Pokemon Go Updates: Gym Training and Medal Capture Bonuses

Two major updates are hitting the Pokemon Go mobile-app. One has to do with capture bonuses, while the other has to do with training gyms and the battles related to it.

For those who play the game, they'll notice that medals are gain after a certain threshold in capturing specific Pokemon. Niantic's new update makes those medals actually do something than look pretty in your profile.

With the coming update, catching more of the same type will result in getting a certain catch bonus when attempting to capture rarer Pokemon with the same type. Kindler, for example, will give bonuses to capturing Fire Pokemon. For Pokemon with multiple types, Niantic has shared that the bonus chance given will be the average of the two. The example given was Pidgey, who is both flying and normal. Therefore, the bonuses to catching Pidgey will be the average of your bonuses for its individual types.

No specifics have been given just yet, but this update is sure to be promising because it makes the little things you do have a better impact overall. The tedium of catching many weak Pokemon will have another advantage aside from the obvious candy-gathering.

One of the problems with the current gym system in Pokemon Go is that it becomes increasingly difficult to train a gym when the defending Pokemon is so much higher in CP than your your own. Niantic seems to have noticed this, and has announced an update to allow even low-level players a chance to contribute to their own team's gyms.

Instead of the old one-by-one style, Niantic's new update will allow players to train six Pokemon simultaneously while also adjusting the defending Pokemon's CP to match.

The update is a long time coming because the previous hurdle was too high for most new players to overcome. Now, however, regardless of how much more overwhelming the defending Pokemon's CP is, newer players with weaker Pokemon can still make a difference.

Again, updates like these are very impactful because it directly influences the amount of satisfaction players can get from playing the game. Previously, the end-game of the app was questionably lacking. The Buddy System was a good step towards alleviating this problem, and now this Gym Update will do the same. It will no longer require endless grinding before being able to contribute to your chosen faction's gym.