This summer, Niantic pulls out all the stops by introducing Pokemon Go’s first major update. With 65 million players monthly, Niantic seeks to continue engaging the community with new content. Earlier this year, they introduced Pokemon from the Gold and Silver era.
Now, players will experience two new features: Multiplayer Raid Battles and Redesigned Gyms.
Remember the original Pokemon Go trailer? The one where trainers teamed up to catch a Mewtwo? You’ll be able to do that now, with Multiplayer Raid Battles. Up to 20 players must work together to fight rare bosses, which will randomly appear at gyms. The group will witness an egg appear at a gym, accompanied by a timer. Once this timer goes up, a rare boss Pokemon appears, and players have five minutes to defeat it.
If the group succeeds, they have a chance to capture the rare Pokemon. New items also appear during these mass raids, including rare candies, golden razz berries, and technical machines. The raid battles are expected to launch as a free update within the next few weeks.
Gyms also work differently now, most notably, its ability to double as pokestops. You can now earn items and spin discs at gyms!
Additionally, gyms will feature six permanent slots for pokemon. You’ll be able to battle them in the order in which they were assigned, too. In addition, each of the six slots will be occupied by a different Pokemon. Apparently, Niantic did this to avoid being spammed by a single Pokemon. The update will also introduce a new feature called motivation. Gym Pokemon lose motivation over time, which decreases their CP. Motivation may be kept high by feeding the gym pokemon regularly with berries.
