Raid Battle

A Raid Battle is a special event that takes place within a Gym in Pokémon GO.

Details

A Raid Battle is a cooperative gameplay experience that encourages Trainers to work with other Trainers to defeat an extremely powerful Pokémon known as the Raid Boss. Before a Raid Battle begins a large egg will appear atop the Gym. When the countdown above the egg reaches zero, the Raid Boss will be revealed.

There is also a special Raid called an EX Raid Battle which is an invitation-only Raid. A trainer will receive a notification along with with time, date and location; along with an EX Raid Pass to gain entry into the Raid.

Eggs start to appear at 5:00 AM and end at 7:45 PM local time (5:45pm for the Americas).

Raid Passes

Main article: Raid Passes

Raid Passes

Before a Trainer can battle the Raid Boss, they'll need a Raid Pass. Trainers can receive one free Raid Pass per day by visiting a Gym, but can only hold one at a time. A Premium Raid Pass may also be purchased from the in-game Shop.

Raid Bosses

Main article: Raid Boss

Upon using a Raid Pass to join the battle, the Trainer and up to 20 other Trainers work together to defeat the Raid Boss. If a Raid Boss is successfully defeated within the three-minute time limit (five-minutes for Legendary raids), those Trainers have the chance to catch an extra powerful Pokémon of their own.

Raid Eggs

Raid Eggs are a special type of Pokémon Eggs which hatch into Raid Bosses. Upon the beginning of the Raid Battle, a Raid Egg will be placed atop the Gym. A countdown will display the time until the Egg hatches and the battle begins.

A Raid Egg will usually appear one hour before it will hatch. The Raid tab in the Nearby and Sightings view will denote the hatch time in 24-hour clock or military time. Once the egg hatches, the Raid Boss will become available for battling for the next hour.

Types

There are three tiers of Raid Eggs – Normal, Rare, and Legendary.

Egg	Type	Description
	Normal	Hatches a level 1 or 2 Raid Boss.
	Rare	Hatches a level 3 or 4 Raid Boss.
	Legendary	Hatches a level 5 Raid Boss.

Rewards

Completing a Raid Battle for the first time will always award 1,000 Stardust. After defeating a Raid Boss, Trainers receive a collection of rewards which depend on the tier of defeated Raid Boss.

Tier	XP
1	3,000
2	3,500
3	4,000
4	5,000
5	10,000

Potions	Revives	Rare Candy	Berries	Technical Machines

Bonus Challenge

After successfully defeating the Raid Boss and being rewarded with Items, there are Raid Battle statistics shown to Trainer with amount of Premier Balls given to them. The player can then go to the Bonus Challenge, which is an opportunity to catch the Raid Boss as if it were a Pokémon in the wild, but with a significant difference. The player does not have their currently owned Poké Balls for use but only the Premier Balls that they have been rewarded for performance in won Raid Battle.

Gallery

Neutral Raid Lobby

Valor Raid Lobby

Mystic Raid Lobby

Instinct Raid Lobby

Ongoing Raid Battles

History

• June 23^rd, 2017 - Raids were open being available for players level 35 and above
• June 23^rd, 2017 - Raids were made available for players level 31 and above 
• June 23^rd, 2017 - Raids were made available for players level 28 and above
• June 24^th, 2017 - Raids were made available for players level 25 and above
• June 26^th, 2017 - Raids were made available for players level 20 and above
• July 1^st, 2017 - Raids were made available for players level 5 and above

Trivia

• Before introduction of Research tasks and Trainer Battles, Rare Candy, Golden Razz Berry and TMs were exclusively available as rewards from Raid Battles.
• Originally, the amount of Stardust given per Raid Battle was 500. It was increased to 750 on October 27^th, 2018. Then it was increased to 1000 on January 31^st, 2019.