In App Purchases Coming To Ingress

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It hasn’t been that long since Niantic Labs, creator of the popular augmented reality game Ingress, split off from the Google umbrella and went on their own. After announcing Pokémon Go last month and receiving a round of funding from Google and Nintendo, it appears that in app purchases (IAP) are coming to Ingress.

We first noticed on the Google Play Store page for the game that yesterday’s update now includes the “Offers in-app purchases” text. Further down the page, these IAPs are listed as ranging from $1.99 – $99.99USD ($2.59 – $129.98CAD) per item.

Ingress-IAP-Google-Play

 

We installed the latest version, and were unable to find what exactly you could purchase in Ingress. We did a bit more digging, as many of you who play are undoubtedly worried that your beloved Ingress will now be turning into a “pay to win” game, which is a valid concern when IAPs are offered in game. According to Feb Games, it looks like you will be able to purchase Chaotic Matter Units (CMU) which will be a type of currency that will allow you to purchase one of two items (initially). The APK teardown discovered updates to a store section of the app, with relevant strings for various store operations like purchasing CMU and exchanging CMU for items. The two main purchasable items discovered by an APK teardown of version 1.85.1 are Key Lockers and Portal Fracker powerups.

First discovered in the 1.83.1 teardown, this item has seen a lot of functionality tweaks/changes.

  • The item was renamed from “Key Capsule” to “Key Locker“.
  • You can store 100 Portal keys in a single Key Locker.
    • Yes, only portal keys.
    • Items in this locker do not count towards inventory limit.
  • You can only have 5 Key Lockers. Confirmed via string in the application and server side change.
  • You can buy 5 different color Key Lockers (gold, green, white, blue, red) in the store.
    • Not sure if Key Lockers will be obtainable outside of IAP (In App Purchase).
  • We will update this post when we have a render of this item.
<string name="ITEM_DESCRIPTION_KEY_CAPSULE">Store 100 Portal Keys outside Inventory limit. Limit of 5 per Agent.</string>

Also discovered initially in 1.83.1, we have more details on these new item(s).

  • Power up: Portal Fracker
    • Doubles Hack output for 10 minutes or 150 hacks, whichever comes first
    • It appears this powerup might be per portal. So a Portal Powerup gets applied to a portal and lasts for 10 minutes or 150 hacks for just that portal, benefiting everyone who interacts with that portal.
    • <string name=”COMM_AP_MESSAGE_USING_A_PORTAL_POWERUP”>Gained %s AP for deploying a Portal Powerup</string>
    • There is a new UI class called fracked-portal-effect. So there will probably be a visual indicator while you have one active.
    • We will update this post when we have a render of this item.

While these seem to be minor items, they can still affect the game. With the Key Locker, you can store 500 portal keys and have that additional space for bursters, resonators, and other items. Additionally, a Portal Fracker that doubles hack output can give you a leg up as well assuming it stacks with other mods that reduce the hack cooldown time and increase output.

At this time we have no idea when Niantic plans on making the Ingress IAPs live, but if it’s showing up in APK teardowns and on the Google Play Store listing, it’s only a matter of time before they flick the switch. What do you think about the addition of IAPs to Ingress? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.

[button link=”https://fevgames.net/ingress-apk-teardown-1-85-1/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Fev Games[/button]

Last Updated on November 27, 2018.

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