On gym defence, part two, best defenders

Snorlax

Depending on gym construction this is the best or second best defender in the game.

A huge pool of hp combined with a decent capacity to inflict damage makes snorlax your goto defender. Add the high cp and you're likely to avoid being the bouncer in the gym.

There isn't a truly efficient attacker to use against snorlax, only more or less servicable ones.

Preferably with Zen Headbutt as primary attack and, in the best of worlds, Body Slam as charge attack. Zen Headbutt and Hyperbeam is servicable as well, mostly because snorlax receives STAB for Hyperbeam which makes it inflict semi-decent damage even if dodged.

With Lick as primary attack snorlax becomes a chansey with high cp and (comparatively) low hp.



Lapras

The second (or third) best defender in the game.

A good chunk of hp combined with the ability to totally neutralise dragonite makes this a really awkward opponent to chop down.

As with snorlax there really aren't any superb attackers to use against lapras.

Lapras shines when it comes to attacks. It doesn't have any bad attacks, only good or better. This makes any 90% or higher IV lapras a no-brainer to power up.

Lapras suffers from a comparatively low maximum cp, and you risk being delegated to the role of bouncer in a gym, especially if you drop one below 2600 cp into a gym. If possible you should aim at pushing it above 2800 cp.


Vaporeon

The third (or fourth) best defender in the game.

As with lapras vaporeon comes with a healthy amount of hp combined with only being weak against grass and electricity. Since just about anything grass got nerfed lately and electricity pokemons all suffer from being squishy, vaporeon is a top class defender.

A comparatively high cp makes you avoid being the bouncer in a gym.

Preferably you have Water Pulse or Aqua Tail as charge attack. Hydro Pump isn't a disaster as it's comparatively fast for being a one-charge attack.

While grass pokemon and electricity pokemon are relatively weak in the game, a 2500 cp or better exxegutor / jolteon will cut down a vaporeon. It depends a little too much on having more water-type pokemons in the gym to make attacking expensive in terms of revives/potions.

The huge uprade to gyarados hurt vaporeon a lot since players became aware of the importance of having good electricity attackers.


Exxeggutor

After the general nerf of grass type pokemons exxeggutor no longer makes it to the group of default defenders, but it's still a very good one since the nerf hammer hit arcanine as well.

While flareon got boosted is still sports a very small hp-pool, which makes it likely it'll get smashed while burning down an exxeggutor.

Basically any combination of attacks that doesn't include Solar Beam should work.

Exxeggutor, like lapras, suffers from a comparatively low max cp, and it only runs with 75% of lapras' hp-pool.

Still, a mixed gym should have one of these guys in it.


Chansey

In a gym designed around this one it's the best defender in the game. Otherwise it's relegated to the role of bouncer. A really, really, really tedious bouncer.

An absurd hp-pool walls lower level players from the gym. They'll run into the time-out shutting down combat.

Don't bother about what attacks chansey sports. You're dumping this guy into a gym for its hp-pool and nothing else. If it slaps attackers or slaps them marginally harder simply doesn't matter.

Increasing the prestige of a gym with chansey is an excersise in futility. You either increase prestige by 100 or experience the time-out shutting lower level players out from the gym.

On gym defence, part one, overhyped defenders

Dragonite

Highest cp in the game

Well, that's it. We're pretty much done with what's good about a dragonite in a gym.

By now every serious player has at least one servicable lapras in their lineup, and one 2500 cp lapras cuts through two 3000 cp dragonites in a gym in so short time it's not even funny to watch.

With two dragon-type attacks the dragonite will still inflict brutal damage on an attacker while going down.


Rhydon

Another mega-cp pokemon

A glasscannon that falls over and dies to water.

It should be virtually impossible to still lack at least one vaporeon at 2600 or higher cp with hydro pump. Rhydon implodes when faced with that attacker.

Stone edge is a nasty charge attack because it's so fast, and if undodged will carve away a huge chunk of hp from an attacker.


Gyarados

The third obnoxiously high cp glass cannon

Self-implodes when attacked by electric.

Marginally servicable against people who still haven't understood that dragonite is a poor attacker against a gyarados. Twister's bad reputation had a lot of players discard their bite/twister gyarados, which still is a mean defender against dragonite.

Due to electric pokemons' puny pool of hp any non-hydro pump gyarados should shave off a healthy amount of hp before going down.



The three above pokemons are the most commone ones that should never be left alone or only together with their brethren in a gym.

How to shop

What to shop, in order of importance


For everyone:

• Bag space, all the way to 1000 slots.
• Pokemon space, up to 100 free slots, so two 50 slot upgrades above the number of pokemon you currently keep.

For the level-hunter:

• Lucky eggs

When you're out of pokestops:

• Poke balls (yes it sucks, but the only other option is to drop the game until you reach a healthy number of pokestops), but I don't recommend this for players who don't buy coins, because it's crap bang for the bucks.
• Incubators (at least hatch them eggs)

In a low spawn rate environment

• Luremodules, if there is a pokestop available
• OR
• Incubators and Incense (you're either stationary or walking)

Bag space

Why do I prioritise bag and pokemon -space above everything else? Well, those upgrades carry a benefit that's permanent.

As in they're always in effect.

Every 50 slot upgrade permanently allows you to have 25 pokemon-catching items and 25 gym-battle -items extra. That's 10 extra mons caught and/or a full round of gym-combat extra before your bag goes critically low on resources.

The bonus becomes distressingly obvious when you divide your gaming between depleting and replenishing resources.

When I replenish my bag I fill up 150 to 200 items in one go, but even at the start I have enough items to either clean up a large cluster with pokemons (or to start barfing ultraballs and berries at a snorlax/lapras/dragonite), or join a group tearing down and rebuilding a gym.

Decomposition of a gym attack

Solo game

Well, there it is -- you and that rival gym. Now it's all down to gym composition.


Crap gym

• A starter gym, that is 6000 prestige or lower
• A gym filled with glass-cannons, especially one filled with several sharing the same weakness
• Any gym with more than half of the mons below 2000 cp

Built gym

• A gym at 20 000 or higher prestige that doesn't conform to any of the attributes listed above

Elite gym

• A gym at above 40 000 prestige based around lapras at above 2700 cp or snorlax  at above 3000 cp. OR, such a gym based around chansey at above 1200 cp.

The solo gamer should normally just walk away from an elite gym. It'll take the better part of an hour to tear it down even for the avid raider. In the case of chanseys probably more than an hour.

At the other end lies the crap gym. It'll go down in the number of mons minus one round of battles. No matter what we're talking five minutes or less. Sure, the theoretical 50 000 prestige gym with six pokemons at below 2000 cp will take longer, but it'll still go down like a house of cards.

Just stack your lineup with mons strong against targets that aren't roadbumps, ie don't bother thinking about what to use against a cp 1400 rhydon, for example.

The built gym is where we'll have to switch on our brains before we slug it out. The following is a list of considerations you should make:

• Extremely low hp defenders. Think alakazam or cloyster. No typematching is needed
• Glasscannons. Dragonite, rhydon and gyarados are examples. Typematching, even with 1000 cp lower pokemons, is well worth it. The defender explodes when attacked with the correct type.
• Unknowns. You simply can't remember the weakness. Attack with a snorlax or anything big with good psychic attacks. Chanses are you at least didn't get it wrong.

And the second set of tips:

Shortage of revives

Leave battles before your pokemon is knocked out. Just don't forget to stay prepared to dodge when you switch in the next pokemon.

Only use max revives on pokemons with a lot of (200 hp or more) hit points to restore.

Shortage of potions.

Dig for lower cp pokemons of the correct type to use against the lowest cp defenders. You can just forget about your own mons until you have the opportunity to restore potions from pokestops.

If you have an excessive number of revives it can be worth to re-enter combat with half healed pokemons.

Do look at which potion you use for what damage. The crap 20 hp potions are handy for topping out an almost healed pokemon, but virtually useless for healing up one from scratch.

Small raid

Two or three players attacking. Works like the solo game. Only difference is that crap gyms start at 12 000 cp.

You only need to think about syncing attacks. Avoid joining combat more than ten seconds apart. Should one player fail to join combat, especially if there is a huge difference in defensive capacity between the first defender and the next, just leave combat and join it together again.

Large raid

Six to eleven players attacking.

Don't read this guide. Just tear the gym down.

Latest package deals

Bronze box, 460 coins: 100 red pokeballs and 8 lure modules.

Silver box, 980 coins: 8 incense, 8 lucky eggs and 8 lure modules.

Gold box, 2480 coins: 50 great balls, 25 incense, 25 lucky eggs and 16 lure modules.

Right now the bronze box is fantastic value, but its main problem is that it's physically difficult to buy. You need 108 bag slots free due to the 100 balls Niantic want to litter your bag with.

The silver box is a compact piece of goodness if you're power-evolving. Otherwise it's a box of crap unless you're living somewhere where you can really make good use of the incense.

The gold box is all over the place. 50 great balls is just problematic considering the package inlcudes another 66 slots. You have to be really interested in all three main components, incense, lucky eggs and lures, for the package to be good value.

At this moment, when lures run at one hour, the cheapest package is probably the best deal for just about everyone (if you can make room for 100 pokeballs).

Best pokemon in the game

What's the best pokemon in the game?

This is one of the questions that normally is answered with an: 'it depends' or 'given this situation I'd say that' etc.

Well, in this case that's bullshit.

The best pokemon in the game is snorlax. End of story.

When defending a gym, if you want rival players to think 'screw this' and walk away, just dump ten 3k cp plus snorlax into the gym. Job done.

As for attacking, while there are several other pokemons better suited for a specific job, you can never go totally wrong with a snorlax.

There's something to a 250 hitpoint monster with perfectly decent attack and defence stats. Add a variety of useful attacks and you have it. The best pokemon in the game.



Is it the best attacker in the game? No.
The overhyped dragonite, rhydon the glasscannon and gyarados are all better for their intended targets. Flareon jolteon and lapras have their specific targets as well.



Is it the best defender in the game? No.
No???
No.
Chansey is the best defender in the game. Pity you won't see anything above cp 1400, which relegates it to a bouncer role. Now, fill that gym with ten cp 1300 plus chanseys, and attacking players will find out why chansey is indeed the best defender in the game.


Still, in the end, snorlax is, by a very large margin, the best pokemon in the game.

Nest migration

I'm getting reports a new nest migration just occurred.

This would be exactly the kind of post where comments are very welcome, mainly in the form of condensed reports of new nest behaviour.

For rather obvoius reasons such comments will only be useful for a local readership, so let's limit those reports to the Gothenburg area, shall we?