Here’s our first proper look at Pokémon GO’s PVP Trainer Battles, coming this month

Late last week, Niantic gave us a tiny little snippet of information about Pokémon GO’s upcoming Trainer Battles. It wasn’t much, and there were still a lot of questions unanswered — but today, we finally have some idea of what it’s going to be like.

In a blog post on the Pokémon GO website, Niantic laid out just about everything there is to know about its upcoming Trainer Battle feature. In addition to the details revealed last week — such as the three different Leagues, each with different CP limits — we now know that battles will consist of 3 Pokémon a side, and the battle system has been a little bit revamped. Just don’t expect anything major.

Much like in Gym and Raid Battles, your Pokémon will automatically use their fast attack to build up charge for their Charged Attack. Unlike Gym and Raid battles however, Pokémon in Trainer Battles can have a second Charged Attack, which can be unlocked using Stardust and Candy. Once your Charged Attacks are charged up, you can activate one and repeatedly tap it to charge it up even further and do more damage. You’ll also have a limited amount of a new item called Protect Shields per battle, which can nullify all damage from an opponent’s Charged Attack — but once you’re out, you’re out, so you have to make sure to time it carefully.

Usually you’ll have to be in close proximity to another trainer to battle them, but Ultra Friends and Best Friends can challenge each other from anywhere in the world. And if you don’t have a friend to battle with? Well, you can always earn rewards in a practice battle against team leaders Spark, Candela and Blanche, from whom you can earn rewards once per day.

Trainer Battles will go live in Pokémon GO later this month, and you can read more about them by clicking here.