'Pokémon Go' Raid Level Requirement: What level do I need to be for raid battles?

Now that the gym update is underway — for Android, at least — fans are beginning to get curious about Pokémon Go's raid battle aspect, specifically who's going to be able to participate.

It's Pokémon Go's one year anniversary, which has meant a lot of exciting news: a weeklong event centered around the solstice, a live event in Chicago — as well as the scalpers currently making bank off the tickets — and a much-needed gym update, which includes the promise of collaborative raids.

Pokémon Go raid level: an error message is making players nervous that raid battles may have a level requirement

As Heavy has reported, the new gym update has added some groundwork for the raids, which Niantic has previously explained will be rolled out over the course of a few weeks, presumably in time for the Chicago live event. Heavy reported that in spite of official Niantic preview pictures for the event showing trainers below the level cap of 40 participating in raids, players attempting to use the Nearby Raid feature are being told "Sorry, but raid battles are not yet available for your level."

Naturally, this has players spooked that there might be a level requirement for Pokémon Go raids. Of course, it's still too soon to say. To that point, we've known from the official raid announcement that raids would be rolled out over the course of a few weeks, starting with a beta. So chances are that this error message is the result of no one being able to participate in raids currently.

Adding on to that, players on the Silph Road have also encountered this same error message. The twist here is that many of these players have hit the level cap. This would seem to suggest that this error message is a general error message, and not an indication of what level you'll need to be in Pokémon Go to participate in raids.

Chances are good we won't have any more information about this until the beta begins, so until then we're just going to have to wait and see.

More Pokémon Go news, updates, tips and tricks

Check out Mic's coverage of Pokémon Go, including our breakdown of what's coming in patch 0.67.1/1.37.1, some juicy details about what's coming down the pipe for the gym update and Pokémon raids and what fans can expect to see at this summer's live event in Chicago. Additionally, you can see what's changed in the egg groups recently, why you shouldn't panic about Pokéstops getting replaced with gyms and some speculation on what a Niantic exec's comments mean for the future of the game.