In Pokémon GO there is a major change to the gyms. You can now participate in raids and battles from a greater distance. We show you the impacts.
What exactly has changed? The radius at which you can click on gyms has been doubled. This means that you can reach gyms and battle from a significantly greater distance.
This is intended to be the first step towards doing raids from home, which Niantic has already announced.
This is how the larger gym radius affects gameplay
What you need to know about the change: You won’t know if you’re close enough to a gym. The radius on your map remains the same size, but you can click on gyms from a greater distance.
Check to see if gyms that are in your immediate vicinity are suddenly reachable from home.
Why is there this change? Niantic wants to make playing from home easier. In an announcement, they stated that you will soon be able to do raids from home, and this is the first step towards that. Now, significantly more players can access gyms from home.
This change also provides safety distance when raiding outdoors. If there are raids happening, you can still stand far enough apart.
Are there more changes coming? The adjustment of the gym radius is only temporary and is not intended to be permanent. Niantic is currently working on further adjustments to facilitate raiding from home.
How is the adjustment being received? Many trainers do not seem impressed. They do not live close enough to a gym to benefit from it. Other players even complain that one should also be able to spin PokéStops from a greater distance.
At least you could accumulate a larger stock of Poké Balls and address the shortage. There are even reports that gyms seem to be bugged due to this change. Battles are interrupted and do not function properly.
