Raids!

[healingmirth]

As of last night, raids are now available to players 25 and up, and at a "wide variety of gyms" throughout the world. I've got two gyms in map-sight of home; one of them has a level one raid this hour, and the other has a level four raid coming up in a bit over an hour. Hopefully an achievable raid comes soon to a gym near you!

*edit* ha, and the third gym that's just slightly out of sight has.a level three raid in an hour and a half.

*edit 2* and now the first gym has a raid back up again, level two. So I'm feeling pretty good about the frequency.*



From what I've seen on reddit, level three raids will require at least a couple trainers and level four somewhere between 6 and 10 depending on level, but I haven't yet seen enough reports to know how that experience matches up with the recommended number of players listed on the gym. My upcoming level four raid is at least in a real park with benches and a playground and all, so while I doubt we'll muster enough people to win, I'm at least going to wander by and see if anyone's around.


The level one raid was a 5kish Croconaw, and it melted to 2300cp attackers, about how you'd expect if you're familiar with prestiging with lower CP mons from the old gym system. The timer was three minutes, and I think it took me about 30 seconds. Got 13 balls to try to catch it with (I think that's the max - all the damage, gym controlled by my team), and eventually succeeded without having to use the golden razz berries; it escaped the ball three times, and I lost maybe 6 to it jumping or attacking. I think in the future I'm only going to throw as they're mid-jump and hope to hit it as it lands.


I ran the first raid with "yesterday's" free raid pass. If what I've read is true and I can still pick up "today's" free pass, I may give the level four raid a shot even if no one shows up, just to see for myself how terrible it is.


Raid info from niantic: https://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/115009004747-Raid-Battles

Comments

[catness]

It's true - after using the yesterday's pass, you can still pick today's pass. I did 3 raids today (resorted to buying the 3rd pass, out of curiosity). Won two 1-level raids: Croconaw and Quilava, both ~5K and extremely easy, even though I was solo. Lost a 3-level raid (~16K Vaporeon) - tried 3 rounds, kept running out of time, and gave up. Once was really very close... together with another player, would've done it. But there are too many raids around, and too few players.

[healingmirth]

I thought about using today's free pass to try the level three raid solo - it was an Arcanine, and if there's one thing I've got maxed, it's vaporeons - but I decided to hold onto the pass for something more interesting.

I should head up to our downtown and see what's going on there, but ugh so humid today.

[malnpudl]

Reports on The Silph Road suggest that Arcanine is one of the most difficult to solo. Best of luck!

[malnpudl]

I'm delighted with how easy Level 1 raids are, mostly for the swag. I got a Charged TM from my second one, and turned my high IV Arcanine from useless (Bulldoze legacy move) to useful (Fire Blast). Brilliant!

I haven't been near higher-level raids yet, but I expect to this afternoon, and I'm crossing my fingers for people to team up with.

Is there a chat group for coordinating raids in your area? I'm thinking of starting one, but I'm not sure which platform to use. Everyone at the Silph Road says Discord is best, but I don't know how many local players will have accounts or feel comfortable using it.

[healingmirth]

So thus far, our most awkwardly placed gym has had a level one and level two raid, the business with the tiny parking lot has had a level three raid, and our park gym is queueing up for a second level four raid. We maxed out at three trainers and didn't engage the tyranitar that popped there earlier, so I don't have much higher hopes for the next one.

Talking to (friendly-seeming!) dudes waiting in their car earlier to ask if they were waiting for the raid was frankly a little bit yikes, but at least now we recognize each others' faces. Mostly my barrier to entry with coordinating with others is that I've spent months judging most of the high level trainers around here for their nickname choices, but also I way don't want to use my real name facebook or contact info to do it.

Looking at how today has run, so far, I think I'm going to be pretty content dinking along with level one and two raids, and maybe lucking into a group for a higher one once a week or so.

[healingmirth]

Don't mind me, I just want to record this update somewhere!

I still haven't found a level two raid that I wanted to use a pass on, even for slightly better rewards (no thank you, more Electabuzzes and Magmars) so I've been burning my free daily pass off on Croconaws. This afternoon I finally found a Machamp raid, and I'm desperately short of fighting attackers, so I went for it.

Unfortunately, I'm also desperately short of psychic attackers, so the first time I went in with 2600 Espeon and solar beam Exeggutor, and the jolteons that the AI seemed to want me to use. Not great, Bob.

I healed up and went back in, and this time, hurrah, there was another trainer somewhere in the parking lot. 10 levels lower than me and attacking with, like, a Flareon and eventually a Skarmory, but I'll take what I can get. Swapped out the jolteons for some different high DPS options. Timed out and lost again, whoops.

Went in a third time, and that time I just bailed halfway through, max revived my Espeon and Exeggutor, rejoined, and glory be, my mystery buddy trainer was fighting with his Espeon. The difference that Super Effective attacks makes is ridiculous. I think if I find another one up, I might try sending in the remainders of my Hypno army if I don't find some more TMs to whip a couple more Exeggs into shape.

I hope my mystery friend had good luck on the catch!

[ephemera]

I saw a ton of raids in progress of gearing up today, but none that I could actually stop for / get back to, and my cunning plan to go for an evening walk around 9pm just to play got nixed by rain, but more so by the fact that there were no raids to be found at that point. (I was totally gearing up to go out with an umbrella to play under) I wonder if they have a curfew for raids with an eye to the younger player audiences? (There are now five gyms that I can "see" from home, and this morning there were raids in progress or pending for three or so at a time, so - frustrating, but it's less annoying if I assume that it's in purpose to stop kids sneaking out past bedtime. Here's hoping for better luck tomorrow!

[healingmirth]

Yeah, I don't think there's been an official announcement or explanation yet, but it's looking like raids are only available 9am-9pm local time. There are a lot of unhappy trainers in areas where it's dangerously warm during daylight summer hours, so hopefully there will be some wiggle room to that.

[ephemera]

I was out early this morning, and the 9am start sounds about right for when I started getting notifications. I see the logic, but it's a little frustrating when that's not a good fit for your play time!

Other thing I hadn't realised until today - the pay-for raid pass is single use only - I was expecting "good for N time period" for 100 coins - 100 per raid is a little rich for my blood, and kind of nixes the idea of intentionally getting together with people to go out raiding for a morning, etc.

[everchangingmuse]

The one gym in my local area had two raids today, but I only had my raid pass for today. The wife and I tried to partner up for the first one (Level 3 Gengar) not realizing you got more than one per day in your gym, but her phone ended up freezing, and by the time she had it working again, I'd been battling for nearly the full allotted time. Failed to do much damage on my own, but at least now I see how they work.

And, for the first time ever, I've been holding a gym for more than ten minutes! I'm so excited by this!

[healingmirth]

Congrats on the gym progress! I'm seeing all sorts of new trainer names in gyms around here, so I hope people keep up with it.

I've still only done a few level one raids, building my croconaw empire, apparently. We might lack the critical mass for level four, and my timing has just been crap on finding a buddy for threes.

[kirin]

So I'm pretty dang disappointed right now that it seems like you can't get raid notifications at a distance of more than slightly past your visible map range. I have half a dozen gyms that are more or less walkable/bikeable from my house, but all are a good bit out of sight and very spread out, so I'll never know raids are happening in my area at all unless I get extremely lucky when out for a walk anyway.

In contrast, the nearby small downtown with like eight gyms visible at once had four raids going on simultaneously when I was there for errands Saturday morning. I fought two level-2s, since I had a previous days' raid pass, and got a Charge TM along with some other loot. But this means I basically *have* to get in the car if I want to play raids at all, and even so I might get unlucky and have to waste time waiting if I don't have something else to do in town - and that kind of sucks.

Not to be a downer, overall I love most of the new systems. Just wish we could choose to expand raid notifications. Or even just farther reach for the "nearby raids" tab of the radar - I don't mind checking manually, and long range notifications could flood people with push messages if they live in a dense area; I just want to be able to *check* for raids within, like, 3km or so.

[healingmirth]

Ugh, yeah, that's frustrating :(

There's been a fair amount of what seems like constructive conversation around a notification system that would make sense for more rural players (things like distance not just visual range, or "subscribing" to the gyms you have the highest badge levels from.) I really hope that now that they seem to be staffed at a more appropriate level for the number of users, we'll see some good response to community feedback.

[dimestoresaint]

After wasting yesterday's raid pass on a battle with a Muk that I kept getting kicked out of for no apparent reason, today I managed to get through a level one raid with a Vaporeon. I had to restart my app a good three times because it kept freezing when I tapped the gym, and after all that I only ended up with a 1733 CP Vaporeon--by far the lowest-CP Vaporeon I have. All in all it was a waste of time.

[silveradept]

Good luck so far on the two raids I have participated in - collected Pokémon I did not already have in the process of doing so, and in going to likely take a swing at soloing a two skull in a little bit...