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”

  5. ok i’ve officially lost my Arms mojo
    i can’t even play difficulty 4 anymore i’m just losing way too much from getting bad match ups and so far non of the arms works well with MM
    i got the seekies, tribolt and megawatt and nothing is working, none of the other fighters are sticking, tried mechanica, spring man and B&B and i keep losing too many fights

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  6. Just watched the new Pokemon anime intro. Interesting to see them use the old intro song again. The new intro also seems to hint at Ash’s Rockruff maybe evolving into a Midday Lycanroc. It could not, but I wouldn’t be surprised seeing as Gladion has the Midnight form. Also really interested to see them show the Totems. I’d really like to see Ash finally go forth and to his usual adventure. I egt they wanted to do something different and I am enjoying the current format, but I kind of wish they’d have Ash start to separate from the school now. It’s clear he doesn’t need to be there so why not have him start traveling again with purpose? I think maybe it’s also a problem that they made so many of the captains students at the school too. When he finally gets to Akala are we supposed to believe that Mallow, Lana, and Kiawe are actually really experienced trainers this entire time and just happen to enjoy hanging out at the school? I wonder how they’ll focus on each trial with that in mind. I made sense that Hala could show him the first trial (altho I wish they had had Ilima do it instead), but with so many trials on Akala I can’t see him having Olivia show off all of them. Anyway I’m enjoying what I’m seeing. I imagine that there will be a new intro for each island (at least in Japan anyway) so that’ll be interesting to see.

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  10. Replaying this makes me realize how nice the kalos elite 4 is.just kalos in general the land maerks are just amazing. Starting to like kalos more

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    • That’s good to hear I enjoy Kalos not as much as some other regions, but I admit it was amazing to see the game, my big problem was some of the Pokemon being way too over hyped aka:Talonflame
      And not a fan of Gourgeist either

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  12. i’m afraid the right rail on the switch is warped slightly
    i love the system but i’m afraid even hold it tight let alone grip it
    and for the very first time in months i actually opened the card slot

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  15. Well I did it! I compleyed my first nuzlocke!. My sole survivors in the end
    Heather (Noctowl)
    Jabu (Poliwrath)
    Both are awesome! They def moved up on my likeable list

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  18. soooo during my evening swim i had a revelation
    what will my team be in USUM?
    i’m a very picky team chooser and only my likes make the cut but this region just suuuucked with pokemon
    i mean i pretty much have to pick Litten as a starter, and i just need a Rockruff, and naturally i need a Fighting type, maybe Passimian or Bewear, and Mudsdale is a must and how can i not use Golisopod and Kommo-o

    the dex is just sucky and there’s hardly anything i like and the rule is always use native pokemon

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      • I was breeding Rotom and it hatched shiny, I’m not fussed about shiny Rotom so I soft reset and swapped this in instead. The Magikarp swap method is how I’d recommend getting it but I have mentioned it before and you didn’t seem to be interested.

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    • NICE!! Golett is a cool shiny. I wish I was still jazzed about shiny hunting……Maybe when USUM come out I’ll get back into it. I think I just burned myself out in gen 6 and then by the time SM came out I was tired and SOS chaining is certainly not the most fun way of doing it. We shall see in USUM I guess lol

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      • Yeah the best way to get shinies in SM in my opinion is the Magikarp switch method. I haven’t managed a single SOS one yet.

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        • I got a handful of SOS shinies, but that get’s old. I also tried the Magikarp switch way, but that went way too long and I kind of HATE having to clear box space. I really wish they would add mass releases to the box. Being able to clear an entire box or even just an entire line would be so helpful.

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  25. Listening to the Hoenn saga intros from the anime is making me yearn for intros to become like how they used to be. Back during the early days (basically from gens 1-3) the intros always gave this feeling of confidence off. All the songs were about trying to be the best(there ever was lol) and heading for the top. Sure they’d mention having friends by the person’s side(Ash’s I guess? lol), but they never sacrificed the idea of shooting to be at the top for everyone to be important and buddy buddy. In much later seasons the intros stopped being about being the best and only focused on being a good sport. I think it really got bad with gen 5 and gen 6 wasn’t much better. That said the last season of 6 wasn’t too bad. Having your friends by your side is great, but when every song is about cooperation and being super happy for the sake of being super happy I can’t get behind that. The intros were supposed to show basically how Ash perceived his journeys. Ash is a super ambitious character so the intros should be ambitious too. I think somewhere along the line the localization team forgot that. I know the current series isn’t quite the same as the old series are and that’s fine. For the first time in a while I actually think the English dub intro fits the anime’s theme and climate. That being said I hope that if they do go down a more serious route in the future they go back to how the old intros used to be. Give them a little attitude. Give them confidence. Give them something that makes not only kids, but also adults feel like they want to be badass. That’s my take on it hahahaha

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    • I have to agree, listening to a compilation video with all of them, the first 3 gens and some of 4 get you pumped up and feeling more confident, like you’re going with Ash to achieve something.

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      • Exactly. Much of the later intros feel like they got complacent and now the whole feeling was like there’s no point. I’m done with intros that only talk about trying you best and not pushing through that barrier. It shouldn’t be about doing your best and then being done it should be about doing your best and then pushing to do better than that. Somewhere along the line they just kind of gave up. lol

        Reply

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