I can see six gyms from my apartment and every one of them has had two today or will have had two within the next hour. It's only 5.30pm here

Oh ok. Maybe they're more popular on weekdays. Saw 3 near my work and wondered when they happen. If I'm seeing this right, the egg counts down for two hours, hatches, then the raid starts an hour after that or...?

I realize I could look this up but I'm on my phone so this is easier. TIA

It counts down for two hours, egg hatches and you have an hour to battle/beat the boss. So it's three hours total.

You have 3 minutes to beat him but if he beats you then you can keep retrying until the hour is up

I think they changed the spawn rate for raids.

Yesterday I was looking around town for hours before finally finding 1 gym with a raid. yay magicarp.

Today, about 50% of the gyms either have an egg counting down or an ongoing raid.

Niantic must have decided that people will buy raid passes and they are looking to cash in big time by making a million raids all happening at once so people buy millions of raid passes.

The massive downside to this is that the player base will become immediately insensitive to raids and in a week will be impossible to get 10 people together to comfortably beat a level 4 raid since people will have already spent their ticket on a level 2 muk or whatever else happened to spawn near them earlier that morning (yay muk).

Berries being more valuable, candy from gyms, and catching mon after raids.

I guess that's not terrible, some nice goodies, but I think the effect will wear off pretty quickly, and the actual gym gameplay/experience still isn't any better, it might even be worse.

Last question (hopefully). Can you participate in a raid if your team isn't holding down that gym?

yes, did that a couple times today.

Thought I'd mention it here, I run a gymscanning site which has player search. Due to the new version it's currently not working but once it does again, it's not much work to add another city to scan, if there's interest, here.

It also has / had historical records, stats and so on, although much of this will probably change with now 20 gyms per player max.

Popped by the university campus in down before heading to work. Half a dozen raids going off, about 40 people there in person. Was a blast! Biggest boss we took down was a 34k Tyranitar.

Whether the new system will last or not, the game itself feels a lot more full. Good, bad, I'm personally having a lot more fun.

The university near me apparently got Niantic to stop Pokemon from spawning on campus. Still lots of stops and gyms on campus, but nothing ever spawns there. Bummer because it used to be one of the best places nearby to hunt.

Did my first raid today, specifically chose a Muk since I've only ever seen (and caught) 2 Grimers. Very happy to get that entry into my Pokedex.

I do at least like that gyms have a limit of 1 per species, but it's still so horrendously stupid a system I'm not sure what difference it makes. It also has highest-level Pokemon dropping motivation like 10% an hour so basically they require almost constant maintenance, making them functionally useless as defenders. So it's almost worthless to defend a gym, and now there's even less reason to level up and develop strong Pokemon.

Raids are a solid enough idea though and the mechanics make more sense.

Given the direction they're going I think they ought to be pushing out new generations every 6 months or so, it will help to keep adjusting the balance and keep collectors engaged.

And emphasizing type bonuses and weaknesses much more than they do. A rock-paper-scissors meta would go a long way if balanced, right now I can still lean on my top handful of attackers for everything because they're so strong it doesn't matter.

Do the higher level raids have better drops or just the chance at catching a rarer pokemon?

they literally just did this. type strengths and weaknesses were just rebalanced like 3 days ago.

try some of the high level raids short handed. you won't finish in time without using proper type advantages.

more rare candy (3 instead of 1)

higher chance of getting a tm (change your pokemon's quick move or charge move) (50% instead of 10%)

Cool, thanks

Is there a definitive guide to raids anywhere? I've done a couple and they seem pretty cool but I don't fully understand everything. Looked on /r/pokemongo and /r/thesilphroad and didn't see anything.

Same i've been busy/away for the last couple days and would love one mega file that summarizes everything in details

Wow they really have raids for everything? Just saw a raid for a magikarp.

Not sure how late I am on this or if it's permanent. But 250XP for pokestops now.

2nd raid experience was a failure and a **** show. 22xxx lapras. Made 3 attempts. Twice with 3 of us and once with 4. We got him about 90% down with 4, but 3 had no hope. The worst part was the lag. There was 0 hope of dodging and the only thing that could withstand a single one of his blizzards was snorlax. In 3 tries I never kept my 32xx dragonite alive long enough to use a charge attack.

I'm realizing when I get back to my small town there will be no hope of taking down any good raids. You would be pretty lucky to get a 2nd attacker there.

Everyone else noticing quite a bit worse lag throughout the game since updates?

This is excellent: what appears, how many people you need, and how to beat them:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoa...ier_boss_list/
Only for the first time you visit a stop since this update. The ones with rings around them are such. Also, if your 10 stop bonus is at a new stop, it's worth 500.

Dragonite has a 4x type disadvantage to ice attacks. You should not use it in a battle against a Lapras if either its charge move or its quick move is ice because you will get mauled, even more so if it is a raid-boss. Use jolteons or machamps next time and you might stand a better shot. Also, make sure to jump back in with your next 6 immediately (NO matter what they are) and you could make it out alive.

Time was the real enemy so I had to go for max damage regardless of defense typing. Probably still bad since i couldn't survive to a charge attack and it lags back and forth most times when a mon dies. I used some jolteons but my only machamp is pretty weak. Looks like attackers are what to upgrade now instead of defenders.