Pokemon GO Raid Battles : Where Legendary Pokemon Come From

A new Raid Battle feature in Pokemon GO has been revealed by Niantic and SlashGear has the full lo-down! Today we're having a peek at what the next big change to Pokemon GO will be – not just a revamp of Pokemon GO gym battles, but of the path to the future of the game's Pokedex! This new feature will begin shortly after the flip of the switch to the new Pokemon Gym system which will be happening briefly – no later than halfway through this week!

A Raid Battle is the embodiment of what Niantic first described – and showed – on the first trailer for Pokemon GO over a year ago. In that trailer, trainers from New York City gathered at Times Square, all together as one, aiming to take down the legendary Pokemon known as MewTwo! This is very similar to what'll happen in the real game.

In the real game, new Raid Battles will be initiated at Pokemon Gym locations all around the world. Users will battle a Raid Boss with the help of other trainers, all collaborating together within range of the gym as the Raid Boss is revealed. These battles are initiated only if the player has a Raid Pass.

A Raid Battle is revealed to users with a giant Pokemon Egg. Each giant Pokemon Egg at a Pokemon Gym has a countdown meter. Once the meter reaches zero, the Raid Boss battle begins. Each Raid Boss battle can contain between 1 and 21 individual trainers.

A Raid Pass can be found at a Pokemon Gym by spinning the Pokemon Gym's icon. For those of you reading from the future – Pokemon Gyms didn't always have a spin-friendly icon. Before the Gym Overhaul, only Pokestops were able to be spun to find special items, Pokeballs, and the like.

Users can also purchase a "Premium Raid Pass" from the in-game shop. This Premium Raid Pass will last for several raids rather than disappearing after just a single raid. We'll expect Niantic to get quite a cash-in on this particular setup.

Each Raid is a battle that can last for up to 5-minutes. If the Raid Boss is defeated within the 5-minute time limit, trainers receive a collection of rewards. These rewards include the following items:

SEE TOO: Pokemon GO Promo Codes: Birthday/Solstice Event WARNING!Raid Battle Rewards:

• Rare Candies

• Golden Razz Berries

• Technical Machine: Fast

• Technical Machine: Charged

• Potential to catch "extra powerful Pokemon"

See our feature on New Pokemon GO Items VIA our @TeamPokemonGO Twitter portal right this minute for more details. This is just the beginning of the big changes Niantic has in store for their 1-year birthday party for Pokemon GO.

This Raid Battle update will come amid the Gym Overhaul. Beginning TODAY (June 19th, 2017), Pokemon Gyms around the world will begin to be deactivated. Once the newest update for Pokemon GO is distributed all around the world, Pokemon Gyms will be re-activated.

Raid Battles will be "rolled out slowly over the next few weeks," said Niantic today, "starting as a Beta." Raids will, at first, only be visible to "a subset of players at certain Gym locations." This feature will then roll out to more players, then more locations, and so on.