New Gym Mechanics Revealed

[inkstone]

There are a lot of changes, so just go read the entire post!

In a nutshell:

• You'll be able to get items from gyms like you can pokestops.


• Each gym defender must be unique. (i.e. No stacking Blisseys).


• Gyms will now only have 6 defenders!


• Gym defenders must be kept motivated via berries or they'll return to their trainers. (I think this is a way to let more people interact with gyms even when all slots are filled?)


• We'll earn gym badges.


• The Collaborative Feature: Raid Battles - Basically, from time to time, a Raid Boss will take over gyms -- kicking out all current defenders -- and trainers will have to work together to beat the Raid Boss.

Gyms are going to be disabled in a few hours, so get your bonuses ASAP if you haven't already. ETA 12:41 PM EDT: Gyms have been disabled.

Field report: more gym locations, spawn points

[kirin]

So I was just out restocking on items and discovered some places where I couldn't get them, because the pokestop I was going for had become a (currently disabled) gym. Of course once the updates hit and we can spin gyms, this will be all for the better. Meanwhile, I checked out a few local hot spots and estimate that about 10% of existing pokestop locations have converted to gyms. Now that only six people will be able to get on a gym at once, more is certainly welcome!

Spawn points are a little harder to pin down, but I'm pretty sure new spawns have been added as well. I'm very familiar with the possible points in my neighborhood, and just saw quite a few spawns at new locations. Particularly noticeable was the fact that I got several spawn smack in the middle of the road, which almost never happened before and I thought was a no-no to keep kids from wandering into the street (not that you can't reach them from the sidewalk). I almost wonder if someone at Niantic forgot to run a not_on_roads filter when generating a new batch of points... we'll have to see if they stick around.