Questions about Energy Nodes

Looking at the Niantic Wayfarer map, I’ve noticed I have several accepted POIs that have never appeared in Pokémon GO — I understand that’s due to cell occupation rules and the 20-meter proximity rule.

That said, I’m confused about something: why do some of those accepted-but-inactive POIs become Dynamax Nodes, while others just stay invisible in the game entirely? I have nominations that ended up as Dynamax Nodes precisely because they were in already-occupied cells, but others in the same situation never became anything at all.

Is there a known criteria for a Wayspot to become a Dynamax Node instead of simply not appearing? Is it something Niantic decides automatically, randomly, or is there some logic behind it that isn’t documented anywhere?

Whether you know the answer or not, thanks in advance!

Hello @pachangasss

I think you are referring to powerspots?

Powerspots are selected out of 2 groups.

  1. An import map when it first released, which are wayspots that don’t meet the criteria sometimes and are only there for powerspot purposes

  2. Unused wayspots.

Number 2 is your case.

A unused wayspot will have a CHANCE to become a powerspot if it is atleast 22M away from an existing pokestop or gym, does not matter which cell.

If it is 22M away it can become powerspot.

New powerspots sync every month on the 4th. 4th of May it’s supposed to happen again.

Let men know if you have any further questions.

Good luck

There is no 20m proximity rule.

This was in place when Ingress was the main source of Wayspots as the added Wayspot had to sync to Ingress firstly (which has the 20m proximity rule) and then sync to other games. As Ingress is no longer the source of Wayspots (and wasn’t for some time even before the split) the aforementioned rule doesn’t exist.

It is only cells that matter for whether a Wayspot appears as a PokéStop, though there are other theorised rules for Power Spots

Thanks for the clarification! So if I understand correctly, only cells matter for PokéStops, but Power Spots have their own separate rules that aren’t fully documented yet.

Do you know what those theorised rules are? Is there any post or thread on this forum that goes into more detail about how Power Spots are assigned? Or is it basically just a matter of luck at this point?

@AMG7070 has been a leader in investigating these and already gave you what we know

Neither pokestop cell rules nor powerspot rules are officially documented, as Niantic have not (and will not) confirmed any of them. They allow what the community have found to be discussed, but do not confirm whether it is correct (it isn’t 100% correct, but it works in almost all situations).

Thank you all so much for the info, you’re awesome! Everything is much clearer now. I’ll keep an eye on May 4th and hope for the best

This is the only official clarification we have been given:

It mentions the imports, which were a one-time thing, but not any other rules.

And in some parts of the world, these imports, intended for power spots only, were made into pokestop/gym eligible wayspots.