It’s almost been a year since Pokemon Go had its huge launch and they recently rolled out a new update that added some well needed fun back into the game.

The crew at Niantic just did a huge face lift to the gym system and I have to say, it seems they may be listening somewhat to the players. First, the gyms got a face-lift and look a lot sleeker. They changed up how many pokemon can be in the gym and limited it to just one of each in there. Yay! No more gyms full of Blissys. They also added more gyms around and made it so you can now spin the tops of them like a pokestop to get items.

The huge part of the update is they added raids! Raids give you the chance to take down a powerful pokemon and then catch that pokemon. It gives you a chance to catch those more elusive and rare pokemon. It’s also rumored that legendary pokemon may pop up as raid bosses. The main part about raids is working together with your fellow trainers to bring down the boss.  Yup, that’s right, work with your fellow trainers. Doesn’t matter what team you are on, you are all working together. That is just what my fiance and I did.

We were driving around and noticed a raid happening at a park near us. We went to the gym, sat down and prepared. When it was about to begin, a fellow team Mystic asked to join us as we battle a Charizard. We lost the first attempt. When we were getting ready for the second attempt, a guy and his kid asked if they could join. Of course, even though he was team Valor. The four of us tried twice to take down the boss before a fifth person on his bike joined us. There we were, 5 strangers, sitting in the middle of a park talking and battling together to take down a raid boss. Sadly, we just couldn’t do it but we came damn close before we all had to leave.

The point of this long story, get out there and have tome fun. Thank you Niantic for making it fun again. It feels like when it first launched and you saw tons of people out walking about!