A big update to Pokemon GO is plugging some leaky holes in the game’s gym mechanics.
Pokemon
The mobile app’s current gym system forces players to swing by the gyms where they leave their Pokemon if they want to feed those Pokemon berries. Berries increase monsters’ “Motivation” stat, which keeps them from leaving the gym.
Feeding them in-person has been a drag for players who don’t have the time or energy to travel to their gyms all the time. Do you think we’re just hangin’ out in the street, Niantic?
The update, which is rolling out now, lets players feed Pokemon berries from wherever. In their “Pokemon info” tab, players will see a “Go to gym” function. That will take them right to the gym where their Pokemon are left unattended and hungry. And they can feed them the same way they did before.
The downside: Remote feeding doesn’t restore as much motivation as it does in person.
Here are the rest of the patch notes via Niantic:
- Added icons to the Pokemon information screen to indicate how the Pokemon was caught.
- Added the ability for Trainers to spin the Photo Disc at a Gym after completing a Raid Battle.
- Added the ability for Trainers to give Berries to Pokemon defending Gyms if their motivation meter is full.
- Improved Pokemon Collection screen search functionality.
- Fixed an issue where Trainers were unable to complete Raid Battles started before time expired on the map view.
- Fixed an issue where Pokemon are not properly returned to their Trainer after defending a Gym.
- Various bug fixes.
The update anticipates this weekend’s Pokemon GO fest, a Chicago-based event where players earn specific badges and rewards for catching different types of Pokemon. Worldwide, players will be able to participate by grabbing up a ton of monsters and extending the duration of bonuses.
Comments
20 responses to “Pokemon GO Update Makes Gyms Less Annoying”
When are they going to fix the core game play… or lack thereof?
Guess they haven’t fixed the bug where immediately after a gym is captured, it says it’s under attack for any one trying to put a second Pokemon in it?
This one is annoying. It seems designed to stop a team who just defeated a gym from taking over it properly (ie having more than 1 Pokemon there) meaning that the team who was defeated can take it back easier.
The game is already unfair for rural players, feeding berries remotely to a gym thats over an hour is one of the few things that can help with the mad imbalance currently found in game between city and rural players.
I’m guessing you wanted to reply to the person below?
Yeah sorry, Kotaku keeps moving around on my phone with adverts loading slowly and then shifting everything down.
Seems like a stupid update. The whole idea of the gym is to get out there in the world. If I wanted to play Pokemon on the couch I’d dust off Pokemon blue.
Fail, Red is clearly the superior game.
Why I oughtta!
Funnily enough my fist Pokemon game was Blue version. But I always envied my friend for getting Red version, just thought Red had the better version specific pokemon.
It had Growlithe so definitely but I chose blue because it had a Blastoise on it which although it wasn’t a bulbasaur, it was still cooler than a Charizard. Being 10 year old me at the time I couldn’t just go out and buy the other version with my little allowance. Played the absolute heck out of it for so many years.
Anyone else having performance issues with the game? To the point where the screen freezes for seconds at a time?
Yep, me. It’s okay right now, but after the last update I had a terrible time with zooming on the map, and even just moving the map around. Tapping on anything was really laggy.
I am on Android (latest for my handset 7.1.1) using a Sony Xperia. You?
Android (6.0.1 – latest for me ugh) with a Samsung Galaxy S5.
Same, and they game has been horrible since the anniversary update. As well as the freezing and save/update icon glitches, it kicks me out of gym battles I’ve won without giving me XP.
Since the past months updates the game seems to spend more time trying to sync the server than let me play it.
I also have to agree that after a year nothing has changed on the rural gameplay side of things. I assumed that with the dwindling of players the game would open up and make it more fun (easier) for all folks to pickup and enjoy. Alas, I still have to travel 40 mins by car to catch anything but Ekans and Rattata and there isn’t any way to know where I can find the hand full of Mons I’ve never seen.
But after checking in with Ingress, it’s cut features, and the complete lack of any improvements over time I hold little hope that Pokemon Go is going to be anything more than a Grind simulator.
Yeah, seems to be related to the raid eggs popping up
Why do you want to be remotely feeding anyway. Once you get past the 9 hours you are better off having it knocked out
Unless, of course, you have 2 pokemon in gyms which are both about to be knocked out. Preferably, you want one to hang in longer so you’re not restricted by the 50 token limit. I recently have 2 high level pokemon knocked out within 24 hours of eachother, and while both had been in the gyms for several days, I still only received 50 tokens. Quite a silly limit if you ask me.
Good point. Although I was sure I received more that 50 coins the other day. But maybe I was confusing days
Can they fix the bug where you are just about standing on the gym yet it still repeatedly errors when trying to fight it.
As you need your Pokémon to get knocked out to collect coins I liked that the motivation decreased over time and often isn’t topped up. A Pokémon in a gym for 4 days is a waste. A single for Pokémon maxes out the daily coin limit in 8.3 hours.