Tuesday Tips: Gym Battles

[inkstone]

So, after playing this game for a while, you've probably noticed that it doesn't come with complete instructions. In fact, it seems like it was pretty much designed for you to figure things out on your own or by talking to other people. (Hence why this community was created!)

One of the things that keeps coming up in the free chats are gym battles. And yes, this is definitely one area where some instructions probably would have been useful. Since that's clearly not the case, I thought it'd be helpful to share tips & advice re: gym battles here!

The main thing to know about gym battles in PokeGo is that they're not turn-based. Once you see "Go!" on the screen, start hitting right away. Last pokémon standing wins.

The other thing to remember is don't be intimidated! With practice, persistence, and patience, you can still knock down that high level gym with strong defenders. Promise!

• Learn how to dodge! It'll take some practice to get the timing down but there is always an indicator when the defender is going to attack. Different people visually process the marker in different ways, but the two major ways are either a flash on the screen or anime action lines around the defender. (I personally see the latter.) When you see the indicator, you have a small window of time in which you can swipe to dodge.


• In general, stick with the basic attack. Using the charge attack will leave you vulnerable for a few seconds after its use.


• That said, you can use this vulnerability against the defender. If you successfully dodge their charge attack, you can use your charge attack (if your bar is full) against them.


• If your pokémon is about to faint, use your charge attack then.


• If the defender seems like it should be fainting but just doesn't seem to want to, you'll have to use your charge attack to knock them out.


• Learn the combat strengths and weaknesses of the various pokémon. If your brain can handle it, there are many charts online that you can memorize. For those of us who don't have this capability (it's okay if you don't; I don't!), I think of it in terms of elements. Water is strong against fire. Fire burns grass. Electricity does bad things to water. And so forth. Once you have these traits down, combined with dodging ability, you'll be able to take down pokémon several hundred CP stronger than yours!

What other tips and advice do you have?

Comments

[havocthecat]

How do you use a charge attack? When do you know it's ready?

[inkstone]

So the basic attack is you tapping the screen, right? The charge attack is you touching & holding the screen. You can use a charge attack when the blue bar at the top of your screen is full. The bar fills up as your basic attacks connect & do damage to the defender.

[serpentine]

Spam attacking is also a good strategy if you you're a fast tapper. I rarely do dodging because my timing isn't the best and because of how fast I tap, the game feels like it has to do those attacks before dodging.

(I combine fast spam tap attacking with occasional holding down to use the charge attack if it seems like it would help.)

...I took down a level five gym today with enough persistence even though the top Pokemon was 2000+ CP. This is partly thanks to the fact that you still decrease a Gym's prestige as long as you defeat at least one of the Pokemon stationed there, so you don't have to defeat all of them in one go if you are dealing with a gym that has a pretty high level.

Just don't do what I did and stand in direct sunlight while doing it.

[monanotlisa]

Hehe, I do that too. Doesn't matter that there's, what, two Dragonites, a Lapras, and a Snorlax -- with some patience (and potions!) you can take the gym DOWN.

[healingmirth]

Learning to battle is an excellent time to burn off those hundred revives you have stacked up. Don't be afraid to just stop at that 50% heal and charge back in for another round while you're learning to read the screen and dodge. :)

[monanotlisa]

JFC, you are so right about those revives...

[recessional]

See I find the charge attacks very useful.

[monanotlisa]

Me too, and I'd say it depends a lot -- a Rhydon or a Lapras or an Arcanine can easily go through a few Charge attacks; they have the Hit Points for braving attacks. I do take it easy with Charge Attacks for my beloved best Jolteon or my Raichu, for example; they're more vulnerable (but are fast, fast, fast).

Also, if your Charge Attack is NOT "super effective" I might save it, indeed. I just put together my crews with the guides mentioned in the OP, so I generally want to use both Normal and Charge against the particular opponent.

[kittydesade]

As far as the elements go Pokemondb.com is your friend. I look up almost everything on there before a battle and pick my 'mon attack squad accordingly. They have 'mons listed with a chart of "does half damage" "does x2 damage" and sometimes "does x4 damage" and for the most part it's accurate!

For the most part meaning the same mons don't always work as effectively against the same mons. I got really lucky with Flareons against a Nidoking once, tried the same tactic against another Nidoking and had much better luck with Vaporeons. Go figure.

[malnpudl]

This sounds really useful! Can you provide a clickable link or at least a complete URL for that website? "Pokemondb.com" takes me to something that doesn't appear to be correct.

[kittydesade]

Whoop! Sorry, I'm conflating it with pokevision, it's pokemondb.net

[malnpudl]

Thank you! That looks like it'll be incredibly handy.

[monanotlisa]

Yep, that kind of guide is amazingly helpful, and I use them except for really weak gyms!

[kittydesade]

Pokemon's been around for so so long SOMEONE had to have already made one. I'm sure there's several out there! Pokemondb.net (not dot-com, my mistake) was just the first one I found.

[inkstone]

Sometimes I wonder if those little variances have to do with IVs, but who knows?

[kittydesade]

I think next time I try it I'm going to have to see if those variances have to do with, which Nidoking has Poison as its primary attack and which has grass and which was effective against which. Etc.

[malnpudl]

Thank you so much for this post! It made me brave enough to take on my first ever gym battle, and I won! Of course, it was only against one Pokemon with half the CP of my critter, but that's just as well since I was seeing it all for the first time and trying to figure it out on the fly. But woohoo! And thanks!

[inkstone]

I'm glad you tried your first gym battle! (And won!!)

[surpassingly]

Oooooooh, gym battles! :D My favorite! :D :D :D

1. If you need to keep a chart of elements and weaknesses handy you can download one and keep it in your photo gallery on your phone! Then you can just refer to it if you need to tailor your team to an enemy gym. I use this one: https://img.pokemondb.net/images/typechart.png

2. The order of your six Pokemon when you select them = the order in which they'll appear in your fighting lineup (eg the first one will be the first to fight, second will appear when the first is knocked out). It's useful to use the "switch" command (it's the button on the lower right with two arrows, one upward and one downward) if you realize you messed up the order and your attacks are not super effective against the enemy pokemon. Note, the enemy pokemon may get one free hit in before the switch happens, but it's usually worth it to switch to a more effective pokemon anyway and save your less effective one for a more suitable opponent.

3. If you lag during gym battles (like I do! ahahahaha sob) dodging is not going to be great; just tap lots!

4. For training, if you can defeat a gym's pokemon with a pokemon that has lower CP, you get a lot more prestige and exp for it. Just pick one with an element/type advantage and you're good to go! (This is what I did last night against a friendly Pinsir; I used a Golbat that was 300 CP lower than it and leveled our gym up to the next tier. Yay for element weaknesses!) I think that also applies to battling! (I'm not too sure about this!)

5. Don't forget about STAB -- same-type attack bonus. This means that if your pokemon is a water type, and both their attacks are water, they'll do more damage then a pokemon whose attacks are, say, normal and then dragon. STAB doesn't count for as much in this game as it does in other versions, but it is a potential 25% increase that you can take into account if you have multiples of a pokemon and are trying to decide which one to keep.

6. Relevant to the previous bit, keep in mind that a pokemon's type of attacks won't always match the type of the pokemon itself. (For instance: my Gyarados, which is water/flying, has both attacks as dragon. Whyyyyy ;_;) So keep an eye on the names of the charge attacks that are being used on your pokemon, and also if an attack is surprisingly super effective, and don't hesitate to switch it up on your next go-around.

I think that's it! :D :D :D GYM BATTLEEEEEES \o/

[monanotlisa]

Such a good idea with the image file!

And I hear you -- all these people who swear by dodging must have good phones, good data plans, or both; it literally doesn't work well for me.

I didn't know no. 5! Thanks for that. :)

[inkstone]

Haha, before the last major update, my dodging was only 50% reliable. After the last one, I'm up to 90%. 90% because I keep thinking that all my mon are as fast as my Jolteons and that is definitely not the case so rhythm adjustment is necessary, haha.

(Using a Galaxy S6 here.)

[tyger]

I'm currently dispairing of ever having a pokémon even vaguely close to strong enough to take on a gym - the closest one to my house's *weakest* defender is over 12K CP, and my strongest pokémon is... um... 255 - but these seem like good tips for if I ever get there! :D

[healingmirth]

Whoa. My area is just now routinely hitting 2k CP defenders. You have my sympathies!

[tyger]

Hopefully once I'm able to, you know, actually take walks around and shit I'll be able to catch up, but WE WILL SEE hahahaha. (More or less housebound atm because broken ankle.) On the plus side I'm able to walk around enough that I have a pretty good chance at hatching an egg today or tomorrow, so maybe that will have something with higher CP!

[monanotlisa]

My area is approaching 3k mons (especially those bothersome 2900 Dragonites and Snorlaces), but 12k? Jeeesus.

[inkstone]

12K CP? I think you might need to report that because that's either a glitch or something sketchy. I'm pretty sure CP cap is something like 3500-4000CP and only for specific mon.

[tyger]

Wait, you're right, it's probably 1200. Sorry, my brains are pretty scrambled at the moment.