Players who have been making good use of Pokemon GO's updated gym system might be frustrated to learn that their bonuses for leaving a Pokemon defender in their team's locations don't appear to be applying as of right now. According to a post on the Niantic Support Twitter, the bonuses are not being awarded due to an issue that the team is currently trying to fix.

Gym bonuses were a good way to incentivize Pokemon GO players to actually make use of the game's gym system, prior to this unexpected bug. Whereas the combat arenas used to be full of Dragonites and other high-strength creatures, the recent update has allowed for a lot more variation in encounters, as well as meaning that players of all levels can help out their teams.

The post on the developer's Twitter account describes the issue as a 'brief interruption' so it's likely that the defender bonuses will be returning very shortly. In the mean time though, players might want to avoid placing Pokemon in gyms, simply because there will be no monetary benefit for doing so. Some players are still getting their bonuses, mind you, but any gym defense carries its own risks.

There's more than one reason to visit gyms, however, and players will still be able to get a huge amount of items from visiting the important locations. Ever since the update to gyms was launched, the system has allowed players to get a huge amount of bonus items simply by finding a gym owned by their team. It also helps when a gym has been in control of a gym for an extended period of time, which awards a bronze, silver, or gold medal based on duration.

Once a gym has been claimed by a team, the valuable resources need to be protected by individual members in order to prevent it being captured by nearby attackers. In order to help with this, we've put together a list of the best gym defenders, but it's worth keeping in mind that only one of each Pokemon can enter a gym at a time.

Pokemon GO is available now for iOS and Android devices.

Source: Twitter