The 1.8.1 Update: Gems, Ranks, Referrals & a New Spawn
Cobblemon 1.8.1, a new Gem Shop and prices, rebuilt ranks and Dex Ranks, referrals and Discord boosts that pay out in-game, and a spawn island you can finally navigate.
New
Cobblemon 1.8.1 — The server is on Cobblemon 1.8.1 with all our add-ons updated to match. Update to PBG modpack 1.14.0 (Modrinth or CurseForge) before joining.
Park Gems: New Prices and the Gem Merchant — Gems are now about 100 per £1, bigger bundles give up to 40% extra, and there's a one-time Starter Gem Pack (1,000 gems, £4.99 ≈ $6.60/€5.80). Spend them at the new Gem Merchant on Boutique Row: cosmetics, crate skins, plushies, Cuddlemon and PBG blocks, now Gem-only.
Ranks and Dex Ranks Rebuilt — Every rank now gets a monthly kit on top of its weekly one: 50 to 550 Park Gems plus boosters and Plushie Keys at higher tiers, 25% off Dex Ranks, extra Bazaar listings and a rank cosmetic. Dex Ranks now pay Park Gems on every claim, 2,050 in total. See /ranks and /dexranks.
Referrals: Invite Friends, Earn Real Rewards — Share your code from /referrals. New players enter it with /refer in their first 72 hours, and you both earn rewards as they play, fill their Pokédex and take on Player Gyms. Hit 3, 10 and 25 referrals for Bronze, Silver and Gold Referrer ranks with Raid Vouchers and Shiny Boosters.
Player Gyms: Leader Applications Open — A new league run by real players sits alongside the NPC Zenith Gyms and Royal League: eight leaders each run one type, and clearing all eight unlocks the PBG League Elite Four and Champion. Season 1 opens 5 October — apply to lead a gym at https://parkballgang.com/apply, or browse with /playergyms.
Spawn Rebuilt for Easy Navigation — Every building has a floating name sign, signposts mark the junctions, and the new Spawn Directory NPC at the arrival point warps you to any area on click. /warps gained 9 spawn destinations, new clerks staff Town Hall, and the Raid Master, Ranked and Tournament desks moved to their arenas. The old /menu is retired.
Discord Booster Perks — Run /link in-game. Boosters get a Monthly Booster Kit (150 Park Gems, a Catch Booster and a Plushie Key), the booster chat badge, nickname colours and 25 Bazaar listings. Linking also syncs your rank roles to Discord.
Personal Booster Bag — Shiny, catch-rate, EXP and other boosters purchased from shops, vote points or action items now go into your own Booster Bag rather than applying globally the moment you get them. Open the bag to activate a booster when you are ready, only the vote-party reward still broadcasts server-wide.
Season Pass: Season 3 — A new Season Pass season runs until 1 December. Supporter ranks and Ascendant Dex Rank include Premium, and anyone can now unlock Premium for the rest of the season for 900 Park Gems in the Gem Shop.
New Settings Menu — Open /settings to control the things you see and hear: show or hide the sidebar, turn the Catch Combo board on or off, mute Chest Shop alerts, untrack all quests at once, switch mail alerts between normal and silent, and toggle XP Lock for each of your six party slots. This is the first of several quality-of-life additions coming over the next few days.
Booster System Expanded to 11 Types — Boosters used to cover only Catch, EXP and Shiny; now Alpha, Bait, Bucket, Fishing, Hidden Ability, IV, Snack and Type boosters exist too. Personal boosters you earn land in your /booster bag, while global boosters run server-wide for everyone. The new types aren't in the Gem Shop yet — for now you'll find them through rewards, kits and events.
Balance
Royal League Gimmick and Level-Cap Fixes — Several league fights had gimmick rules firing on the wrong Pokémon or not firing at all: Elite Inferno no longer Terastallizes on turn one, Champion Leon's Tera now lands on Dragapult while he keeps Mega Charizard Y, Elite Flora can finally Mega Evolve on her Hard rematch, and Leon's Hard rematch Haxorus can now pull off a Z-Move. Separately, one Pokémon in each of Zenith Gyms 2 through 8 was sitting one level above the cap players are meant to stay under; those fights are now on even terms, and the gym progress menus reflect the corrected levels.
Cosmetics Shop Repriced — Cosmetic tiers have been repriced upward, some free particle unlocks now require meeting a condition first, and rank crest cosmetics have been removed from sale since they are earned through rank instead.
Bazaar Listing Limits by Rank — The Bazaar now enforces a maximum number of concurrent listings per player, with higher ranks allowed more slots. If you are used to listing freely, check your limit before your next big sell-off.
Fixed
Zenith Gym and Royal League Quests Fixed — Defeat steps in the gym and league quest chains could previously be ticked by beating the wrong trainer, or could fail to credit the actual leader win. Those steps now correctly track only a win against the leader they name.
Champion Leon Battle Fixed — After the pre-battle dialogue with Champion Leon, the fight never began because several trainers' Mega Pokémon were holding stones that no longer matched after the last update, so their teams couldn't be built. Leon's first battle now starts correctly, his Charizard properly Mega Evolves, and the same fix applies to his rematch as well as the rematches of three Royal League Elites (Inferno, Tidecaller, Sentinel) and five Zenith gym leaders (Roark, Vivienne, Verity, Cole, Iris).
Missing Custom Item Icons Restored — A handful of custom item icons, including the new gym type badges, were quietly falling back to their default look because of a conflicting override. That conflict is gone, so the intended icons now show correctly across menus and items.
Player Warp Command Conflict Fixed — Player-set warps previously answered to /warp as well as /pwarp, which clashed with the server's own warp system. /warp now goes only to the server's warps, and /pwarp remains for your player warps.