Niantic has decided to send [Redacted] away with a bang.

Agents,
Nemesis has become emboldened by the outcome of Aurora after your victory over Myriad. In one week they will attempt to alter humanity through the use of 13 global Shards. Capture them to save humanity! Check this link for more details: https://t.co/FSceRXV4c9 pic.twitter.com/fEMwgCdQfh

— Ingress (@ingress) September 10, 2019

That’s right kids, the last two weeks we get to spend with [Redacted] we get to spend with Shards. I know some agents really like Shards. Personally, I think Shards are the second worst part of Ingress (right behind the pretentious pinheads who doxx agents to disrupt anomaly prep).

The rules for this Shard game are interesting. By creating an xfac Shard game Niantic has removed everything fun about Shards. We’re going to waste VRLA, which we can’t dupe anymore, without the thrill of scoring points for our factions.

This event shouldn’t be challenging. There’s only thirteen shards and there are four targets. Shards can jump between L4 portals! Nobody should be trying to block the long links and we shouldn’t even need to use viruses to clear lanes. So why would we waste our last few days with [Redacted] on this event?

Simple answer, Niantic is going to increase decay rate by 75% if we don’t. The rallying cry will be, “Muh Cubes!”

There is no official word from Niantic as to why they’ve decided to unleash a global Shard game on us during the last few weeks of September. The best theory I’ve heard is that someone at Niantic is trying to pump up the number of active users and they are afraid that the number will be a lot smaller after [Redacted] is retired.