If you’re like us, you may have read information about the new Pokémon Go raids over the last several days. Personally, we were a little tentative about attempting a raid because the articles we’d read made it all sound a bit complicated. However, after giving it a try, we’re happy to report this is not at all the case. In fact, the process is very self-explanatory and quite fun when it works as planned.
Today, we had 3 raids happening within an hour (and a few miles) of each other which was a nice surprise as we assumed they would happen more sporadically and one at a time. We liked the fact that each gym had a timer above it telling us exactly when a raid would begin. Once at the gym, we appreciated that, although some Pokémon took longer than others to defeat, none took as long as we’d imagined they would.
Additionally, we found it quite exciting to have a new avenue for catching amazing (with good stats/CP) and even, at times, rare Pokémon which adds a whole new aspect to the game.
For those of you who haven’t yet participated in a raid, we decided to compile a list of everything we learned from today’s experiences. We hope this information will help prepare you for going to battle it out at the gym.
- When a raid is scheduled for a gym nearby, you will see it one of two ways; either by looking at your Pokémon tracker and then swiping over to the raid area OR by seeing a gym on the map that has an egg and timer at the top.
- A pink countdown timer (with an egg) lets you know exactly when a raid at a specific gym will begin. An orange timer (with a monster face) means that a raid is in progress.
- Each raid battle will be available for an hour. You can go at anytime during that hour to do battle. Raid battles only appear between 9am and 9pm local standard time.
- Once you enter a gym, you’ll see a spinner icon and a battle icon. If you’re visiting a gym for the first time (since the update), you’ll receive a badge when you spin. Gym badges can be levelled up. The higher the level, the better the items you’ll receive from spinning at that gym in the future.
- You can level up your gym badge by doing any of the following:
– Participate in a raid.
– Add a Pokémon to a friendly gym.
– Feed berries to help raise up the CP of Pokémon in a friendly gym.
– Takedown an opposing gym for your team.
Note on Friendly Gyms: You can now add a Pokémon without having to level up / prestige the gym. The max for each gym is 6 Pokémon. They each have to be different. You will now choose your Pokémon based on CP and not HP. - When a raid starts, you’ll be able to see the Pokémon that you’ll be battling which gives you an opportunity to decide if you really want to participate in the raid or not. This is important since you’ll only receive one free raid pass each day. You can participate in more than one raid a day, but will have to pay 100 pokecoins for each additional pass. NOTE: We did work around this today by using yesterday’s free unused raid pass on today’s 1st raid, spinning at the next gym where we received today’s free pass, then using that on our 2nd raid. We had to pay to participate in the 3rd raid.
- The battle system within the raid is the same as it has been, including the ability to put together a team of fighters before the takedown begins.
- You will receive 3000XP (or more) with each raid win. You will also receive various amounts of new white pokeballs, golden razz berries and revives. On top of this, you’ll have the chance to receive rare candy and/or items like a Charged Technical Machine (TM) which teaches a Pokémon a new charge attack or a Fast TM which teaches a fast attack.
- After you win a raid battle, you’ll have the opportunity to add that Pokémon to your collection. You’ll have a limited amount of throws to catch the monster, based on how many white pokeballs you received. You can use berries, including the new golden razz berries, to help. If you run out of white pokeballs before succeeding in your capture, the Pokémon will run away.
- You don’t have to use the new golden razz berries on the Pokémon at the gym. You can keep them, if you wish, to use on Pokémon in the wild.
- Like in the wild, not all raid Pokémon will be amazing. This part can also vary amongst team members. For instance, one team member may catch an amazing Quilava and the other a strong one.
Our first impression of the battle raids was pretty good overall. It would’ve been even better if we hadn’t experienced several glitches and server issues. It definitely is frustrating when you get kicked out in the middle of a battle or are unable to change the Pokémon you want to use on your team before going into a raid.
On the positive side, we love the rare candy item which can be added to the candy count of those rare to hatch/catch Pokémon. We’re also happy that Niantic lowered the level for participants from 31 to 20 so that more players can take part in this new addition to the game. (Unfortunately, with this change, Niantic may have underestimated the amount of people who would be using their servers at one time).
Hopefully, Niantic will work out all the kinks in the near future. We’re looking forward to the possibility of catching legendary Pokémon later in the year.
Tell us about your 1st raid.
Did you enjoy it?
Did you run into glitches?
Will you attend future raids?
What do you like/dislike?
