There’s a couple of brand new Pokémon Go updates inbound that will bring co-op battles to Niantic’s augmented reality game. The Pokémon Go co-op will take the form of new Raid Battles, which will eventually get you the chance to catch Legendaries.
Yes, Legendary Pokémon are actually coming to Pokémon Go at long last, but it seems there’s going to be a bit of a barrier between you and the likes of Moltres and Articuno.
The Pokémon Go co-op feature comes in the form of Raid Battles, which are brand new co-operative social gameplay experiences linked to Gyms. Trainers will be able to team up to battle against the rarest and most powerful Pokémon known as Raid Bosses in Raid Battles. They’re timed in-game events that see Raid Bosses take over a nearby Gym, and if you time it right, you’ll be able to battle against a Raid Boss and if you defeat them, you’ll get the chance to try and capture them using Special Balls. You can even work together with specific friends using a special code system, with up to 20 friends capable of battling at once.
The Legendaries will apparently appear through special Raid Battles that are invite-only, but Niantic wasn’t able to shed much light on that yet.
In the next Pokémon Go update though, you’ll see the brand new Gym design refresh, which ditches the traditional Prestige and Leveling, in favor of making Gyms better to engage with. They’ll now feature a PokéStops for getting new items, and each one will feature six permanent slots that are filled by the controlling team’s Pokémon. If you want to battle, you’ll face those six Pokémon in the order they were assigned to the Gym, rather than strongest to weakest.
There’s a new Motivation System for Gym-based Pokémon too, which is indicated by a little heart above their head. Motivation levels will go down the longer you leave a Pokémon at a Gym and the more they’re defeated, and you’ll need to feed them berries to build that motivation up again. Otherwise, you’ll notice their Combat Power (or CP) falling, making it easier to beat them in battle.
There are new items too, which you’ll get after defeating a Raid Boss in a Raid Battle: Rare Candies, Golden Razz Berries, and two types of Technical Machines—Fast and Charged.
“To put these exciting changes in motion, we’ll be temporarily disabled all Gyms,” explained Niantic. “Once the update has been rolled out to players around the world, Gyms will return. The Raid Battle feature will then be rolled out slowly over the next few weeks, starting as a beta, with raids visible only to high-level players at sponsored Gym locations.
“Over a few days, we’ll invite more players to participate and enable raids at more Gyms around the world. Keep an eye on our social media channels for updates on when you’ll be able to start battling in raids. We can’t wait to see you outside battling at your local Gyms!”