S2 Cells in Ex Raid Pokemon Go Explained

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Aeozo

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11,300

Published on January 17, 2018 12:42:19 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6BzNGn_uvc

Game:

Pokémon Go (2016)

Duration: 7:29

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overpass-turbo.eu use this Website to check local gyms that qualify for Ex Raids.
Full guide on how to trigger an EX Raid in your city, based on S2 cells, gym eligibility and expected player and raiding activity. After months of Exclusive Raids we finally have answers to a number of questions:

which gyms and eligible for EX Raids
how S2 cell geometry influences EX Raids
when and how often to raid in order to trigger an EX Raid
Over the past few weeks, we worked hard to read and collect player feedback from all around the world and this guide is the culmination of that work.

Table of Contents

What do we know about EX Raids so far?
Step 1: Discovering your local S2 cell geometry
Step 2: Finding eligible gyms
Step 3: Collecting raid eligibility points
Step 4: Raiding where and when it matters
You and your EX Raid invite
What do we know about EX Raids so far?
EX Raids are created based on Level 12 S2 cells. Each cell can only host one EX raid per “invitation cycle”
EX Raids can only happen at gyms that are either sponsored or placed in a park related OpenStreetMap tag
Gyms that hosted a raid before can and will host an EX Raid again, there is no diminishing returns
Ex Raids can be triggered and there could be some randomness to it
An EX Raid is triggered only if the gym reaches a minimum amount of raid activity since the last invitation cycle
Don’t worry if you don’t understand all the terms right now, that’s OK, we explain each term in it’s own section we’ll try to explain every step of the “triggering” thoroughly.
EX Raids can only occur once inside each S2 cell that passes over your local area. S2 cells are a simple mathematical way to describe a sphere’s geometry. S2 cells come in different sizes, often denoted as levels, and they are often used by developers to create zones on spherical objects, like the planet Earth.

Niantic uses them to control weather, create gyms, define Pokémon catch / hatch locations, etc… For this step we’ll be using the Level 12 S2 cell geometry.

A company named Sidewalk Labs created an incredible tool that draws Level 12 cells over a Google Map. Head over to their Region Converter and do the following:

Navigate the map to your local area (our example, Split)
Set the parameters in the top left box to: min level 12, max level 12, max cells 10
Use one of the drawing tools (square, circle, pin) to select a map area where you want to visualize Level 12 S2 cells
Now that you can see your local S2 cells, remember that an EX Raid can only occur once per cell per cycle. Raiding 100 gyms inside one cell doesn’t benefit you as much as raiding a dozen of eligible gyms in a higher number of cells.

In the next step, we’ll see how to identify eligible gyms.
Since November 11 2016, the only gyms that are eligible for hosting EX Raids are as follows:

Sponsored gym locations (depends on your local Pokémon GO sponsor)
“Gyms located in parks”, or more accurately gyms tagged with one of the park-related OpenStreetMap tags
For this guide, we’re focusing on the gyms located in parks and similar areas. The easiest way to check what the game considers to be a park, is to use a tool called Overpass Turbo. Overpass Turbo is a free online tool that can plot locations of various OpenStreetMap tags.

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