Pokemon GO ‘s new gym system released earlier this week, and players were shocked to find that they could no longer claim free Pokecoins – the game’s premium currency – from the Pokemon GO store. Of course, as the Inquisitr has previously discussed, limiting or removing free Pokecoins was a change that needed to happen: Niantic has lost a lot of potential revenue, both to hardcore players who never needed to buy a single coin to get what they want from the store, and casual players disgruntled with a system which inspired those hardcore players to lock down gyms indefinitely with high-powered Pokemon (more on that later.)
For now, although many players are still disgruntled, all is not lost. With the new gym update, free Pokecoins have been tweaked, and in many ways made better: for every ten minutes one of your Pokemon defends a gym, you get one coin. But there’s a catch: according to the Express , free Pokecoins are now limited to 50 per day .
While surely frustrating to hardcore players accustomed to a steady flow of coins with no real work invested, this actually comes as great news to casual players. In the previous versions of Pokemon GO , getting more than a pittance of coins a day generally required defeating multiple level 10 gyms solo, for those who didn’t play in a regular group. Typically, most casual players would only pick up 10 or 20 Pokecoins daily, if they got any at all.
But it’s a lot easier to keep a Pokemon in a gym for a few minutes, and 50 coins top out at just over 8 hours. That’s between every gym you have a Pokemon on, and they’re a lot easier both to defeat and to deploy on after the update. Most players will actually see an increase in coins earned. That’s partly because gyms are far easier to capture now, and each Pokemon has to be unique to the gym: no more gyms full of top-tier Dragonites making play more agony than entertainment.
Of course, there’s still a catch. Pokemon GO ‘s raid battles released to the general public recently, and each one requires a special pass to participate in. You get one for free every day, and you can only hold one at a time. Those new raids feature significant rewards, including loads of Rare Candies (which can be transformed into candy for any Pokemon) and special capture opportunities. That said, you can participate in more than one raid a day – and you’ll want to – if you’re willing to unload 100 Pokecoins for the opportunity. Essentially, once every two days, you can play an extra raid battle for free.
Overall, Pokemon GO ‘s new gym and raid system brings a lot more to the game, for casual and hardcore players alike. It’s going to take a little adjustment, but this might be the update that breathes new life into the foundering game.
[Featured Image by Niantic Labs]
