Pokemon Go Update Brings Welcome Changes to Multiplayer Battles

The Pokemon Go craze has certainly died down a lot since it’s prime. That doesn’t mean there aren’t still hoards of gamers still playing the game. Pokemon Go has 65 million active players reports Business Insider. Last week the game received a new update that brought lots of changes to the multiplayer battles that the game offers.

The basic gameplay didn’t change in the new update, you still explore your city or town and capture Pokemon that can pop up anywhere. While exploring and trying to find Pokemon you can also swing by Pokestops and get items to help you on your quest. The problem with the original game was that only extremely rare Pokemon had the stats necessary to guard their gym from attackers for any length of time.

Since only a few Pokemon were worthy of defending gyms, many resorted to cheating to get those rare characters such as the Dragonite. What that meant for players of the game is that they battled the same Pokemon over and over and even if victorious, the defenders would take their gym right back so people stopped trying.

With the new update Pokemon placed at gyms lose combat power over time by losing their motivation the longer they are at the gym. Once the motivation hits zero the Pokemon is kicked out automatically. The only way to restore motivation is to feed berries to the Pokemon protecting the gym regularly.This allows gym attackers to wait for motivation to wane and then attack a gym to take it over.

Niantic, the developers of the game, have also cracked down on cheaters to make the game more fun. Raid battles were also added that allow massive monsters to protect certain gyms and up to 19 players to attack them. If your raid is successful, you get the chance to capture a version of the Pokemon guarding the gym.