Pokemon Duel’s Recent Update Opens Gyms in Flying Cup Event

Pokemon Duel, Nintendo’s latest Pokemon-branded mobile game, has just gotten a large update that adds gyms to the game experience for a new event.

These gyms are not really like the gyms in the cartoons or games; they just share a name. In the new update — in addition to the large reward for people who have been playing since before the patches fixed the majority of the lag — there’s a new gym button on the main screen which takes players to the “Flying Gym Cup” event.

The Gym Cup works a lot like you’re playing a random person online, but instead of being rewarded you’re givien a box with a 1. Every time you win, that number increases.

Starting at the lowest tier you’re looking at prizes like a few thousand coins. Move your way up and you get things like AI Tickets, Booster Tickets, and Cubes. If you make it to 200, you get a Cube EX, which permanently boosts a chosen Pokemon’s attack.

If you cash it in at 50 wins, you get a Flying Gym Cup trophy. It’s not entirely clear what this does, and the description is simply:

“Trophy given to the player with the most battles won in the Round 1 Flying Gym Cup.”

There’s other trophies given out based on rank at the end of the tournament — but similarly, we know very little about what these do.

Pokemon Duel might be getting a minimal amount of publicity from Nintendo, but it does seem to be getting more frequent updates. There’s no word on future updates planned for the game.