Gym Battles have always been a major facet of the Pokémon experience: find the eight gyms located in various cities around the region, then battle the gym leader and get his or her badge. If you collect eight badges, you get the chance to battle the Elite Four and become the champion.
It appears this trend will continue in Niantic's highly-anticipated "Pokémon GO," however, it will come with one major twist: instead of being turn-based like before, the battles will occur in real time.
This newest batch of information comes courtesy of The Silph Road, the same Reddit community that brought us last week's info about Pokémon evolution.
Here are some of the key points:
- There are two methods of attack: a weak one, which is performed by tapping the screen, and a stronger variant (charge attack), which is performed by holding down your finger on the screen.
- There's something that appears to be a stamina bar, which is broken up into two halves and is displayed below a Pokémon's HP bar. It appears to regenerate about 20 percent per second and the rate of recovery will boost after taking a hit. Lastly, you lose stamina based on which attack you use - for example, a charged move will take 50 percent stamina.
- Incoming attacks are shown via a red crosshair that closes in on your Pokémon, giving you the opportunity to dodge, which is done by swiping left or right. Dodging, obviously, prevents damage from being taken (for the most part), while skillfully dodging places your Pokémon behind the opponent's.
- AoE (Area of Effect) attacks seem to always hit - even when a Pokémon dodges.
- Just like with entries in the main series, Pokémon type has an impact on damage. For example, using water attacks on a water-type opponent will yield messages telling you that the attack wasn't very effective, while using water attacks on a fire-type opponent will yield messages telling you that the attack was super effective.
- Once again, just like with entries in the main series, damage taken in battle lingers even after the fight is over, so you'll need to heal your team after every battle.
It should be noted that all of this pertains to the gym training portion of the game, though there is little reason to expect that any of this will change in the game's main portion.
The last bit of info is about the way the game looks. Contrary to what was assumed, the game retains its classic Pokémon charm and doesn't look anything like "Ingress," Niantic's other game. While the community hasn't received permission to post a video, there is a description of how battles work, which certainly makes you wish they had.
"I'll just say this, though: it looks freaking fun," said Dronpes, who has heard various reports from field testers, on Reddit. "Nothing like Ingress. Much more like the 'encounter' screen but with the camera higher set and behind a Pokémon. You see each Pokémon's HP in a bar. There is a second bar, divided into two on the 'computer player Pokémon' when training. We're still working out what's happening with that. But the attacks fly like hail. We're seeing both the 'quick' and the charge move. The animations are cool. The Pokémon can jump/dodge and it appears to avoid some of the damage from the attack. It's crazy. And colorful. And gloriously not like Ingress."
Everything is shaping up well so far, but it all begs one question: when will those of us in the U.S. get a crack at "Pokémon GO"? A beta test has already been confirmed for Australia and New Zealand, but there have been no announcements for North America at all. Fortunately, when the final product does land, the U.S. will be among the regions that it comes to first.
