"Pokemon GO's" EX Raids, where players can obtain Legendary Pokemon, has finally finished public beta testing. Now, everyone can catch these legendary creatures, although players should take note of the modified rules and more rewards.
Niantic has revealed recently through a blog post on their official website that the EX Raids "field tests" were over. The system will still give out invitations to these EX Raids, but they no longer will be at random. A merit system will have to be fulfilled so a trainer can quickly get an EX Raid invite. Loyal fans who have played the game for a while will presumably get the invites first.
According to the blog post, there are two ways for trainers to get an invite. The first way is to obtain a high-level gym badge. This is especially applicable for EX Raids that happen at the particular gym. If not a high-level Gym badge, then being able to complete a large number Raid Battles would suffice. Given that these regular raids were made available even before the EX Raids, longtime players can easily assume that they have been made highly eligible to receive invites.
As mentioned, these EX Raids will mostly happen only at the Gym. Their start times will be adjusted according to the time people usually go to the Gym for the Raid Battles. In the case that the EX Raid battle is canceled, players will automatically get a notification. This will be very convenient for gamers with limited time and tight schedules. Players also get consolation prizes if an EX Raid gets canceled; some of these include Stardust and Premium Raid Passes.
That said, raids are, at the time of writing, still not being counted in players' "Battles Won." However, Niantic did acknowledge this issue and promised to work on it by the next update.
