Negatives

The top 3

Visually less appealing, cheap looking

Didn’t bother to put any effort in hiding the heavy rip off #noshame

Almost non-existent player base

Other negatives

The old PG gym mechanic, I heavily prefer the new one

Little to no explanation to how the game works

Throwing is more difficult and sometimes awkward

Awake from power saving modus is very slow

The coins are a little bit more expensive

The monetary system is focused on ‘whales’

Some interaction spots (gyms, pillars of abundance…) are not ideally placed and are as such unreachable without breaking the law (except with a certain very expensive artifact)

No cute first generation Pokemon (the only ones I know by name and care about)

My overall conclusion

…is that I am happy I gave it a chance and I will probably stop playing PG for the moment and only play Draconius Go. I have three points to elaborate.

It is fun. Lot’s of fun. It has more and more interesting mechanics than PG. It is better. It is a rip off, but it managed to actually listen to all the complaints of the PG players and made a better game. Yes, it does not have any Pokemon, totally true, but I only knew the first generation anyway. If reason 1 and 2 did not convince you to try this game out, then simply be happy: Niantic has finally competition and maybe…just maybe…they might actually improve their game. I mean, come on, how hard can it be to leave my music alone when I start the game up?

That being said, I’m a bit wary of certain features that are begging to pump money in the system. For example the golden eggs: it is quite easy to have a treasure map to find ‘golden eggs’, but the shovels needed for digging up these eggs (1 chance in 9) are expensive (~€1/shovel).

For the future, firstly I hope that Draconius Go can slowly steer away from being a rip off and cultivate their own identity. And secondly that it can continue to surprise me with interesting and original features.

What is your opinion? Have you tried it yet? What are your top 3 likes and dislikes about Draconius Go?