Big changes are coming to Pokemon Go, thanks to prolific player feedback from players at how terrible the current gym battle system is for those who play the game. You’ve probably wandered across a gym staffed with a super powerful Pokemon that you have no hope of defeating. Well, Niantic are making some changes to the formula to prevent this from happening.
New Gym Changes
Currently, gyms feature three slots for Pokemon and it can be any variety of Pokemon. The changes Niantic is planning will prevent you from going up against a gym staffed with the most popular current “meta game” Pokemon by preventing more than one Pokemon from being placed in the gym at a time. That means no more three Lapras battles anymore. The opposing team will battle the Pokemon in the order they were assigned to the gym, too.
The second part of this important update is the motivation feature. Pokemon assigned to a gym will get a motivation meter that decreases over time as the Pokemon is defeated in battle, lowering the CP temporarily to make it easier for the opposing team to capture the gym. The trainer who controls the gym will have to feed their Pokemon berries to restore motivation.
Gyms are also becoming more useful to those who play the game but don’t care for gym battles, since you’ll be able to go to any gym and spin the Photo Disc to receive new items.
New Gym Badges
This new update will bring Gym Badges to the game as well. You can level up the badges by battling, giving berries to Pokemon at gyms, and spinning the Gym’s photo disc. Those with higher level badges will get more bonus items and increased rewards from this.
New Co-Op Gym Raids
Perhaps the feature that most people have been asking for since the game debuted last year is finally on the way. Niantic has revealed new Raid Battles that will require you to work with other trainers in the area in order to defeat a powerful Pokemon Raid Boss.
Raid Bosses appear at a gym as a giant egg with a countdown timer on top of it. All the Pokemon that are at the gym will be sent back to their trainers when the countdown reaches zero and the Raid Boss is revealed. In order to do battle in a Raid Boss fight, you’ll need a Raid Pass, which can be obtained for free once a day by visiting any gym. You can also buy Raid Passes in the in-game shop.
This seems like it will address a lot of the issues that are present in the current iteration of Pokemon Go, as it is much to easy for early active players to keep a gym all to themselves in order to generate those sweet, sweet coins. Raid bosses will force those Pokemon back and will require help to defeat, so Pokemon Go becomes a more co-op than competitive game. What do you think about these changes?
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