Pokémon GO Raids take place at local gyms, utilising timed events where up to 20 Raiders can participate in battling an empowered version of a Pokémon. The raids feature raid rooms that enable local players to organise and battle raid bosses together.
There are private and public Pokémon GO Raid rooms, enabling various Team and Solo play scenarios.
What are Raid Battles?
Raid Battles are a new cooperative social gameplay feature that encourages local Pokémon GO Trainers to work together and defeat an empowered version of a Pokémon.
Raid Battles take place at a local Gym, where a large Egg will appear on top of the Gym, displaying a Raid Countdown. When the countdown reaches Zero, a random Raid Boss will appear.
To enter a Raid Battle, you will need a Free or a Premium (paid) Pokémon GO Raid Pass. You can only have 1 Free Raid Pass in your inventory and you can obtain it by visiting a Gym.
Raid Lobby: Public and Private Raid Rooms
Up to 20 Local Players can join a Raid Room and meet at the Gym where a Raid is taking place. There are multiple public raid rooms, but players can also group up privately if they wish.
Private Raid Rooms are organised by players and features a Password System made up of Pokémon icons. Joining a room requires you to know a password, in a 70s spy movie fashion, for example a password can be: Pikachu, Pikachu, Kingler, Dodrio.
Pokémon GO Raid Difficulty
Raid Battles are featured on your Nearby screen, where they display as stylised Gym icon with a silhouette of the Raid Boss or the Egg with a Countdown.
Interestingly, the Nearby screen also features a Raid Difficulty meter showing up to four levels of difficulty. It’s yet unclear if the Difficulty meter corresponds to the Raid Boss Max CP, Pokémon Species, or a combination of both.