Pokémon Go team has announced exciting new updates and features coming soon to the game for trainers world wide. Completely revamped Gyms, an entertaining new Raid Battle feature and new items which will be earned as rewards to catch and train Pokémon. The new Gyms will be rolled out world wide, therefore as of today, Gyms have been disabled.
We'll be temporarily disabling Gyms in a few hours, Trainers. Make sure to claim your Defender bonus soon.
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) June 19, 2017
The Raid Battles feature will be released as beta with the Raids only visible to selected trainers at certain Gym locations. Other trainers will gradually be invited to participate in raids at selected Gyms around the world.
The biggest update to Pokémon GO is almost here. Learn more about the Gym and Raid Battle features coming your way! https://t.co/zknoYrqUei pic.twitter.com/BaU9hF4P97
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) June 19, 2017
New Gyms
Here are the new features coming soon to Gyms
- You will be able to spin the Photo Disc to collect items, like you do at Pokéstops.
- Gyms will have six permanent slots to be filled by Pokémon of the controlling team in an order, likely depending upon the combat points of the selected creatures. These slots will have to be occupied by six different Pokémon and all them will be unique. To take control of the Gym, the opposing team will have to battle and defeat the defending Pokémon in the order they were assigned.
- Each Pokémon assigned to a Gym will have a ‘motivation meter’ to indicate the loss of creature’s motivation to defend the Gym over time. As time progresses, the Pokémon’s CP (combat points) will decrease to show a decrease in its motivation level. If a trainer neglects to restore or maintain the assigned Pokémon’s motivation level, it will increase the chances of the opposing team’s Pokémon to defeat the defending creatures and take over the Gym. In the case of complete loss of motivation, the Pokémon will subsequently leave the Gym and will return to the trainer autonomously. Therefore, the task of the defending trainers will be to frequently monitor and boost their creature’s motivation levels by feeding them berries.
- Gyms around the world will have personal badges. Upon conquering a Gym, trainers will receive that Gym’s badge. Trainers will be able to upgrade their badges by battling, feeding berries to the assigned creatures at the Gym or by acquiring items at it.
Raid Battles
In Raid battles, you will be able to group together with up to 20 other trainers of your team to defeat an extremely powerful Pokémon defending a Gym known as the Raid Boss. The Raid Boss of the Gym is only revealed when the battle begins and the opposing team will have five minutes to defeat it. Upon initiating a Raid Battle, all the assigned Pokémon return to their trainers and a big yellow Egg appears on top the Gym with a countdown clock. As soon as the count down ends, the battle will begin. To begin a Raid Battle, you will require a Raid Pass which will be available at Gym. Only one free Raid Pass will be given per day but you can purchase Premium Raid Passes from the in-app shop.
New Items
If you are successful in defeating a Raid Boss, you will receive a rewards collection including rare candies, golden razz berries, fast machine and charged machine. These rewards will help you to catch and train your creatures. Rare candies will turn into Pokémon Candy, golden razz berries will be helpful in catching cheeky Pokémon and to restore or maintain motivation levels of assigned creatures at Gyms. Two technical machines, Fast and Charged, will be used to permanently teach new fast and charged attacks to a Pokémon.
As a Pokémon Go enthusiast, I am looking forward to these upcoming updates and features. They are bound to bring a new level of excitement to existing battles and gameplay experience as well as the ability to share the fun of battling with others. The motivation system will encourage trainers to frequently open the app and stay connected.
The updates will be rolled out over the coming few weeks.
