The first anniversary of the hugely-successful Pokemon Go is upon us, and developer Niantic is taking this opportunity to celebrate and also make some big changes. The game’s Summer update is set to make some tweaks to the game’s gyms, including Pokestop-style item-giving functionality, tweaked gym attack and defense system, gym badges and more. All-new raid battles are also set to be coming to the game soon, which should be a big new draw for the game. There’s a lot to digest here, so we’ll break it down for you below.
Gym Redesigns
- Spinnable photo disc – Gyms now have a new feature that is similar to Pokestops, which is the spinnable photo disc. Spinning this just as you would a Pokestop will get you some interesting items, though we don’t have the specifics on the kind of items we’ll get from these photo discs.
- Gym badges – A big feature of classic Pokemon games were gyms and their respective gym badges, which the player would gradually collect throughout the game as they beat gym leaders and became stronger. Badges are now a part of Pokemon Go, which serve as mementos of your gym battles and also level up to earn better rewards and items in future gym visits.
- Gym Pokemon slots – Gyms now have six permanent defender Pokemon slots that players of the current controlling team can fill with. The Pokemon placed in the gym will be battled in the order they were placed instead of their CP order.
- Pokemon gym defender motivation system – Pokemon that you place in a gym will now become demotivated as time passes, which reduces their CP and ultimately makes them easier to take down. This will make it so that the truly challenging teams will be a littler easier to take down if the team becomes complacent, but there is something they can do to combat that. Players can feed the Pokemon in the gym berries to restore motivation, putting them back in prime fighting form.
Multiplayer Raid Battles
- Raid battles – Pokemon trainers will be able to team and take on very powerful raid boss Pokemon together in new raid battles. These battles will take place via in-game events, which will replace regular gyms for a limited time. Players from any of the three teams can team up together, and you can create private raid groups via a friend code system.
- Rewards – You will not only get special items for taking down a raid boss, but you will also have the opportunity to capture the Pokemon. Considering that these raid battles will be against Pokemon you wouldn’t otherwise see in the game, this will be how we’ll finally be able to capture legendary Pokemon.
The big gym update goes live for all Pokemon Go players today, but the raid battles update will be rolling out within the next few weeks. This seems like it will be a fantastic way to get people back into the game that might have become bored with it, and hopefully will make it a much more enjoyable experience overall.
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