Can you win Pokemon Go gym battles? Yes, absolutely! Mastering the gym mechanics in Pokemon Go is key to dominating your local landscape and earning valuable gym rewards. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to become a champion of gym control, from understanding how to take down enemy gyms to defending your own turf and earning prestigious gym badges. We’ll cover the best strategies for attacking gyms, selecting your best gym attackers, and ensuring you’re prepared for any challenge, including exciting Raid battles.
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Taking Down Enemy Gyms: Your First Steps to Victory
Successfully attacking gyms is the cornerstone of establishing your team’s dominance. When you encounter a gym belonging to an opposing team, your goal is to defeat the Pokemon defending it. Each gym has a defender limit, and once all defenders are knocked out, you can place one of your Pokemon there to claim gym control.
The Basics of Attacking
- Encountering an Enemy Gym: When you find a gym that isn’t your team’s color, you’ll see the Pokemon currently defending it.
- Starting the Battle: Tap the gym and then tap the battle icon. You’ll be presented with the defending Pokemon.
- Team Selection: Before the battle begins, you need to select a team of up to six Pokemon to fight. This is where strategic thinking really pays off.
- Battling: You’ll tap the screen to use your Pokemon’s fast attack and swipe left or right to dodge incoming charged attacks from the opponent. Tapping and holding your screen will charge your Pokemon’s powerful charged attack.
Choosing Your Attacking Squad: The Art of Team Composition
The Pokemon you bring to a gym battle are crucial. You need to consider their type, attack power, and defensive capabilities.
Key Factors for Your Attackers:
- Type Effectiveness: This is paramount. Pokemon of a certain type deal increased damage to Pokemon of a weak type. For example, Fire-type attacks are super effective against Grass-type Pokemon. Conversely, some types deal reduced damage.
- Attack Stat: A higher attack stat means your Pokemon will deal more damage per hit.
- Fast Attacks: These are your bread and butter. They build up energy for your charged attacks and contribute consistent damage.
- Charged Attacks: These are powerful moves that require energy to use. They can often turn the tide of a battle.
- Survivability (HP and Defense): While damage is important, your Pokemon also need to last long enough to inflict that damage.
Common Gym Defender Types and Their Counters:
| Defender Type | Super Effective Attackers | Effective Attackers |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | Fighting | – |
| Fire | Water, Ground, Rock | Fire |
| Water | Grass, Electric | Water |
| Grass | Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug | Grass |
| Electric | Ground | Electric |
| Ice | Fire, Rock, Fighting, Steel | Ice |
| Fighting | Flying, Psychic, Fairy | Fighting |
| Poison | Ground, Psychic | Poison |
| Ground | Water, Grass, Ice | Ground |
| Flying | Electric, Ice, Rock | Flying |
| Psychic | Bug, Ghost, Dark | Psychic |
| Bug | Fire, Flying, Rock | Bug |
| Rock | Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel | Rock |
| Ghost | Ghost, Dark | Ghost |
| Dragon | Ice, Dragon | Dragon |
| Dark | Fighting, Bug, Fairy | Dark |
| Steel | Fighting, Ground, Fire | Steel |
| Fairy | Poison, Steel | Fairy |
Pro Tip: Always check the type chart before heading into a gym battle.
Using Your Best Gym Attackers
Identifying your best gym attackers involves looking at Pokemon with high attack stats and movesets that exploit common defender weaknesses.
Top Tier Gym Attackers (Examples):
- Machamp: Excellent Fighting-type attacker, especially against Normal, Rock, Steel, Ice, and Dark types. Its Dynamic Punch charged attack is devastating.
- Gengar: A potent Ghost and Poison-type attacker. Great against Psychic and Ghost types, but fragile. Use its Shadow Ball.
- Moltres: A strong Fire and Flying-type attacker, ideal for Grass, Bug, Steel, and Ice types. Overheat is a powerful charged move.
- Tyranitar: A powerful Rock and Dark-type Pokemon. Its Rock Slide or Stone Edge is great against Flying, Bug, Fire, and Ice types.
- Mewtwo: A legendary Psychic-type Pokemon with incredibly high attack. Its Psychic or Psystrike are effective against Fighting and Poison types.
- Rhyperior: A Ground and Rock-type powerhouse. Earthquake or Stone Edge are excellent against a variety of types.
Remember: Even Pokemon with lower stats can be effective if they have a type advantage.
Dodging and Tapping: The Combat Rhythm
The combat in Pokemon Go is more than just mashing buttons. Mastering the timing of dodges and charged attacks can make a huge difference.
- Dodging: When the defending Pokemon’s attack animation begins, swipe left or right. This can help your Pokemon avoid taking damage. Timely dodges conserve your Pokemon’s health, allowing them to stay in the battle longer.
- Charged Attacks: As your Pokemon attacks, it builds energy. Once you have enough energy, you can unleash a powerful charged attack by tapping and holding the screen. These attacks often deal significant damage and can quickly defeat opponents.
What Happens When Your Pokemon Faint?
If your Pokemon’s HP reaches zero, they faint and are removed from the battle. You’ll then have a chance to switch to your next Pokemon in your selected team. If all six of your Pokemon faint and you still haven’t defeated all the defenders, the battle ends, and you can choose to re-enter the gym with a new team.
Defending Your Gyms: Keeping Your Territory
Once you’ve conquered a gym and placed your Pokemon, you want to keep it. Defending gyms requires a different mindset than attacking. The goal is to make it as difficult as possible for opposing trainers to defeat your defenders.
The Role of Gym Defenders
Gym defenders are the Pokemon you leave at a gym to hold it for your team. Their primary purpose is to wear down attackers and make them use up their resources (Potions and Revives).
What Makes a Good Gym Defender?
- High Stamina (HP) and Defense Stats: Defenders need to be able to take a lot of hits. Pokemon with naturally high HP and Defense stats are ideal.
- Resistant to Common Attack Types: Consider the types of Pokemon that are frequently used to attack gyms in your area. Pokemon that resist those types are valuable defenders.
- Annoying Movesets: Some movesets can be tricky to dodge or deal with effectively.
- CP (Combat Power): While not the only factor, higher CP generally indicates a stronger Pokemon.
Top Tier Gym Defenders (Examples):
- Blissey: Incredible HP and Defense. Resists Normal, Psychic, and Dark. Can take a beating and is a notorious gym defender.
- Snorlax: High HP and good Defense. Can learn a variety of moves, making it versatile. Resists Psychic and Ghost.
- Chansey: The pre-evolution of Blissey, with very high HP.
- Wobbuffet: Unique to gym defense, its Counter and Mirror Coat can be incredibly punishing to attackers if they use charged attacks.
- Metagross: A Steel/Psychic type with excellent defense and attack. Resists many common attacking types. Meteor Mash is a fantastic move.
- Milotic: A Water-type with high HP and good Defense. Resists Fire, Ice, Steel, and Water.
- Gyarados: A Water/Flying type with good bulk and decent attack. Resists Fighting, Bug, Steel, Fire, and Water.
Strategy: It’s often beneficial to place Pokemon with different defensive typings at a gym to cover a wider range of potential attackers.
Motivation and Berries: Keeping Your Defenders Strong
Pokemon in gyms lose motivation over time and after being battled. A demotivated Pokemon has lower CP and deals less damage.
- Motivation: When a Pokemon’s motivation drops to zero, it will leave the gym and return to your Pokemon storage. You can see a Pokemon’s motivation level by looking at its CP – lower CP means lower motivation.
- Berries: You can feed Berries to your Pokemon in gyms to restore their motivation and boost their CP.
- Golden Razz Berry: Restores motivation to full.
- Razz Berry: Restores a moderate amount of motivation.
- Pinap Berry: Not for defense, but for capturing.
- Nanab Berry: Not for defense.
- Oran Berry: Not for defense.
Golden Razz Berries are your best friend for keeping high-value defenders motivated. Feeding berries is crucial for maintaining gym control, especially in high-traffic areas.
The Six-Pokemon Limit and “Golden Razz Walls”
Gyms can only hold six Pokemon. To make it harder for attackers, defenders can strategically place Pokemon that are difficult to counter or have high motivational potential. In some cases, teams will coordinate to fill a gym with Pokemon that are resistant to common attacking types, creating a “Golden Razz wall” that is very time-consuming and resource-intensive to break through.
What Happens When a Gym is Defeated?
When an opposing trainer defeats all six of your defending Pokemon, the gym is flipped to their team’s color. Your Pokemon will be returned to you with 1 HP, and you’ll need to heal them with Potions.
Gym Rewards and Gym Badges: The Fruits of Your Labor
Holding gyms and participating in battles earns you valuable rewards and helps you progress in the game.
Gym Rewards
- Coins: For every Pokemon you have defending a gym, you earn 1 Coin per hour that your Pokemon remains at the gym. There’s a daily cap of 50 Coins. This is a primary way to earn PokeCoins without purchasing them.
- Stardust: You also earn Stardust for each Pokemon defending a gym. This is essential for powering up your Pokemon.
- Berries: Successfully defending a gym can sometimes grant you berries upon your return.
Gym Badges
- Collecting Badges: Each gym you interact with (attack, defend, or spin the disc if it’s a Gym and not a PokeStop) earns you experience towards a Gym badge.
- Badge Tiers: There are several tiers for gym badges:
- Hobbyist: Earned by interacting with a gym.
- Trainer: Requires earning 500 XP at a gym.
- Great Trainer: Requires earning 5,000 XP.
- Ace Trainer: Requires earning 50,000 XP.
- Elite Trainer: Requires earning 200,000 XP.
- Master Trainer: Requires earning 1,000,000 XP.
- Benefits of High Badges: Higher gym badges can increase the chances of receiving better rewards when you spin a gym disc (if it’s still a PokeStop as well as a Gym). A higher badge also means you’ve proven your dedication to that gym’s location.
Pro Tip: To maximize badge progression, try to defend gyms for extended periods and frequently battle at gyms you’re trying to earn badges for.
Raid Battles: A Different Kind of Gym Challenge
While not strictly about gym control in the traditional sense, Raid battles are a significant aspect of Pokemon Go gyms. These are cooperative battles against powerful Pokemon that appear at gyms.
What are Raid Battles?
- Boss Pokemon: Raid battles feature a “Boss Pokemon” that is significantly stronger than a regular Pokemon.
- Cooperative Play: You team up with other trainers to defeat the Raid Boss.
- Difficulty Levels: Raids come in different tiers, from 1-star (easier) to 5-star (legendary Pokemon, very difficult) and Mega Raids.
- Rewards: Defeating a Raid Boss rewards you with items like Rare Candy, TMs, Golden Razz Berries, and of course, a chance to catch the Raid Boss Pokemon itself.
Battling in Raids
The same principles of type effectiveness and using your best gym attackers apply here, but with even greater emphasis.
- Team Composition is Crucial: You need to bring your strongest Pokemon that have type advantages against the Raid Boss.
- Dodging is Key: Raid Bosses have powerful charged attacks that can quickly knock out your Pokemon.
- Coordination: Communicate with your fellow trainers to ensure you’re all bringing effective counters and that you have enough trainers to defeat the boss.
Raid battles are a fantastic way to obtain rare and powerful Pokemon, earn valuable items, and connect with other players in your community.
Gym Re-takers: The Art of Counter-Attacking
Sometimes, you’ll find yourself in a situation where you need to reclaim a gym that’s been taken by an opposing team. This is where gym re-takers come into play.
Strategies for Gym Re-Taking:
- Scout the Gym: See which Pokemon are defending it and their types.
- Assemble Your Team: Pick your best gym attackers based on the defenders’ types. Look for Pokemon that are super effective against the defenders.
- Be Prepared for Multiple Rounds: You might need to battle through several waves of defenders if they have high motivation or if other trainers are feeding them berries.
- Use Potions and Revives: Keep your battling Pokemon healed and ready.
- Coordinate with Teammates: If possible, let your teammates know you’re going to attack a gym. Having multiple trainers attacking simultaneously can overwhelm defenders much faster.
- Don’t Forget the Berries: If an opponent is actively defending and feeding berries, you might need to use your own Golden Razz Berries on your attackers to keep them strong enough to win.
Becoming a skilled gym re-taker involves persistence and strategic planning. It’s a rewarding feeling to flip a gym back to your team’s color!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Pokemon Go Gyms
Q1: How many Pokemon can defend a gym at once?
A1: A gym can hold a maximum of six Pokemon.
Q2: Can I use the same Pokemon to attack multiple gyms in a row?
A2: Yes, you can use the same Pokemon in consecutive gym battles. However, if they faint, you’ll need to heal them or use different Pokemon.
Q3: How do I get more Golden Razz Berries?
A3: Golden Razz Berries are primarily obtained from completing 4-star and 5-star Raid battles, and sometimes from spinning Gym discs at gyms where you have a high badge level.
Q4: What happens if I don’t have enough Pokemon to fill a gym?
A4: You can place as many Pokemon as you have available, up to the six-Pokemon limit. Even one Pokemon can help defend a gym.
Q5: Can I battle my own team’s gym?
A5: You cannot battle a gym that your own team controls. You can only battle gyms belonging to opposing teams.
Q6: What is the best way to earn coins from gyms?
A6: The best way to earn coins is to have your Pokemon defend as many gyms as possible for as long as possible, up to the daily limit of 50 coins.
Q7: Are there any benefits to having higher Gym Badges?
A7: Yes, higher gym badges can increase the rewards you get from spinning gym discs, and they show your dedication to a specific gym’s location.
Q8: What is the role of CP in gym battles?
A8: CP (Combat Power) is a general indicator of a Pokemon’s strength. While important, type effectiveness, movesets, and your dodging skills are often more crucial for winning battles.
Q9: Can I feed berries to my own Pokemon in a gym even if I’m not there?
A9: Yes, as long as the gym is controlled by your team, you can feed berries to your Pokemon remotely through the gym interface.
Q10: When do Pokemon in gyms lose motivation?
A10: Pokemon lose motivation after taking damage in battles, and their motivation also decreases gradually over time.
By mastering these strategies for attacking gyms, defending gyms, understanding gym mechanics, and utilizing your best gym attackers, you’ll be well on your way to achieving complete gym control and collecting ample gym rewards. Happy battling!