This has been one of the most interesting things to me, as most information until now has evaded the discussion of what Pokémon Go‘s combat really is like. We already knew that there would be gyms and that trainers would have to defeat a gym if another team controlled it, but what we didn’t know was how exactly the combat worked in order to do so. Well, The Pokémon Company and Niantic, Inc. have revealed information about how the combat system operates, as well as a few other details.
Much of the press release is just a reminder of what we already knew about the upcoming mobile Pokémon game. The combat mechanics, however, seem very, very simple for the sake of mobile gaming. Players will be able to catch Pokémon in the wild by just throwing a Pokéball, with no combat necessary. However, when trainers arrive at gyms controlled by a team other than their own, they will have to battle in order to gain control of the gym. In order to do that, players will simply attack with one of two attacks at their disposal. The opposing gym’s Pokémon will attack back, but their attacks can be dodged by simply swiping left or right on your mobile device.
Gyms have a prestige level attached to them that reduces as Pokémon are defeated by opposing teams. Once the prestige hits zero, the opposing team takes control of the gym. You can then raise a gym’s prestige by training Pokémon against the defending Pokémon in the gym. Trainers on the team that controls the gym can assign one Pokémon to defend the gym, but it seems like opposing teams will not have to battle every Pokémon, but instead just enough to lower the prestige to zero. Once the gym reaches higher levels, more Pokémon can be assigned to it. If you’re not exactly sure you can handle taking down a gym on your own, you can team up with other trainers to take them down faster.
Pokémon Go seems like a really cool idea still, but it definitely seems like the battling system is stripped down to its basics. There are screenshots above which show the game in action, and it looks really cool. I’m curious how evolution shards will work, as you can see that in a couple screens for characters that do have further evolutions. However, there is still plenty we do not know at the moment about Pokémon Go, but more information should come later as the game is still in active development.
Source: The Pokémon Company Press Release, Pokémon Go Official Site