The new Pokémon Go Gym system comes with a new Gym badge system as well. The first time you interact with a new Gym, you get the basic, vanilla badge. From then on, more interactions gain your more points, and you progress to bronze, silver, and gold, getting extra bonus items for spins as you go.
But how do you get the gold Gym Badge as quickly as possible?
How do you get the basic Gym Badge in Pokémon Go?
The first time you interact with a Gym, be it by spinning the Photo Disc on top, battling, taking possession, and placing a Pokémon on the Gym, or beating a Raid Boss that's taken over the Gym, you'll see a badge appear and it'll be added to your collection.
You can get a Gym badge for every Gym you interact with, so prepare for the number of badges you have to grow and grow.
How do you get bronze, silver, and gold Gym badges?
Every time you interact with a Gym, you get points for that Gym. Get enough points and you earn a bronze, followed by silver, followed by gold badge.
Here are the points you need for each stage of Gym badge:
- Basic: 0
- Bronze: 500
- Silver: 4,000
- Gold: 30,000
How do you get badge points in Pokémon Go?
You accumulate badge points for major interactions at Gyms. Spinning the Photo Disc, for example, doesn't give you any badge points. Winning a Battle Raid, on the other hand, gives you a lot.
- Defeating a Pokémon on a rival Gym: 1 point for every 100 CP (10 for 1000 CP, 20 for 2000 CP).
- Losing to a Pokémon on a rival Gym: 5 points.
- Placing a Pokémon on a friendly Gym: 100 points.
- Feeding a Berry to a Pokémon on a friendly Gym: 10 points (100 for 10 Berries, 600 for 60 Berries).
- Staying on a Gym: 1 point per minute (60 an hour, 1,440 a day).
- Winning a Battle Raid at a Gym: 1,000
So, if you defeat 6 Pokémon of 2000 CP each on a Gym, place your Pokémon on it, feed it a Berry, hold the Gym for 24 hours, and win a Raid Battle there at some point during that period, you'd get: 60 + 100 + 10 + 1440 + 1000 = 2610 badge points.
Do you get any rewards for having bronze, silver, or gold Gym badges?
You do! You get bonus items when you spin the Photo Disc on the Gym.
- Bronze: 1 bonus item.
- Silver: 2 bonus items.
- Gold: 3 bonus items.
What about team control, streaks, and other bonuses — do they stack?
They do! I've gotten is 30-40+ items from a gold badge Gym, with team control, on 7-day streak.
OK. So, how do you get a gold Gym badge fast?
Getting a bronze Gym badge is easy and can be done in a few minutes: Win a Raid Battle at the Gym.
Getting a silver Gym badge takes a bit longer. The fastest way is to win three Raid Battles at the Gym. At some Gyms, you can do that in a day. If you can keep a Pokémon on the Gym, you can hedge against not enough Raid Battles spawning: Two Raid Battles plus a day of possession will also net you silver.
Getting a gold Gym badge takes time. Based on the above numbers, the quickest path to Gym gold is clear:
- If the Gym is low-turnover or tends to favor your team, get a Pokémon on there and keep it there. (Take back the Gym and/or keep placing as needed.)
- Fight as many Raid Battles at the Gym as you possibly can.
Using that method, you'll need to win 30 Raid Battles or maintain possession for 21 days or any combination of the two. For example, win 15 Raid Battles while maintaining possession for 11 days.
You can also feed 3000 berries, but that takes much longer... Still, every berry you feed gets you there faster. So, instead of throwing out those Nanabs, feed them to the Gyms you're working on.
It took me roughly 2 weeks to get my first gold Gym badge that way, and that with a high level of possession and one or two Raid Battles a day. I've now gotten over 30, taking somewhere between 10 days and three weeks each, depending on how close they were to me and how frequently I took them or Raided at them. Because I'm working on multiple Gyms at a time, though, I end up getting new gold badges every couple of days.
Any Gym badge questions?
If you have any questions about getting Gym badges, drop them in the comments below!
