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.

Comments

[tyger]

Oooooh!

I'm probably going to be unusual in that I'm really looking forward to this, but there's a BUNCH of gyms in parks where I walk that have been the same for... well, as long as I've been walking there since pokego came out (so like, six months? I wasn't able to walk there for a while, stupid ankle). And since they're all the same team as me, I haven't been able to do ANYTHING to get in on that, haha. Anyway, I'm guessing they got taken over when pokego first came out, but since they're a bit out of the way, at least some of the defenders have proooobably stopped playing. So yeah. Some more movement gives me a chance! >D

(Not that I'm all that strong or anything, but still! It'd be nice to hold a gym more than like ten minutes...)

[inkstone]

I'm actually looking forward to this and seeing how it affects the gym meta because it definitely will (at least in my area). I admit I like the idea of collecting badges from all the gyms I visit. That seems like a lot of fun!

[catness]

Ok, I'm pretty hyped about it, even though it will be more difficult to earn coins. (But heck, I was getting bored with the gym meta anyway...) Raids sound especially exciting, though I'm kind of scared to finally come face to face with fellow players ;) (Also, it's questionable that with the current level of PoGo enthusiasm, it will be possible to gather 20 players in the same location at the same time.)

Meanwhile, I already miss gyms... the landscape looks so empty without them :( And when the event will be over tomorrow, there will be practically no motivation to play. I hope gyms come back ASAP.

Btw here's the detailed official update about the new features: https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/115009004687

[kirin]

Welp, now I really need to find other players in my area to coordinate for raid battles... although, since they pop up randomly, I guess you can't really plan anything ahead. A bit worried that this will be another thing that's hard to pull off for people not in really dense areas; if no other players happen to be near your local gym when a raid happens you probably won't be able to take it out by yourself (or if you can, by fighting it repeatedly, it'll use up a crap-load of potions/revives). There's also a potential money-sink angle, if you've used up your one free daily raid pass and then something pops up that you *really* want a chance at catching, the only option is buying a premium pass for real money.

All that said, it still sounds like a fun mechanic when the stars align to find people playing together. Also TMs are exciting; time to pay even more attention to which move sets are most desirable...

As for the new regular gym operation, I'm curious to see how it will work out. No duplicate defenders will definitely make battling more interesting. I'm a little worried the motivation system may make taking gyms take even longer, though - beating a single pokemon won't necessarily kick it off anymore. But OTOH gyms basically decaying if they're not visited may provide more opportunities, especially on out-of-the-way gyms. And there's finally a use for Nanab berries! :D

Edit: Another exciting thing is that while all the demo pics show raid bosses being existing high-tier Pokemon with severely beefed-up stats, it seems pretty obvious that this could also be used as a way to get Legendaries in the future. Like, maybe a Legendary debuts at a special event first (like the upcoming thing in Chicago), but then afterwards starts spawning randomly as a raid boss so people who couldn't make it to the event can get one eventually too...

[melannen]

I might be able to take out a raid boss by myself - I have fought level-ten gyms down to nothing with only grit and a ton of pidgeotto and furret - but there's no way one person could do it in a five-minute time limit unless the battle mechanic is changing a lot.

[evil_plotbunny]

I'm a little confused about how the raids will work.

That being said, I started getting network error messages on one of the two pokestops I can reach from my desk around midafternoon EDT. I finally closed the app and opened it again and it's turned into a disabled gym! And I've got a coworker on the same team as me, so I'm sure we'll be regularly hitting it as a team.

[upanddisappear]

It's so cool that gyms will be like stops!

[masu_trout]

I'm so excited for gym badges! More shiny things to collect is always welcome.

[melannen]

As a person who has been basically unable to take any gyms for months, this all sounds great! (And I will now be able to walk to a pokestop from my house!!)

[lilacsigil]

The gyms closed and THEN I got my 10 coins and my defending pokemon hasn't been returned. So maybe if you had a pokemon in the gym at the time it closed you'll keep getting coins while gyms are down?