Highlights
Pokemon GO players can claim gyms for their team and leave Pokemon to defend it, earning coins for successful defense.
A Dragonite has been guarding a gym for over a year, belonging to a Reddit user residing in a remote region.
Despite player suggestions to allow manual removal of Pokemon from gyms, Niantic has not announced any intentions to implement this feature thus far.
A Pokemon GO player's Dragonite has been guarding a gym for over a year. Prior to the introduction of PvP or raids in Pokemon GO, gyms were the only way players could engage in battles.
Gyms in Pokemon GO operate differently from those in the main series Pokemon games. In Pokemon GO, players have the ability to claim a gym for their preferred team, be it Valor, Mystic, or Instinct. They can then assign their Pokemon to defend the gym, while players from rival teams attempt to defeat them and seize control of the gym. Although successfully defending gyms allows Pokemon GO players to earn coins, the daily limit of 50 coins negates any significant advantage to keeping a Pokemon in a gym for an extended period.
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Unfortunately, Pokemon GO players residing in rural areas have no control over the situation, as it may take an extensive amount of time for their Pokemon to be removed from certain gyms. One such instance is experienced by Reddit user Lvl-7, whose Dragonite has successfully defended a Pokemon GO gym for over 365 days. Lvl-7 has confirmed to commenters on the post that they indeed live in a rural area and astonishingly, there are other Pokemon in the Gym that have been there for an even longer duration than their Dragonite. As per Lvl-7, a particular gym has a Pokemon that has maintained its presence for over 500 days.
In the event that the Dragonite is eventually removed from the gym, Lvl-7 will only receive a meager reward of 50 Poke Coins. However, this is assuming that they have not already reached the daily maximum limit, in which case they will essentially receive no compensation for their Dragonite's dedicated year-long service except progress towards the Gym Leader medal.
Pokemon GO players have long suggested that Niantic should allow the manual retrieval of Pokemon from Gyms. This would provide an easier way for players to retrieve their Pokemon if they were placed in areas with low foot traffic. Although Niantic has not confirmed any plans to include such a feature in the game, there is always a possibility that it may be introduced in the future. This is because Pokemon GO regularly receives updates with new features. Currently, Niantic is even testing a convenient quality of life feature that allows players to skip raid countdowns. This indicates that other highly requested features may also find their way into the game eventually.
Pokemon GO is out now for iOS and Android mobile devices.
