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

[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.