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Pokemon GO Raids Update: What you need to know

By Chris Burns/

Pokemon GO Raids were released today in a Beta for some users in the game, while others had to sit it out – that's about the change. About halfway through the day, Niantic changed the requirements for each and every Pokemon GO Raid in the game, starting with a higher level and moving down to one slightly lower. This news seems to be changing how the game is played – and tested to be played – as the day goes on. If this continues, we could see a full release before Monday!

Requirements for a Pokemon GO Raid depend entirely on how far Niantic has gotten into their Beta tests. The new Gym system was released this week, which means the company has a lot of support work to do making certain one part of this system works. The other part began around 20 hours before this article was posted.

SEE TOO: Item Requirements for RAID Battles

The first call from Niantic on the RAID Battle Beta was for the very small number of players in the world level 35 or above. These players created a small test batch perfect in size for the first rollout. The next batch began to be allowed in the gate approximately 4 hours before this article was published.

If this pattern continues, we'll see the following occur: every 15.5 hours, Niantic will reduce the player level requirement for RAID Battles by 4. If this is true, we'll see the whole system rolled out in no time.

A pattern is most unlikely if Niantic is actively monitoring how Raid Battles are going from the sidelines. If the roll-out pattern we have here is accurate, it'll most likely mean that the RAID Battle system is totally good to go, but that Niantic is playing it safe with servers. Wouldn't want to overload the whole network just because everyone in the world wants to RAID a Magikarp at once!

RAID Battle Level Requirements (Potential Pattern):

• June 23, 8 PM Central Time – Level 35+

• June 24, 11:30 AM ———- Level 31+

• June 25, 3 AM ————– Level 27+

• June 25, 6:30 PM ———– Level 23+

• June 26, 10 AM ————- Level 19+

• June 27, 1:30 AM ———– Level 15+

• June 27, 5 PM ————– Level 11+

• June 28, 8:30 AM ———– Level 7+

While it might be madness to schedule the roll-out like this, especially since several of the times pop up in the middle of the USA-based night, the end of the sequence adds up. The initial level a user must be to enter a Pokemon Gym in the first place is Level 5. Just a couple levels to get used to the Gym system is sufficient to get to a RAID battle, especially since each successive level adds a larger experience points requirement.

For more information on RAID Battles in Pokemon GO, hit up SlashGear's Pokemon GO Twitter Portal and find the Tweets with RAID in them. There's a bunch at this point, all with valuable information about how RAIDs and standard Gym Battles are about to go down. Don't let this first wave pass you by!



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