Pokémon GO Announces Raid Battles & Overhauled Gyms

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Pokémon GO will temporarily be closing gyms across the world, but exciting new features are coming to the game soon. You can read the official update below and also check out the blog post for pictures!

New Gym Features and Updates: Starting soon, Gyms are undergoing a major facelift. You’ll soon be able to spin the Photo Disc at Gyms to acquire items just as you do at PokéStops—but that’s only the beginning. More updates to Gym battles are also just around the corner. Gyms are no longer based on Prestige and training. Instead, they now feature six permanent slots that can be filled by the controlling team’s Pokémon. Each Pokémon assigned to these slots must be unique. For example, only one Blissey can be assigned to a Gym at a time. In addition, opposing teams will battle the Pokémon in the order they were assigned to the Gym.

At the heart of the update is a new motivation system that will significantly change how you interact with Gyms. When a Pokémon is assigned to a Gym, a motivation meter will be displayed. Pokémon assigned to defend a Gym lose motivation over time and as they are defeated in battle. As a Pokémon loses motivation, its CP will temporarily decrease, making it easier for opposing teams to defeat. To help keep the Pokémon motivated and in tip-top shape for their next battle, Trainers can treat their team’s Pokémon to some Berries, which restore their motivation. If a Pokémon loses all motivation, it will leave the Gym and return to its Trainer the next time it loses a battle, so you’ll want to keep your team’s Pokémon motivated by giving them Berries frequently!

Gym Badges: Now you’ll be able to earn Gym Badges when interacting with the many Gyms around the world. Gym Badges serve as mementos of your Pokémon GO adventures and reflect your contribution to a Gym’s success.

You’ll be able to level up your Badges by battling, giving Berries to the Pokémon in the Gym and spinning the Gym’s Photo Disc. You can earn the opportunity to receive bonus items and increased rewards from Gyms by raising the level of your Gym Badge.

New Raid Battle Feature: All around the world, you’ll soon be able to participate in the new Raid Battle feature at Gyms. A Raid Battle is a cooperative gameplay experience that encourages you to work with other Trainers to defeat an extremely powerful Pokémon known as the Raid Boss. Before a Raid Battle begins, all Pokémon assigned to the Gym will return to their Trainers, and a large Egg will appear atop the Gym. When the countdown above the Egg reaches zero, the Raid Boss will be revealed.

Before you can battle the Raid Boss, you’ll need a Raid Pass. You can get one free Raid Pass per day by visiting a Gym, but you can only hold one at a time. You can also get Premium Raid Passes from the in-game shop. Upon using your pass to join the battle, you and up to 20 other Trainers work together to defeat the Raid Boss. If you successfully defeat the Raid Boss within the five-minute time limit, you’ll have the chance to catch an extra powerful Pokémon of your own!

New Items: After defeating a Raid Boss, you’ll receive a collection of rewards, including some new items obtained only by defeating a Raid Boss: Rare Candies, Golden Razz Berries, and two types of Technical Machines—Fast and Charged. A Rare Candy is a mysterious candy that, when used on a Pokémon, turns into that Pokémon’s Candy. Golden Razz Berries will greatly increase your chances of catching a Pokémon you encounter in the wild and can also be given to a Pokémon assigned to a Gym to fully recover its motivation meter. Technical Machines are items you can use to permanently teach a Pokémon a new Fast Attack or Charged Attack.

To put these exciting changes in motion, we’ll be temporarily disabling all Gyms. Once the update has been rolled out to players around the world, Gyms will return. The Raid Battle feature will then be rolled out slowly over the next few weeks, starting as a beta, with raids visible only to a subset of players at certain Gym locations. Over a few days, we’ll invite more players to participate and enable raids at more Gyms around the world. Keep an eye on our social media channels for updates on when you’ll be able to start battling in raids. We can’t wait to see you outside battling at your local Gyms!

Phew! Lots of changes, but they certainly sound exciting!

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1,299 thoughts on “Pokémon GO Announces Raid Battles & Overhauled Gyms”

  2. Pokedex Number: 116
    Venacious
    Classification: The Bloated Pokemon
    Height: 6’06
    Weight: 789.3 Lbs
    Type: Poison
    Ability: Sticky Hold/Thick Fat (Hidden Ability: Gluttony)
    Stats:
    HP: 120
    Attack: 79
    Defense: 100
    Special Attack: 79
    Special Defense: 100
    Speed: 35
    Base Stat Total: 513
    Pokedex Entry: This Pokemon is said to be constantly hungry no matter how much it eats and will constantly stuff its mouth if given the opportunity. If food is taken away from them, they will violently expel a noxious acid from their mouth. Due to their overeating, they have grown much heavier and are unable to move very well. There have been some cases where a Venacious eats so much at once that it suffocates before swallowing what it was currently eating.

    Evolves Level: 39

    (Earthen would love the females ;3)

    Reply

  3. Pokedex Entry: 108
    Mega Masquerain
    Classification: Eyeball Pokemon
    Height: 3’11
    Weight: 23.9 Lbs
    Type: Bug/Flying
    Ability: Storm Eye
    Stats:
    HP: 70
    Attack: 60
    Defense: 110
    Special Attack: 112
    Special Defense: 82
    Speed: 120
    Base Stat Total: 545
    Pokedex Entry: Masquerain are known as a prime example for natural Mega Evolution. Despite the massive change they undergo, Masquerain barely struggle to attain this form. They are able to handle moisture much more efficiently from previous evolutions and are commonly seen during storms. A weird energy eminates from the eyes on their wings. This energy seems to prevent electricity from damaging them much.

    Storm Eye: Reduces damage from electric type moves done to user by half, flying type moves are raised by 2.0x for the user, user cannot be paralyzed.

    I need to stop, I read somewhere that Masq and Araq are counterparts (It actually lines up perfect, different times of day to appear and same stat total) so I decided to make them as such

    ….meaning guess who’s getting a mega

    Reply

  4. What Top 10 creatures that you want a Pokemon based on? they can be extinct and/or mythical too. Feel free to include a picture or wiki so we know what it is.

    Mine:
    – Andrewsarchus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrewsarchus
    – Megatherium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatherium
    – Qilin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin
    – Golden Lion Tamarin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_lion_tamarin
    – Griffin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin
    – Thorny Dragon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorny_dragon
    – Merlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird)
    – Gastornis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastornis
    – Gorgonops https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonops
    – Common basilisk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_basilisk

    Reply

  5. And finally
    Pokedex Entry: 106
    Mega Araquanid
    Classification: The Water Bubble Pokemon
    Height: 5’11
    Weight: 180.8 Lbs
    Type: Bug/Water
    Ability: Water Bubble
    Stats:
    HP: 68
    Attack: 130
    Defense: 122
    Special Attack: 50
    Special Defense: 142
    Speed: 42
    Base Stat Total: 545
    Pokedex Entry: This Pokemon is able to Mega Evolve only when the bond between it and its trainer is at its absolute peak. The immense strength it gains upon evolving will have violent consequences on the trainer and the Pokemon if one of them is unprepared. It is theorized that the color change the bubble on its head undergoes is due to the mass amount of energy it possesses. An attack from this Pokemon has the force of a tsunami.

    Aka, metagame murder

    Reply

  15. Metroid Prime, 4 new screenshots!!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d7b22996dfe752ff7916682d8a5b817587d6ff8dc38441ff1d8b10ac77068213.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52778ada252e1776d440840a1bc60f002496bdf4fdf7f3076aef3aa47956bdad.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90e8a808a98e7b2ce676328a90c1c9d230cc464415518b2fd3e011c364eef69b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/020c3283fab60450886582c3ee70a1bd60797037a630b42feba47ac73853fad6.png

    Reply

  17. What if gen 8 (pokemon switch) will have an UK based region with a Fire/Fairy bipedal unicorn warrior as a starter?

    Reply

  18. To den to badass princess and Hell in a Shell, Kingdom Battle also apparently has a weapon called Life’s a Beech

    Reply

  20. So when does everyone expect the next news on USUM to come? I’m thinking at the beginning of July. I think they’ll jump back on the schedule they had for SM and do a beginning of the month news dump and then have occasional new dumps here and there at other different times.

    Reply

  24. 14 minutes, nothing to do, booooooooooored
    Just wanna go home, do my wow dalies, have a round or three in Splatoon and grind arms

    Reply

  25. Me 4 hours ago: Alright, so I’m going to resume working on Fakemons and my legendaries
    Me now: (watching meme videos) Wait dafaq am I doing right now

    Reply

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