Disclaimer: This post is not only about Pikmin Bloom features. The following content incorporates broader wayfarer technical topics regarding the wayspot photos and references previous official announcements from the Niantic Wayfarer forums in order to invetigating the complex underlying wayfarer machanism. Information was gathered by a Wayfinder within the community based on personal experience. Please note that this is not an official statement from Niantic.
As Pikmin Bloom trends across East Asia, many new bloomers are questioning about postcards wthiout proper photos. The presentation of these postcards is related to Wayfarer. Here is a breakdown of 3 types of photoless postcards to help bloomers understand if those are display errors or just wayfarer features:
-
Blank photo - Photo format not supported
Firstly reported by the sencond most well-knowned Taiwanese wayfinder @EONloveu , certain format of Wayspot images are no longer supported within the Wayfarer system. In Pikmin Bloom, these unsupported images result in postcards displaying as a blank white photo, more examples in this threads post.
Some of these wayspots with blank photos are not pokestops/gyms in pokemon go, thereby, players currently are not able to unload new photos for these wayspots and these wayspots are trapped in a state of visual bugs.Example 1: Blank postcard - Wasypot with unsupported photo format -
FaM photo - Niantic imported “pokestop-able” wayspots
The most frequent photoless postcards feature the Flower and Mushroom (FaM) background. These wayspots are generally originate from two types of Niantic wayspot imports:- Type 1 FaM: the first type of FaM postcards are imports from Court-of-the-World. Youll notice these Wayspots are typically named after parks, sports grounds or playgrounds, but they actually repersent public basketball courts because they were brought into the system for the NBA All-World onboarding in 2022 (not sure my memory is coorrect). Not all type 1 FaM are pokestops but technically they are “pokestop-able”.
- Type 2 FaM: the second type of FaM postcards comes from Niantic imported pokestops in specific countries like India and Indonesia. Despite wayfarer forum announcements only mentioning Pokémon GO expansions in certain countires, these wayspots appear in Pikmin Bloom as well. Like the basketball court imports, these also default to the FaM background.
However, not every imported pokestop-able wayspot can become a postcard. Street corner and bus stops imports in rural USA appear to be excluded from Pikmin Bloom (not confirmed). Pokestops and gyms tied to the Campsite feature of the Pokémon GO Community Ambassador program are visible in Wayfarer map, for example camsite imports in Hyde Park of Sydney, but these imports cannot be found by Pikmins. And of cause, powerspot-only wayspot are not in Pikmin Bloom.
Example 2: FaM postcard - Niantic imported “Pokestop-able” wayspot -
Default photo - The primary photo was removed at one point
These rare postcards occur when a Wayspot’s primary image was removed due to violation of photo guideline. When a photo of a wasypot being removed, the cover photo would be replaced by a default photo. Although the default cover photo can be replaced agian with player’s contribution, that default photo sometimes remain in the wayspot photo gallery. And Pikmins are able to discover the secondary image of a wayspot, causing the wayfarer default photo to show up on a postcard.Example 3: Default postcard - Primary photo was removed Example 3b: Default photo in wayfarer map The photo of the above postcard is not the cover photo of the wayspot in its gallery, according to wayfarer map.
Interestingly, Bloomers often see Wayspots through a slightly different lens than general Wayfinders and the Traditional Chinese Pikmin Bloom marketing team is hosting wayspot contest on socials. This is the reason why I initially planned to write a deep dive into the Pikmin Bloom player experience and misinformation with wayfarer features, by touching on the viral threads with 2k+ likes and a few coaching content about using Ingress to fix photo issues. However, summarising all the massive conversation would have resulted in a 5000 word essay. So instead, I’ve pivoted to Plan B here to resolve the most pressing questions about why your postcards look the way they do.