Pokémon GO will get raid battles, new gym features in an upcoming update

Niantic and The Pokémon Company International just announced details of a big upcoming update for Pokémon GO.

Firstly, starting today, there will be new revamped Gyms that roll out. Ownership will be more collaborative and new gyms will add a spinnable photo disc that distributes items. There will be gym badge mementos that can be levelled up for bonus items at gyms as well. In addition to that, gyms will now feature six permanent slots for the controlling team’s Pokémon.

An update later on brings a new co-op gameplay mode called Raid Battles. This update is set to release in the coming weeks and trainers will be able to team up with nearby trainers to defeat powerful Pokémon called Raid Bosses. These events are timed in game events and they encourage interacting together as you take down massive bosses. There will also be private raid groups through a code system for restricting this to just friends.

Pokémon GO is available on iOS and Android devices.