Five Things That Still Need Fixed in Pokemon Go's New Update

Pokemon Go has a new update out and, to the surprise of no one that's ever played the game, it's [...]

By Christian Hoffer


Pokemon Go has a new update out and, to the surprise of no one that's ever played the game, it's pretty darn buggy.

While we like the improvements that the new update brought, there are several frustrating bugs that severely impact gameplay, along with a couple of game mechanics that just don't make sense.

We've run down a list of the most common bugs that players are experiencing in Pokemon Go's new update along with any tips on how to avoid them. We've also noted several areas in which the new update could stand to be improved.

Let us know on Facebook or Twitter if you've experienced these issues.

The Death Loop

raid 5

Pokemon Go's most frustrating bug is the "death loop," a bug in which your Pokemon faints and spontaneously revives over and over again during a gym battle. You can't get off very many attacks while your Pokemon is fainting and reviving over and over again, so you're stuck until you manage to get to your switch screen and change out Pokemon.

The bug is even more frustrating now due to the popularity of raids. Many top level raids need a full 180 seconds to beat, so spending precious time trying to get the game out of a weird loop is the last thing that players want.

Variations of this bug also involve a Pokemon suddenly regaining HP or their energy after a charge attack. The bug can also be triggered when you switch your Pokemon out mid-battle.

The loop seems to trigger more often when you try to dodge an attack that would cause your Pokemon to faint. There's no guaranteed way to prevent it, although some have said that restarting your app before entering a gym/raid makes it much less likely to appear.

Can't Add a Gym Defender

gym error
Another common bug is when a player is locked out of adding their gym defender to a newly claimed gym. Usually this happens when a group of two or more players from the same team take a gym.

The first player can add their defender to the gym just fine, but the second player receives an error message stating that they can't add a gym defender because the gym is currently under attack...even though there's no one attacking it.

Although there's no way to fix it, the error message resolves itself after an hour. Of course, another team might actually attack your gym during that hour, so waiting isn't the best option.

Can't Battle in Gyms

go battle

Another frustrating bug occurs when trying to select a team for a gym battle. If a player waits too long to select their team, the "Go Battle" button that triggers the battle is suddenly disabled.

Occasionally, this will happen due to GPS drift, which will cause the game to think that you're too far away to interact with the gym. But it seems like more and more players are complaining that the game will disable battles even if their game doesn't traditionally drift.

Right now, there's no known fix. Several players are just resorting to using the attacking team that the game suggests to get around this bug.

Motivation Drain

pogo motivation

This isn't exactly a bug, but Pokemon Go "punishes" gym defenders with a CP of 3000 or higher. Each Pokemon has a motivation meter that slowly depletes their CP over time. While most Pokemon lose CP at a rate of 1% of their max CP per hour, defenders with a CP of 3000 lose their CP at a rate of 10% per hour.

Of course, the easiest fix is to just keep feeding Pokemon berries, but this strongly discourages players from leaving their strongest Pokemon in gym. It also seems to unfairly benefit Pokemon with a CP in the 2900-2999 range as they're practically as strong as 3000+ CP but don't have to deal with the CP loss.

Gyms No Longer Show When They're Under Attack

gym under attack

Pokemon Go has always shown when a gym is under attack on the overworld map via a unique animation that shows thunder and dust clouds surrounding a Pokemon gym. This animation has seemingly disappeared with the gym re-work.

While it seems like a small thing, these animations were used by players to see where the "action" was in the game. Since high level raids are impossible for players to beat on their own, bringing back the "under attack" animation would be useful to show which raids have people attempting it and which raids are being avoided by other players.

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