To begin with, don't do it the way I do. I'm all over the place with the result I have very few grade A defenders maxed out.
Keep your best defenders maxed out at all times. They're supposed to constantly be inside a gym, so they really should be as good as possible.
At the beginning of a new level this just isn't possible. You need your mons inside gyms, and placed there you can't power up them. Well, gyms go down. When you get one back give it your love twice and it's ready to go for the rest of the level.
When you're building new pokemon from comparatively low cp, focus on your defenders. They're your future capital.
However, sometimes you just need a new attacker due to shifts in the game. It can be a patch like last autumn, or it could be a change in your local metagame. Still, an attacker seldom needs to be maxed out. After all you get to pick your attackers when going after a gym.
Apart from a few attacking stars I'd settle for stopping after the relatively cheap 5000 stardust and 4 candy.
So, how many pokemon should you groom? Well, not the 37 I'm looking at. There's a reason I'm currently having trouble maxing out prime defenders. I think half a dozen attackers and a dozen defenders should do just fine. Lower that number by one or two for each level below level 36.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Keep the pressure up
You're walking around your home turf, tearing rival gyms down and dropping a mon inside. Fifteen minutes later three mons sit inside the gym and it's nicely coloured the way you prefer. After your walk you've cleaned out five gyms and walk home satisfied with your progression.
It's just that it doesn't work. Another two hours later it's all gone.
Why?
A newly won gym effectively has three slots free. When those are filled i has 6K prestige and three pokemon inside. That's two round of battle to clean out. Maybe three minutes if the pokemon inside are grade A defenders. More often than not a little over a minute from my own experience, because people drop crap inside those gyms.
Pressure
Pressure starts at 20K prestige. That's seven pokemon inside. If the gym doesn't go down hard, other players are prone to keep it at 20K prestige, even if it gets kicked down a notch or two.
Deterrent
Starts at 30K prestige. A level eight gym is a big one. Determined players might go the extra mile and increase prestige to 40K, and from there to 50K.
Keeping the pressure up
Just tearing down and dropping something inside won't work in the long run. You need to create pressure.
Obvously you're unlikely to manage keeping all the gyms around you, but if you push a number of gyms to 10 whenever they go down you'll see a pattern where some of them are simply left as is. Focus on those. They are your territory.
Eventually any gym will go down. The best response is to immediately build it to level ten, or at least seven. If you do those gyms will become known among players in your team. The hard-core ones are likely to pay them an extra visit and slot inside something nasty, and you want nasty stuff to populate the gyms closest to your home turf.
It's just that it doesn't work. Another two hours later it's all gone.
Why?
A newly won gym effectively has three slots free. When those are filled i has 6K prestige and three pokemon inside. That's two round of battle to clean out. Maybe three minutes if the pokemon inside are grade A defenders. More often than not a little over a minute from my own experience, because people drop crap inside those gyms.
Pressure
Pressure starts at 20K prestige. That's seven pokemon inside. If the gym doesn't go down hard, other players are prone to keep it at 20K prestige, even if it gets kicked down a notch or two.
Deterrent
Starts at 30K prestige. A level eight gym is a big one. Determined players might go the extra mile and increase prestige to 40K, and from there to 50K.
Keeping the pressure up
Just tearing down and dropping something inside won't work in the long run. You need to create pressure.
Obvously you're unlikely to manage keeping all the gyms around you, but if you push a number of gyms to 10 whenever they go down you'll see a pattern where some of them are simply left as is. Focus on those. They are your territory.
Eventually any gym will go down. The best response is to immediately build it to level ten, or at least seven. If you do those gyms will become known among players in your team. The hard-core ones are likely to pay them an extra visit and slot inside something nasty, and you want nasty stuff to populate the gyms closest to your home turf.
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Bag management
I've posted about what to shop for your coins.
Now, what are you going to do with your 1000 slots?
Each player will find a balance between gym battle capacity and the sustained ability to catch pokemon when pokestops are (relatively) few and far between. This balance is individual because of our personal habits and where we live.
If you're always short on either side (can't participate fully in raids, or run out of balls to throw), you need to rebalance your bag. That's done by throwing away a lot of the stuff you never run out of whenever you have the opportunity to rapidly replenish your bag.
Each side also has an internal balance, or rather, you should aim at better quality items. Let's say you always want a minimum of 100 potions and 100 revives in your bag, but no more than 150 of each.
You're currently sitting on 150 potions, so all is perfectly fine? Maybe not. If 70 of those potions are 20 hp heals it might be a perfectly sane action to discard fifty of those. Obviously you won't collect 50 potions of higher quality, or even 50 potions at all, but you'll gradually have higher and higher quality items if you just dare to throw out the crap before hunting pokestops.
Now the game has its own balance as well. Kind of like a pendulum. When you're grinding pokemon you're less likely to to do gym battle, and vice versa. By planning your game you'll have an even better experience.
Spending two hours by lures with friends before a raid? Just stack up on all the revives and potions you get. Everything. You'll be able to spend at least one gym, maybe two, not using a single item of your high quality gym material.
The opposite is also true. If you're planning to go pokemon hunting after some gym battles it might be a good idea to allow yourself to go dangerously low on gym material. While you're hunting you'll slowly deplete your pokeballs and razz berries while at the same time slowly collecting items you can use during your next gym battle.
Last, do you revive and heal everything after a battle? Why? Do you need those pokemon soon?
If not, just let them be. You can revive and heal them one after another while you're hunting pokemon, and especially when you're hunting pokestops. Suddenly all those crap potions come in handy because your method of throwing them away is applying them to an injured pokemon. This is possibly the most efficient way to ensure that you keep a high quality gym battle items as possible in your bag.
Now, what are you going to do with your 1000 slots?
Each player will find a balance between gym battle capacity and the sustained ability to catch pokemon when pokestops are (relatively) few and far between. This balance is individual because of our personal habits and where we live.
If you're always short on either side (can't participate fully in raids, or run out of balls to throw), you need to rebalance your bag. That's done by throwing away a lot of the stuff you never run out of whenever you have the opportunity to rapidly replenish your bag.
Each side also has an internal balance, or rather, you should aim at better quality items. Let's say you always want a minimum of 100 potions and 100 revives in your bag, but no more than 150 of each.
You're currently sitting on 150 potions, so all is perfectly fine? Maybe not. If 70 of those potions are 20 hp heals it might be a perfectly sane action to discard fifty of those. Obviously you won't collect 50 potions of higher quality, or even 50 potions at all, but you'll gradually have higher and higher quality items if you just dare to throw out the crap before hunting pokestops.
Now the game has its own balance as well. Kind of like a pendulum. When you're grinding pokemon you're less likely to to do gym battle, and vice versa. By planning your game you'll have an even better experience.
Spending two hours by lures with friends before a raid? Just stack up on all the revives and potions you get. Everything. You'll be able to spend at least one gym, maybe two, not using a single item of your high quality gym material.
The opposite is also true. If you're planning to go pokemon hunting after some gym battles it might be a good idea to allow yourself to go dangerously low on gym material. While you're hunting you'll slowly deplete your pokeballs and razz berries while at the same time slowly collecting items you can use during your next gym battle.
Last, do you revive and heal everything after a battle? Why? Do you need those pokemon soon?
If not, just let them be. You can revive and heal them one after another while you're hunting pokemon, and especially when you're hunting pokestops. Suddenly all those crap potions come in handy because your method of throwing them away is applying them to an injured pokemon. This is possibly the most efficient way to ensure that you keep a high quality gym battle items as possible in your bag.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
When to stop tearing down
Last post was about taking pot shots.
Conversely there's a situation when that's the last you want to do. Depending on the pokemon standing in a rival gym that you encounter you'll need to take into consideration how likely it is that it will get prestiged back up again.
When you're starved for time anything above level six takes too long time to clean out, so this post is about those times.
There are three prestige points worth looking at; 20K, 30K and 40K. If the bottom-most pokemon is awkard to prestige against I recommend that you stop tearing down the gym at 2K above those points. That means it takes three won battles to kick out that pokemon in order to create an easy prestige situation.
Yes, there are people who use extra accounts to kick down high level friendly gyms to be able to drop a high cp pokemon inside. We call them parasites.
What you're aiming at is the 8K prestige needed against, for example a snorlax, to level up.
If the bottom-most pokemon is very easy to prestige against just kick it out by fighting against it, give up the match and repeat. You'll save both time and resources that way. And you want it out to increase the amount of time and resources needed to prestige the gym back up again.
While you may not have the time to drop the gym all the way to 2K above the 20 or 30K mark in this situation, at least aim at 3K below it. So 17, 27 or 37K. That should normally force anyone to spend five battles to level the gym up.
With two or more prestige friendly pokemon at the bottom I'd argue that the gym is in reality at 20 or 30K prestige no matter what it says. It should be quick work lowering prestige by upwards to 20K.
Conversely there's a situation when that's the last you want to do. Depending on the pokemon standing in a rival gym that you encounter you'll need to take into consideration how likely it is that it will get prestiged back up again.
When you're starved for time anything above level six takes too long time to clean out, so this post is about those times.
There are three prestige points worth looking at; 20K, 30K and 40K. If the bottom-most pokemon is awkard to prestige against I recommend that you stop tearing down the gym at 2K above those points. That means it takes three won battles to kick out that pokemon in order to create an easy prestige situation.
Yes, there are people who use extra accounts to kick down high level friendly gyms to be able to drop a high cp pokemon inside. We call them parasites.
What you're aiming at is the 8K prestige needed against, for example a snorlax, to level up.
If the bottom-most pokemon is very easy to prestige against just kick it out by fighting against it, give up the match and repeat. You'll save both time and resources that way. And you want it out to increase the amount of time and resources needed to prestige the gym back up again.
While you may not have the time to drop the gym all the way to 2K above the 20 or 30K mark in this situation, at least aim at 3K below it. So 17, 27 or 37K. That should normally force anyone to spend five battles to level the gym up.
With two or more prestige friendly pokemon at the bottom I'd argue that the gym is in reality at 20 or 30K prestige no matter what it says. It should be quick work lowering prestige by upwards to 20K.
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Taking pot shots
You're starved for both time and gym resources, and on top of it all, you're always alone when you walk by that level 10 rival gym.
And it's all snorlax and lapras.
Seems it'll stand there forever.
Or?
Try taking pot shots at it.
In the worst case scenario you need to win two battles to push it down to level nine and 49000 pretige.
Pointless! It's shit simple to prestige that gym back to level 10, so why bother?
You bother because you want people to prestige that gym back to 10. You're speeding up the process of gym degradation.
A player kicking the gym back to 10 isn't interested in being the bouncer, and the opportunity to have your crappy, but high cp, dragonite protected by nine grade A defenders is where greed bypasses need, because no gym needs a dragonite.
Watch those solid walls crumble as the gym slowly degrades into a house of cards.
And it's all snorlax and lapras.
Seems it'll stand there forever.
Or?
Try taking pot shots at it.
In the worst case scenario you need to win two battles to push it down to level nine and 49000 pretige.
Pointless! It's shit simple to prestige that gym back to level 10, so why bother?
You bother because you want people to prestige that gym back to 10. You're speeding up the process of gym degradation.
A player kicking the gym back to 10 isn't interested in being the bouncer, and the opportunity to have your crappy, but high cp, dragonite protected by nine grade A defenders is where greed bypasses need, because no gym needs a dragonite.
Watch those solid walls crumble as the gym slowly degrades into a house of cards.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Drop and walk prestige
And that rival gym just went down and you're walking by.
You're dropping something good inside, or, maybe not.
Sometimes it's a good idea to dump a glass cannon inside and hope for the best. Maybe you arrived at a friendly gym with two mons inside and a free slot.
The thing is, you're alone.
There are occasions when a poorly designed gym is better than a good one.
Let's say there's a 3200 dragonite and a 3100 snorlax inside. This would normally force you to dump an even bigger rhydon or dragonite inside, but what about dropping a 3000 gyarados instead?
Going above that snorlax effectively plugs the gym for anyone but a dedicated player. But if you're playing high level pokemon go you're likely to have the material needed to dispatch a big gyarados easily.
So how about taking a look at that 6000 prestige gym with your 3000 cp gyardos at the bottom. Now bring out your lineup with 2200:ish jolteon and go to work. By pushing that gym to 12000 prestige you'll open up two slots, and if it stays unattacked until both slots are taken, a third one will open up.
It's an invitation to push the gym to 18000 prestige, and two or three of the pokemon placed inside are likely to have lower cp than your gyarados. As icing on the cake, a level six gym with 2000 prestige left to open up slot number seven is likely to see someone do the work to get inside a decently built gym.
Here's the best part.
While I'm unlikely to make the effort to prestige against a 3000 cp snorlax in a 6000 prestige gym, I'll quite happily do it against a 2600 cp snorlax in an 18000 gym, because a level seven gym has that much better staying power than a level four one.
You're dropping something good inside, or, maybe not.
Sometimes it's a good idea to dump a glass cannon inside and hope for the best. Maybe you arrived at a friendly gym with two mons inside and a free slot.
The thing is, you're alone.
There are occasions when a poorly designed gym is better than a good one.
Let's say there's a 3200 dragonite and a 3100 snorlax inside. This would normally force you to dump an even bigger rhydon or dragonite inside, but what about dropping a 3000 gyarados instead?
Going above that snorlax effectively plugs the gym for anyone but a dedicated player. But if you're playing high level pokemon go you're likely to have the material needed to dispatch a big gyarados easily.
So how about taking a look at that 6000 prestige gym with your 3000 cp gyardos at the bottom. Now bring out your lineup with 2200:ish jolteon and go to work. By pushing that gym to 12000 prestige you'll open up two slots, and if it stays unattacked until both slots are taken, a third one will open up.
It's an invitation to push the gym to 18000 prestige, and two or three of the pokemon placed inside are likely to have lower cp than your gyarados. As icing on the cake, a level six gym with 2000 prestige left to open up slot number seven is likely to see someone do the work to get inside a decently built gym.
Here's the best part.
While I'm unlikely to make the effort to prestige against a 3000 cp snorlax in a 6000 prestige gym, I'll quite happily do it against a 2600 cp snorlax in an 18000 gym, because a level seven gym has that much better staying power than a level four one.
Big crap
When you catch something huge, even as the base type of a pokemon, it's more often than not worth it to keep it no matter its associated IV.
800 plus eevees, 1400 rhyhorn, 2700 snorlax, etc. You basically get a shot at an instant defender for a crap gym.
This is mostly attractive if you, for some reason, place pokemon into an insane number of gyms. Because you're unlikely to have two dozen grade A defenders, and for that reason it's nice to have access to a decent number of 2500 plus CP big crap.
A full raid should max out half a dozen to maybe ten gyms. They need to be populated, even though you're likely to get your pokemons returned within a day or two. A weekend spent on raids is likely to deplete your collection of pokemons that you're interested in dropping into gyms.
So, big crap comes in handy. They're basically free pseudo defenders.
800 plus eevees, 1400 rhyhorn, 2700 snorlax, etc. You basically get a shot at an instant defender for a crap gym.
This is mostly attractive if you, for some reason, place pokemon into an insane number of gyms. Because you're unlikely to have two dozen grade A defenders, and for that reason it's nice to have access to a decent number of 2500 plus CP big crap.
A full raid should max out half a dozen to maybe ten gyms. They need to be populated, even though you're likely to get your pokemons returned within a day or two. A weekend spent on raids is likely to deplete your collection of pokemons that you're interested in dropping into gyms.
So, big crap comes in handy. They're basically free pseudo defenders.
Friday, January 20, 2017
Territory
Promises and deals
In another multiplayer game I used to play on a competitive level we had a discussion about keeping promises. Part of that game was breaking a promise whenever you saw an opportunity to win by breaking the deal.
Thus we concluded that keeping promises had a limited value, but also that breaking them for little gain gave you a reputation as untrustworthy.
People don't make deals with someone who can't be trusted at all.
Pokemon go has gym battles as the only competitive component in the game. Those gyms are associated with physical territory.
Making deals with a rival gang to stay out of one gym in exchange for them staying out of another can have some value. Basically it's a little easier to collect one coin and 500 dust extra.
Threats
While that other game taught me that keeping promises had a distinct value, but still a limited one, it also taught me that you never, ever, break your threats.
Obviously it wasn't worth throwing around threats left and right, but if you kept them scarse and gained a reputation that you were comitted to following through on the threats you made no matter the cost, well people backed off more often than not.
In pokemon to this would normally translate to doing bad stuff to one or more rival gyms if an opposing team did something bad to one or more of your gyms.
Why?
Some gyms are simply easier for you to reach. Maybe you're living by one, or maybe you pass one every day. Or, maybe you and your friends just dedicated one specific gym as your home turf.
Keeping a fine balance between deals and threats adds spice to the game, especially if you're a team gaming together.
It's one instrument in your effort to keep a territory, and as of now pokemon go all comes down to keeping territory.
In another multiplayer game I used to play on a competitive level we had a discussion about keeping promises. Part of that game was breaking a promise whenever you saw an opportunity to win by breaking the deal.
Thus we concluded that keeping promises had a limited value, but also that breaking them for little gain gave you a reputation as untrustworthy.
People don't make deals with someone who can't be trusted at all.
Pokemon go has gym battles as the only competitive component in the game. Those gyms are associated with physical territory.
Making deals with a rival gang to stay out of one gym in exchange for them staying out of another can have some value. Basically it's a little easier to collect one coin and 500 dust extra.
Threats
While that other game taught me that keeping promises had a distinct value, but still a limited one, it also taught me that you never, ever, break your threats.
Obviously it wasn't worth throwing around threats left and right, but if you kept them scarse and gained a reputation that you were comitted to following through on the threats you made no matter the cost, well people backed off more often than not.
In pokemon to this would normally translate to doing bad stuff to one or more rival gyms if an opposing team did something bad to one or more of your gyms.
Why?
Some gyms are simply easier for you to reach. Maybe you're living by one, or maybe you pass one every day. Or, maybe you and your friends just dedicated one specific gym as your home turf.
Keeping a fine balance between deals and threats adds spice to the game, especially if you're a team gaming together.
It's one instrument in your effort to keep a territory, and as of now pokemon go all comes down to keeping territory.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Adding prestige to a gym
Solo player's guide to adding prestige
Empty gym
Either drop and walk or bubble-strat (or similar).
Drop and walk has been covered in an earlier post.
Bubble-strat
Bubble-strat, or similar approaches, is best used to prestige an empty gym to one out of two numbers -- 20000 or 50000 prestige.
Now pushing the gym to 10000 prestige should enable the gym to become level seven and 22000 prestige. It is, however an invitation for drive by shooting as it only takes five exceptionally short battles to kick it down to zero again.
Besides, it looks better at level seven, even if empty. Players dropping pokemon inside shoud be able to push it to level eight.
50000 prestige hardly requires an explanation. It's level ten and looks both inviting (for your team members) and intimidating. It's the same thing here, 34000 would be enough, but invites rival players to kick it down.
If at all possible, have a second pokemon dropped inside when you're done, or if that pokemon is one with a slow primary attack, drop it inside from the beginning. In the best of worlds it's a chansey.
This is to plug the gym to prevent drive by shooting dropping the gym 2000 prestige every time the microscopic defender is downed.
If people take pot shots at the gym, drop that defender inside at once if you have one available. Even if it means adding a snorlax with lick that kills your attacker after every damned fight. If you're still set at building the gym you just have to accept the added cost in potions and revives. Or walk away.
The main drawback is that you're leaving the gym with a tiny pokemon inside. On top of that you're leaving your bubble-strat defender in the gym, so this only works for one gym.
I'd advice using this strategy close to home when you can check the gym to see when you get kicked out, walk outside and prestige it back up a level the hard way and drop a real defender inside.
High cp squishy
A slower alternative is to drop a high cp squishy into the gym. Dragonite, rhydon and gyarados would be primary candidates, but flareon does the job as well.
You want something that goes down like a ton of bricks and still leaves you a good position inside the gym after friendly players have dropped their pokemon inside.
The main drawback with this strategy is that you're permanently compromising the defendability of the gym.
I'd use this strategy on a gym I can't easily reach if I get kicked out. In the end, if I build the gym from scratch I'm entitled to leave a high cp squishy inside.
Populated gym
There's no silver bullet for adding prestige to a populated gym. It all depends on how it's populated.
I'll define a few archetypical gyms below:
Empty gym
Either drop and walk or bubble-strat (or similar).
Drop and walk has been covered in an earlier post.
Bubble-strat
Bubble-strat, or similar approaches, is best used to prestige an empty gym to one out of two numbers -- 20000 or 50000 prestige.
Now pushing the gym to 10000 prestige should enable the gym to become level seven and 22000 prestige. It is, however an invitation for drive by shooting as it only takes five exceptionally short battles to kick it down to zero again.
Besides, it looks better at level seven, even if empty. Players dropping pokemon inside shoud be able to push it to level eight.
50000 prestige hardly requires an explanation. It's level ten and looks both inviting (for your team members) and intimidating. It's the same thing here, 34000 would be enough, but invites rival players to kick it down.
If at all possible, have a second pokemon dropped inside when you're done, or if that pokemon is one with a slow primary attack, drop it inside from the beginning. In the best of worlds it's a chansey.
This is to plug the gym to prevent drive by shooting dropping the gym 2000 prestige every time the microscopic defender is downed.
If people take pot shots at the gym, drop that defender inside at once if you have one available. Even if it means adding a snorlax with lick that kills your attacker after every damned fight. If you're still set at building the gym you just have to accept the added cost in potions and revives. Or walk away.
The main drawback is that you're leaving the gym with a tiny pokemon inside. On top of that you're leaving your bubble-strat defender in the gym, so this only works for one gym.
I'd advice using this strategy close to home when you can check the gym to see when you get kicked out, walk outside and prestige it back up a level the hard way and drop a real defender inside.
High cp squishy
A slower alternative is to drop a high cp squishy into the gym. Dragonite, rhydon and gyarados would be primary candidates, but flareon does the job as well.
You want something that goes down like a ton of bricks and still leaves you a good position inside the gym after friendly players have dropped their pokemon inside.
The main drawback with this strategy is that you're permanently compromising the defendability of the gym.
I'd use this strategy on a gym I can't easily reach if I get kicked out. In the end, if I build the gym from scratch I'm entitled to leave a high cp squishy inside.
Populated gym
There's no silver bullet for adding prestige to a populated gym. It all depends on how it's populated.
I'll define a few archetypical gyms below:
- High cp squishy
- Roadbump
- Defender
- Multicluster
High cp squishy
Lowest pokemon in the gym is, for example, a gyardos. Just get to work and build the gym.
Roadbump
Lowest pokemon in the gym is by a wide margin of lower cp than the lowest cp pokemon you really want to prestige against. For example a 1600 cp lapras and second lowest is a cp 2600 cp flareon.
I'd aim at the flareon. You get prestige for the pokemon you're currently fighting anyway, so water-attack pokemon at some 1800 cp would be my pick. Just roll over the bottom most pokemon and cash in those extra 100 cp.
Defender
Sometimes you're just out of luck. Lowest cp pokemon is a 2700 snorlax just below a 2750 lapras. On top of that another three snorlax. There's just no way to easily get to that juicy 3000 cp gyarados on top of the meatwalls.
Either walk away or start preparing for a tedious 500 cp per downed pokemon fight. You just have to slug it out with the best lineup you have below 2700.
Multicluster
Very common with roadbumps at the bottom. One or two pokemon above you notice three or four pokemon at almost identical cp.
Aim at that cluster and slug through it. You'll collect 100 cp each for the roadbumps and probably around 500 cp per member of the cluster.
Never do this
You came up to that gym, and it's level 10. At the bottom sits a cp 800 magmar. You have access to a friends rival account, and it's pretty easy to kick out the bottom-most pokemon and prestige back up to 50 and insert one of your own.
Just. Don't! You're being an arsehole. That gym is already level 10, so you don't get to have a say about how it should be populated because ten other players already did.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Grinding stardust
We're creatures of habit, sometimes poor habits.
Most of us collect pokemon on the run while following routes we're used to. Often used to from before the game came around.
From a spawn density point of view it can often be a good idea to test out different routes. They don't have to be vastly different; the street a block away could be a much better walking stretch when you're catching mons on the go.
By taking a marginally longer route you should be able to increase the yield substantially.
Lures
Are fun, especially when you're in company with friends at your preferred hangout. They are also pretty awful compared to walking around.
Most of us collect pokemon on the run while following routes we're used to. Often used to from before the game came around.
From a spawn density point of view it can often be a good idea to test out different routes. They don't have to be vastly different; the street a block away could be a much better walking stretch when you're catching mons on the go.
By taking a marginally longer route you should be able to increase the yield substantially.
Lures
Are fun, especially when you're in company with friends at your preferred hangout. They are also pretty awful compared to walking around.
- Low pokestop density (you're sitting by the same stops)
- Low spawn rate (compared to walking a high spawn density route)
So you end up catching fewer pokemon while slowly emptying your bag.
That said. They're for fun, and having fun is an important part of the game.
Slow moving public transport
In Gothenburg we have trams, and city buses. Works wonders for refilling bags, but they're also a perfectly decent source of pokemon.
The thing here is to pick your pokemon, and to dare running from a catch. If you know you're heading for a pokestop cluster, or a known spawn cluster, drop that cp 430 pidgey you're currently throwing pokeballs at.
Sometimes it's worth tapping a pokemon just to check cp, and then immediately drop out if it's too high. We're grinding stardust, not hunting for yet another 50% IV slowpoke at 750 cp.
Moving to a gym raid
Catch anything in sight and stock up on potions and revives. Even the crap you're usually throwing away will be used when you're finally slugging it out at that gym. You'll collect another one thousand stardust and get maybe a dozen crap potions and revives.
The plastic toy
If you're using slow moving public transport a lot, the Pokemon GO Plus will come in handy. While not needed it'll add quite some extra stardust.
Just make sure to make a habit of throwing blue balls whenever you're catching pokemon manually. The plus apparently eats red pokeballs at a depressing rate.
Network
Without a network you really can't play high level pokemon go.
No, we're not talking cables or wireless here.
When you're attacking a built gym you'll spend time and potions. If you're two attacking the same gym you'll spend less time and potions. And, you get to drop two pokemons into the gym rather than one.
When you're five people attacking a built gym...
Without a network you're always alone, or at least you can't plan ahead to get help with tearing down a rival gym, or to build your own for that matter.
So you need means to communicate, and when you have the means you need something to communicate. What gyms to defend, which to attack, a day catching pokemon together rather than alone, an alert when a rare pokemon spawns, and so on and so forth.
Preferably you want to meet the people you play with, as in meeting them away from gyms and extraordinary spawn areas. In short, you need a hangout.
You want to agree upon times when you can play together and times when you can't. You want to coordinate when you do something fun and when you just want to grind together.
You need a network.
Or you're not playing high level pokemon go.
No, we're not talking cables or wireless here.
When you're attacking a built gym you'll spend time and potions. If you're two attacking the same gym you'll spend less time and potions. And, you get to drop two pokemons into the gym rather than one.
When you're five people attacking a built gym...
Without a network you're always alone, or at least you can't plan ahead to get help with tearing down a rival gym, or to build your own for that matter.
So you need means to communicate, and when you have the means you need something to communicate. What gyms to defend, which to attack, a day catching pokemon together rather than alone, an alert when a rare pokemon spawns, and so on and so forth.
Preferably you want to meet the people you play with, as in meeting them away from gyms and extraordinary spawn areas. In short, you need a hangout.
You want to agree upon times when you can play together and times when you can't. You want to coordinate when you do something fun and when you just want to grind together.
You need a network.
Or you're not playing high level pokemon go.
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Powerbank
It's winter here, as in below zero.
For those of you sporting a powerbank. Where do you keep it?
An unisolated, external pocket is a bad place. Go for a pocket on the inside of your jacket where your body warmth will prevent temperature from dropping capacity of your power bank to half.
A backpack or bag counts as an external, unisolated pocket.
For those of you sporting a powerbank. Where do you keep it?
An unisolated, external pocket is a bad place. Go for a pocket on the inside of your jacket where your body warmth will prevent temperature from dropping capacity of your power bank to half.
A backpack or bag counts as an external, unisolated pocket.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Momentum, catching pokemon without running dry
This post might probably come in handier when it gets warmer and we spend more time outdoors again.
The scenario is a high density spawn area, for example a large park, with a decent number of pokestops.
Most players usually clean out every pokemon they see, and for that reason becomes static. In the end they run out of pokeballs.
The thing to do is to keep moving so that you're always walking towards next stop. While moving you'll walk into new spawnzones, and sometimes there will be short stretches with no spwans at all. However, you continuously replenish your bag.
Anyone who's been sitting by two or more lures must have experienced how this plays havoc on the bag.
So keep moving. Keep the momentum up.
The scenario is a high density spawn area, for example a large park, with a decent number of pokestops.
Most players usually clean out every pokemon they see, and for that reason becomes static. In the end they run out of pokeballs.
The thing to do is to keep moving so that you're always walking towards next stop. While moving you'll walk into new spawnzones, and sometimes there will be short stretches with no spwans at all. However, you continuously replenish your bag.
Anyone who's been sitting by two or more lures must have experienced how this plays havoc on the bag.
So keep moving. Keep the momentum up.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The lineup, and why gyms look like they do
The rules
I'll assume a trainer at level 35, moments prior to making it to level 36. (Yeah, that makes it easier to look at my own pokemons to get the numbers).
The cp numbers given are in general somewhat lower compared to the pokemons I have available. I tend to over-value IV. That's an error on my side.
That trainer collected 150 xp from evolves, gym-battling and other activities involving lucky eggs at level 30 and 31, 250 K at level 32, 300 at 33, 400 at 34 and 500 at 35. So basically I'm chopping off a big chunk from the stardust I've collected myself.
Basically a third of all xp gained is what I call dead xp.
Attackers
One dragonite at 3250 cp and another at 3000. There's a few more below 2800 cp but we won't count those, because we'll assume a non-moron player who doesn't pollute a gym with dragonites at below 2800 cp.
One gyarados at 2900 cp. There's another being powered up, currently at 2500 cp.
One vaporeon at 2800 cp.
One 2600 cp lapras. Candy is hard to get.
A 2600 flareon and a 2500 jolteon rounds up the attackers.
So seven pokemon. Of those at least one dragonite as well as the gyarados doubles up as defenders. Not good ones, but what can one do?
Defenders
One 3050 snorlax. While candy is hard to get by this is where those buddy kilometres went. (There's one at 2500 and 2300 respectively to be thrown into remote gyms)
One 3000 gyarados (yes another one)
One 3000 rhydon (cause someone told the player that rhydon are grade A defenders)
One 2900 vaporeon
One 2700 machamp
One 2650 arcanine (that nerf hurt)
One 2700 exxeggutor (did I say that the nerf hurt)
One 2700 lapras
One 2400 venusaur (boy did THAT nerf hurt)
One 2300 polywrath
All in all nine defenders, and add another ten pokemon between 2000 and 2500 cp caught or evolved as is, or possibly with a few powerups in them.
Given some variations, doesn't this look familiar?
If you personally have a dozen or more 'quality' -pokemons on top of this we'll simply chalk it down to a fantastic network of friends, or frequent usage of the maps that have been around since the start of the game.
The bad news
Apart from the ability to build fun gyms the above picture is false. While the number of quality attackers is correct (and probably should be increased by a third of those 'as is' pokemon we tend to overlook), the number of defenders is hugely overblown.
Two snorlax, one vaporeon, one lapras and one exxeggutor constitutes the quality lineup. But for the need of good attackers you could add the vaporeon and lapras dedicated to attacks as well.
What gyms should look like
Well, we covered that in an earlier post. A mix of ten good snorlax and superb lapras and vaporeon, snorlax only (that means ten snorlax at above 3000 cp), lapras only or chansey only.
OR
A fun, thematic gym
Right now, across the street, one of the former stands. Barring the 2573 lapras acting as bouncer it runs from a 2851 vaporeon to a 3170 snorlax. Most of the content is snorlax.
What gyms look like
In the centre of the city there's another level ten gym. Topped by a dragonite at 3340. It's brutally downward in terms of defender value from there. Another dragonite and then three gyarados.
Finally we reach two snorlax that should be relegated to remote gyms to begin with. They clock in at 2750 and 2650 each.
Then another two dragonites at a bit over 2600 each, clearly stating they haven't received any power-ups and shouldn't be placed inside a gym at all.
At the bottom a lonely Aerodactyl, just above 2100 cp, waits to be destroyed by water.
A solo player with a servicable vaporeon, two servicable jolteons, two good lapras and a maxed out dragonite stands a perfectly good chance to cut through the entire gym in one go.
Lining up the squshies beside each other like that spells distaster for gym defence.
Why such a gym?
Players want a decent lineup to attack with. Six pokemon won't cut it as you need to be able to handle different type weaknesses. The result is that part of the defensive lineup never gets inside a gym as it's needed to attack.
Add the penchant for high cp attack-pokemon that gets put into gyms because they're high cp. Basically that player is asking other players to protect their squishy with decent defenders.
Ultimately it's the result of cp increasing more due to attack capacity than defensive capacity. Just look at chansey.
I'll assume a trainer at level 35, moments prior to making it to level 36. (Yeah, that makes it easier to look at my own pokemons to get the numbers).
The cp numbers given are in general somewhat lower compared to the pokemons I have available. I tend to over-value IV. That's an error on my side.
That trainer collected 150 xp from evolves, gym-battling and other activities involving lucky eggs at level 30 and 31, 250 K at level 32, 300 at 33, 400 at 34 and 500 at 35. So basically I'm chopping off a big chunk from the stardust I've collected myself.
Basically a third of all xp gained is what I call dead xp.
Attackers
One dragonite at 3250 cp and another at 3000. There's a few more below 2800 cp but we won't count those, because we'll assume a non-moron player who doesn't pollute a gym with dragonites at below 2800 cp.
One gyarados at 2900 cp. There's another being powered up, currently at 2500 cp.
One vaporeon at 2800 cp.
One 2600 cp lapras. Candy is hard to get.
A 2600 flareon and a 2500 jolteon rounds up the attackers.
So seven pokemon. Of those at least one dragonite as well as the gyarados doubles up as defenders. Not good ones, but what can one do?
Defenders
One 3050 snorlax. While candy is hard to get by this is where those buddy kilometres went. (There's one at 2500 and 2300 respectively to be thrown into remote gyms)
One 3000 gyarados (yes another one)
One 3000 rhydon (cause someone told the player that rhydon are grade A defenders)
One 2900 vaporeon
One 2700 machamp
One 2650 arcanine (that nerf hurt)
One 2700 exxeggutor (did I say that the nerf hurt)
One 2700 lapras
One 2400 venusaur (boy did THAT nerf hurt)
One 2300 polywrath
All in all nine defenders, and add another ten pokemon between 2000 and 2500 cp caught or evolved as is, or possibly with a few powerups in them.
Given some variations, doesn't this look familiar?
If you personally have a dozen or more 'quality' -pokemons on top of this we'll simply chalk it down to a fantastic network of friends, or frequent usage of the maps that have been around since the start of the game.
The bad news
Apart from the ability to build fun gyms the above picture is false. While the number of quality attackers is correct (and probably should be increased by a third of those 'as is' pokemon we tend to overlook), the number of defenders is hugely overblown.
Two snorlax, one vaporeon, one lapras and one exxeggutor constitutes the quality lineup. But for the need of good attackers you could add the vaporeon and lapras dedicated to attacks as well.
What gyms should look like
Well, we covered that in an earlier post. A mix of ten good snorlax and superb lapras and vaporeon, snorlax only (that means ten snorlax at above 3000 cp), lapras only or chansey only.
OR
A fun, thematic gym
Right now, across the street, one of the former stands. Barring the 2573 lapras acting as bouncer it runs from a 2851 vaporeon to a 3170 snorlax. Most of the content is snorlax.
What gyms look like
In the centre of the city there's another level ten gym. Topped by a dragonite at 3340. It's brutally downward in terms of defender value from there. Another dragonite and then three gyarados.
Finally we reach two snorlax that should be relegated to remote gyms to begin with. They clock in at 2750 and 2650 each.
Then another two dragonites at a bit over 2600 each, clearly stating they haven't received any power-ups and shouldn't be placed inside a gym at all.
At the bottom a lonely Aerodactyl, just above 2100 cp, waits to be destroyed by water.
A solo player with a servicable vaporeon, two servicable jolteons, two good lapras and a maxed out dragonite stands a perfectly good chance to cut through the entire gym in one go.
Lining up the squshies beside each other like that spells distaster for gym defence.
Why such a gym?
Players want a decent lineup to attack with. Six pokemon won't cut it as you need to be able to handle different type weaknesses. The result is that part of the defensive lineup never gets inside a gym as it's needed to attack.
Add the penchant for high cp attack-pokemon that gets put into gyms because they're high cp. Basically that player is asking other players to protect their squishy with decent defenders.
Ultimately it's the result of cp increasing more due to attack capacity than defensive capacity. Just look at chansey.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Some thoughts concerning xp
I've received a few questions concerning levels and xp. As in how I made the amount I have, and why I play the way I do.
Now I'm definitely the wrong person to ask about really high level. There's a level 40 hanging out at our usual place, and I've gathered just about a third of the xp he's amassed.
That said, I've also heard that it's impossibe to reach high level, or at least to progress at high level (even at my current level), without spending a lot of money on the game.
I disagree.
Now, I do shop a pack of 1200 coins every month. Of those 680 goes to an eightpack lure modules as I prefer to contribute at least some of the lures we use. As for the rest I slowly maxed out bag space and pokemon slots, and by now I shop myself three incubators for the remainder. So that's an extra nine pokemons hatched monthly, which does indeed increase my cp, but not exactly by a vast amount.
If I had known in July what I know today, I would have bought 2500 coins more or less immediately and spent it all on 600 extra bag space. It's just that important. That part is definitely pay to win. And it costs you once only.
Now to the question how I made a lot of xp.
The answer is I don't.
I deliberately earn as little xp as possible. By level 35 the game hands you lucky egg number ten. Five of those take up bag space as a personal gimmick. So I've used a grand total of five lucky eggs since I started playing.
Now, why on earth would anyone take such a backwards stance towards gaining levels?
Why I'm a rabid xp-hater
Look at your pokemon line-up. Somewhere around level 25 you should have your first set of useful pokemon for gym battles. Maybe half a dozen pokemon all in all. And then it would feel nice to add at least one pokemon per level to that line-up.
And that's fine.
To reach level 26 you need 190000 xp.
Even with my playstyle I gain a little more than 1 stardust per 2 xp. So during level 25 I would collect around 100000 stardust.
Now let us assume I did indeed have half a dozen maxed out pokemon at trainer level 24. At two power-ups per pokemon and trainer level that's twelve power-ups. At trainer level 25 a pokemon can reach pokemon level 26.5.
Let's have a look at https://rankedboost.com/pokemon-go/stardust/
At 4000 stardust per power-up that's 48000 stardust to keep my line-up maxed out.
Now say I hatched something really nice at level 25. It enters my collection at pokemon level 20, which means it needs 13 power-ups to reach max level. That translates into aproximately another 45000 stardust for that single pokemon.
So I have 7000 stardust left over for the next level.
How it's usually done
A more sane player would spend at least one lucky egg per level. At 80 coins per egg in the shop that's perfectly doable by collecting the basic 10 coins from gyms daily. Add the total of six lucky eggs the game provided you with by level 25.
It's perfectly reasonable to assume that an average player should be able to power evolve enough pokemons during half an hour to gain 60000 xp. We're talking two evolves per minute.
Which means level 25 effectively lasted for 130000 xp rather than 190000 xp.
Why I stubbornly stick to being a rabid xp-hater
Subtracting 30000 stardust (60K xp from the egg, remember), leaves me at minus 23000 stardust for level 25.
So what, we're playing at high level
So maybe level 25 was a bad example. Let's look at the 750000 xp it takes to reach trainer level 33.
The way I play the game I'll hopefully collect 400000 stardust at level 32.
Looking at the earlier example I should have 13 maxed out pokemon starting at level 32, and I just got myself a juicy 98% ryhorn in an egg.
Each pokemon costs 13000 stardust to max out, so that's 143000 stardust. And then we had the new buddy. https://buimichael.github.io/pokemongo-Stardust-Calculator/ suggests that one alone eats another 116000 stardust.
So a total of 259000 stardust. Sweet. That leaves me with around 140000 stardust to save for later, right?
Wrong.
The assumption that I'll get one juicy pokemon per level breaks down when you compared 190000 xp for level-up to 750000 xp for level-up.
The assumption that you have 140000 stardust extra comes crashing down like a ton of bricks when you realise that the super sweet 100% new addition you just caught in the wild was level 18, just below anything you hatch.
Because that means another 120000 stardust consumed.
Still doable for me.
For the sane player?
I'll make the assumtion that a sane player evolves a little more than 400 pokemon during level 32, even with only one lucky egg. Let's round it off to 250000 xp gained from evolving pokemon.
Why 400? Well 1000 pokemon caught translates into around 200000 xp. It's safe to assume that anyone would catch at least 2500 pokemon during level 32. At eight pokemon caught for every pokemon evolved we're looking at an average of 32 candy per pokemon evolved. Seems doable, given that a fair number of them will be pidgeys, weedles and caterpies.
Anyway, we're chopping away some 120000 stardust gained by the sane player.
And suddenly maxing out that extra pokemon wasn't doable after all. At level 32. One. Single. Pokemon.
So you, the sane player, is stuck with maxing out one new pokemon per level. That leaves you with 16 maxed out pokemon in your lineup when you try to hit level 36 as I'm doing right now.
I have 21. When I hit level 37 another two or three months down the line I'll have 30 (yeah, I know, I'm insane in more ways than one).
Back to the original question
Fine, level 35 isn't especially grand or anything, but how did I get there?
I walk.
A lot.
Even before Pokemon Go existed I tried getting at least 10 kilometres into my legs per day. It's more now.
Obviously I walk other places now than then. Places where a lot more pokemon spawn.
An ordinary day I'll hatch three eggs (5 km), catch enough pokemons and spin enough pokestops to get around 40000 xp. Some days more, some less.
It's nothing exceptional. Maybe quarter of a million xp during a week. Or a million a month. The game has been around for little more than half a year.
I'm level 35.
Kind of makes sense since there were three week-long boosting events late October to mid November.
Last words
You really don't want to get into a pissing contest with me about who has the most candy lying around for a random pokemon.
Now I'm definitely the wrong person to ask about really high level. There's a level 40 hanging out at our usual place, and I've gathered just about a third of the xp he's amassed.
That said, I've also heard that it's impossibe to reach high level, or at least to progress at high level (even at my current level), without spending a lot of money on the game.
I disagree.
Now, I do shop a pack of 1200 coins every month. Of those 680 goes to an eightpack lure modules as I prefer to contribute at least some of the lures we use. As for the rest I slowly maxed out bag space and pokemon slots, and by now I shop myself three incubators for the remainder. So that's an extra nine pokemons hatched monthly, which does indeed increase my cp, but not exactly by a vast amount.
If I had known in July what I know today, I would have bought 2500 coins more or less immediately and spent it all on 600 extra bag space. It's just that important. That part is definitely pay to win. And it costs you once only.
Now to the question how I made a lot of xp.
The answer is I don't.
I deliberately earn as little xp as possible. By level 35 the game hands you lucky egg number ten. Five of those take up bag space as a personal gimmick. So I've used a grand total of five lucky eggs since I started playing.
Now, why on earth would anyone take such a backwards stance towards gaining levels?
Why I'm a rabid xp-hater
Look at your pokemon line-up. Somewhere around level 25 you should have your first set of useful pokemon for gym battles. Maybe half a dozen pokemon all in all. And then it would feel nice to add at least one pokemon per level to that line-up.
And that's fine.
To reach level 26 you need 190000 xp.
Even with my playstyle I gain a little more than 1 stardust per 2 xp. So during level 25 I would collect around 100000 stardust.
Now let us assume I did indeed have half a dozen maxed out pokemon at trainer level 24. At two power-ups per pokemon and trainer level that's twelve power-ups. At trainer level 25 a pokemon can reach pokemon level 26.5.
Let's have a look at https://rankedboost.com/pokemon-go/stardust/
At 4000 stardust per power-up that's 48000 stardust to keep my line-up maxed out.
Now say I hatched something really nice at level 25. It enters my collection at pokemon level 20, which means it needs 13 power-ups to reach max level. That translates into aproximately another 45000 stardust for that single pokemon.
So I have 7000 stardust left over for the next level.
How it's usually done
A more sane player would spend at least one lucky egg per level. At 80 coins per egg in the shop that's perfectly doable by collecting the basic 10 coins from gyms daily. Add the total of six lucky eggs the game provided you with by level 25.
It's perfectly reasonable to assume that an average player should be able to power evolve enough pokemons during half an hour to gain 60000 xp. We're talking two evolves per minute.
Which means level 25 effectively lasted for 130000 xp rather than 190000 xp.
Why I stubbornly stick to being a rabid xp-hater
Subtracting 30000 stardust (60K xp from the egg, remember), leaves me at minus 23000 stardust for level 25.
So what, we're playing at high level
So maybe level 25 was a bad example. Let's look at the 750000 xp it takes to reach trainer level 33.
The way I play the game I'll hopefully collect 400000 stardust at level 32.
Looking at the earlier example I should have 13 maxed out pokemon starting at level 32, and I just got myself a juicy 98% ryhorn in an egg.
Each pokemon costs 13000 stardust to max out, so that's 143000 stardust. And then we had the new buddy. https://buimichael.github.io/pokemongo-Stardust-Calculator/ suggests that one alone eats another 116000 stardust.
So a total of 259000 stardust. Sweet. That leaves me with around 140000 stardust to save for later, right?
Wrong.
The assumption that I'll get one juicy pokemon per level breaks down when you compared 190000 xp for level-up to 750000 xp for level-up.
The assumption that you have 140000 stardust extra comes crashing down like a ton of bricks when you realise that the super sweet 100% new addition you just caught in the wild was level 18, just below anything you hatch.
Because that means another 120000 stardust consumed.
Still doable for me.
For the sane player?
I'll make the assumtion that a sane player evolves a little more than 400 pokemon during level 32, even with only one lucky egg. Let's round it off to 250000 xp gained from evolving pokemon.
Why 400? Well 1000 pokemon caught translates into around 200000 xp. It's safe to assume that anyone would catch at least 2500 pokemon during level 32. At eight pokemon caught for every pokemon evolved we're looking at an average of 32 candy per pokemon evolved. Seems doable, given that a fair number of them will be pidgeys, weedles and caterpies.
Anyway, we're chopping away some 120000 stardust gained by the sane player.
And suddenly maxing out that extra pokemon wasn't doable after all. At level 32. One. Single. Pokemon.
So you, the sane player, is stuck with maxing out one new pokemon per level. That leaves you with 16 maxed out pokemon in your lineup when you try to hit level 36 as I'm doing right now.
I have 21. When I hit level 37 another two or three months down the line I'll have 30 (yeah, I know, I'm insane in more ways than one).
Back to the original question
Fine, level 35 isn't especially grand or anything, but how did I get there?
I walk.
A lot.
Even before Pokemon Go existed I tried getting at least 10 kilometres into my legs per day. It's more now.
Obviously I walk other places now than then. Places where a lot more pokemon spawn.
An ordinary day I'll hatch three eggs (5 km), catch enough pokemons and spin enough pokestops to get around 40000 xp. Some days more, some less.
It's nothing exceptional. Maybe quarter of a million xp during a week. Or a million a month. The game has been around for little more than half a year.
I'm level 35.
Kind of makes sense since there were three week-long boosting events late October to mid November.
Last words
You really don't want to get into a pissing contest with me about who has the most candy lying around for a random pokemon.
Monday, January 09, 2017
Gym degradation
So you and your friends built that level ten gym a week ago, and it hasn't been the target of a rival raid yet.
It's still level ten, or occasionally nine. Five of the original pokemons are still inside.
When you built it you put in five snorlax, two vaporeon and three lapras, ranging from 2600 to 3100 cp.
Now there's one 2800 lapras left, and one vaporeon at 2900 cp. Three snorlax, all above 3000 cp are also still inside.
The other five slots are: one gyarados at 3000 cp, one rhydon at 3100 cp and three dragonites at 3000, 3100 and 3200 cp respectively.
While the aggregated combat power of the gym increased it became a house of cards. In another day there will be an addition of two more dragonites and after that the gym will come crashing down.
This is gym degradation. Out of the five top cp pokemons in the game three are poor defenders. In that top five list the good defenders, snorlax and vaporeon, come in at place two and five respectively. Dragonite tops the list, and slot three and four belong to rhydon and gyarados respectively.
To make things worse, a high cp rhydon is even easier to come by than a high cp vaporeon. In reality the same goes for gyarados, because even though it takes an absurd number of magikarps to evolve one, by the time you do you're more or less bound to have a really high IV magikarp to evolve.
While dratinis aren't found left and right, it's still a lot easier to get yourself a high quality dragonite than the snorlax counterpart.
And high cp slots in above low cp in a gym. So solo players drop by a level nine gym, prestige it back to ten and insert the highest cp pokemon they have available -- most certainly not a lapras.
And the gym degrades.
The absurd version of gym degradation occurs when a lonely snorlax protects nine squishy dragonites just before the gym comes crashing down.
It's still level ten, or occasionally nine. Five of the original pokemons are still inside.
When you built it you put in five snorlax, two vaporeon and three lapras, ranging from 2600 to 3100 cp.
Now there's one 2800 lapras left, and one vaporeon at 2900 cp. Three snorlax, all above 3000 cp are also still inside.
The other five slots are: one gyarados at 3000 cp, one rhydon at 3100 cp and three dragonites at 3000, 3100 and 3200 cp respectively.
While the aggregated combat power of the gym increased it became a house of cards. In another day there will be an addition of two more dragonites and after that the gym will come crashing down.
This is gym degradation. Out of the five top cp pokemons in the game three are poor defenders. In that top five list the good defenders, snorlax and vaporeon, come in at place two and five respectively. Dragonite tops the list, and slot three and four belong to rhydon and gyarados respectively.
To make things worse, a high cp rhydon is even easier to come by than a high cp vaporeon. In reality the same goes for gyarados, because even though it takes an absurd number of magikarps to evolve one, by the time you do you're more or less bound to have a really high IV magikarp to evolve.
While dratinis aren't found left and right, it's still a lot easier to get yourself a high quality dragonite than the snorlax counterpart.
And high cp slots in above low cp in a gym. So solo players drop by a level nine gym, prestige it back to ten and insert the highest cp pokemon they have available -- most certainly not a lapras.
And the gym degrades.
The absurd version of gym degradation occurs when a lonely snorlax protects nine squishy dragonites just before the gym comes crashing down.
Sunday, January 08, 2017
On gym defence, part five, full raid gym composition
A full raid is defined as eleven trainer accounts to top out and fill a level ten gym. There are different ways to achieve this, some of which are in direct violation of the game TOS.
No matter what it requires ten team accounts and one rival account. The easiest way to bring that rival account is for players to use a secondary account.
I won't go into the legalese at all. Players as well as Niantic are likely to be in violation of contractual agreements and / or consumer legislation depending on in which country the game is played.
A full raid depends on the existence of some kind of local Pokemon Go community, where players on the same team meet regulary and exchange tips, tricks and strategies. You'll need some kind common ground in order to be able to have a large group of players walk around together with a common goal.
That said, let's have a look at the different types of gyms for the full raid.
Remote
To be populated by secondary class defenders. Basically the same as for the medium sized raid.
Ten high class defenders at 2500 - 2800 cp is a deterrent to just about any solo player. Even a group of three might think better of it.
Occasional traffic
Handled as high traffic.
High traffic
The very best you have OR a fun gym.
How to populate the gym
I strongly recommend a 'bubble strat' or similar approach, with a twist. You want to make sure you can grab the three initial spots immediatgely with three prestige-pokemons of similar cp. At least in an environment where gym-sniping is likely. This way you lock out sniping parasites.
See https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/bubblestrat for bubble strat specifically. There are other strategies based on a similar concept.
Preferably you have agreed on the composition on your way to the gym, but with three small pokemons in the gym you can spend a short time agreeing on what kind of gym you want to build.
When increasing prestige, have a plan ready. Do you slot in new pokemon as soon as a slot is free, or do you build the gym to capacity first?
Sniping environment
If sniping is likely you probably want the player who's in turn to add a pokemon to stay out of the current prestige fight and slot in that pokemon as soon as everyone has stopped figting.
Yes. Stopped fighting. Or the immutable defender 'error' enters the scene and one or more players are unable to help increase prestige.
No sniping
If sniping is unlikely just pad the gym up to 34, 36 or 38 K prestige depending on if the gym was seeded with one, two or three prestige pokemons. Then fill the gym with the agreed upon defenders.
Afterwork
You now have a level ten gym with one to three awful pokemons at the bottom.
Time to bring that rival account. In a high traffic environment this happens automatically as other players are likely to take a shot at easy xp. Otherwise you need to supply that rival player yourselves.
I've been that rival player myself in exchange for a beer later on. It all depends on how competitive your local metagame is if you feel comfortable with helping rival teams to build their gyms. I don't care all that much myself.
The easiest is probably to use a secondary account.
Kick the prestige pokemon(s) twice and you're at 49000 prestige. Prestige back to 50000 and add a pokemon (belonging to the player who got his/her prestige-pokemon kicked out). Rinse and repeat.
You'll end up with a level ten gym populated the way you wanted.
Gym composition
Fun gyms aside, there are three primary gyms to build.
No matter what it requires ten team accounts and one rival account. The easiest way to bring that rival account is for players to use a secondary account.
I won't go into the legalese at all. Players as well as Niantic are likely to be in violation of contractual agreements and / or consumer legislation depending on in which country the game is played.
A full raid depends on the existence of some kind of local Pokemon Go community, where players on the same team meet regulary and exchange tips, tricks and strategies. You'll need some kind common ground in order to be able to have a large group of players walk around together with a common goal.
That said, let's have a look at the different types of gyms for the full raid.
Remote
To be populated by secondary class defenders. Basically the same as for the medium sized raid.
Ten high class defenders at 2500 - 2800 cp is a deterrent to just about any solo player. Even a group of three might think better of it.
Occasional traffic
Handled as high traffic.
High traffic
The very best you have OR a fun gym.
How to populate the gym
I strongly recommend a 'bubble strat' or similar approach, with a twist. You want to make sure you can grab the three initial spots immediatgely with three prestige-pokemons of similar cp. At least in an environment where gym-sniping is likely. This way you lock out sniping parasites.
See https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/bubblestrat for bubble strat specifically. There are other strategies based on a similar concept.
Preferably you have agreed on the composition on your way to the gym, but with three small pokemons in the gym you can spend a short time agreeing on what kind of gym you want to build.
When increasing prestige, have a plan ready. Do you slot in new pokemon as soon as a slot is free, or do you build the gym to capacity first?
Sniping environment
If sniping is likely you probably want the player who's in turn to add a pokemon to stay out of the current prestige fight and slot in that pokemon as soon as everyone has stopped figting.
Yes. Stopped fighting. Or the immutable defender 'error' enters the scene and one or more players are unable to help increase prestige.
No sniping
If sniping is unlikely just pad the gym up to 34, 36 or 38 K prestige depending on if the gym was seeded with one, two or three prestige pokemons. Then fill the gym with the agreed upon defenders.
Afterwork
You now have a level ten gym with one to three awful pokemons at the bottom.
Time to bring that rival account. In a high traffic environment this happens automatically as other players are likely to take a shot at easy xp. Otherwise you need to supply that rival player yourselves.
I've been that rival player myself in exchange for a beer later on. It all depends on how competitive your local metagame is if you feel comfortable with helping rival teams to build their gyms. I don't care all that much myself.
The easiest is probably to use a secondary account.
Kick the prestige pokemon(s) twice and you're at 49000 prestige. Prestige back to 50000 and add a pokemon (belonging to the player who got his/her prestige-pokemon kicked out). Rinse and repeat.
You'll end up with a level ten gym populated the way you wanted.
Gym composition
Fun gyms aside, there are three primary gyms to build.
- Snorlax
- Lapras
- Chansey
Kind of boring, but brutally efficient.
If your raid team runs a tight level range (ie everyone is 32 - 35) you probably only want one kind of pokemon in that gym. Aim at 2600 or better lapras, 2900 or better snorlax or 1100 or better chansey
If the spread is greater, say 30 - 38 as an extreme, it's a good opportunity to let the lower level players dump their best snorlaxes and the higher level players slot in their best lapras. You'll end up with a gym sporting 2800 - 2900 cp pokemon, lapras and snorlax in a nasty mix.
As for chansey, just let everyone drop in the juiciest one they have.
A less boring gym to build is one where you mix in the best exxeggutor any player has, one 3k or higher vaporeon, or even a machamp at 2800. And from here on we're looking at gym compositions getting closer and closer to the fun gym type.
Lastly
One player will become the bouncer. Being the bouncer in a level 10 gym sucks. For that reason it's a good idea to build a few of those monsters if you're at it so that the suckyness gets spread around.
If you always force your lowest level players to take on the bouncer role, you're likely to end up with a new lowest level player when the current one gets sick and tired of you.
Level ten gyms suffer from gym degradation. More on that tomorrow.
Saturday, January 07, 2017
On gym defence, part four, medium sized raid building a gym
We'll use the same gym locations as the last post.
For the purspose of this post a medium sized raid is any group that decides to build the gym but lacks the ability to fill it with ten pokemons.
The goal should be a level seven gym, or 20000 prestige. Observe that for each free slot in a gym the prestige-requirement for a given level is lowered by 2000.
This post will only concern itself with the composition of a gym. The mechanics behind building it is for a later post.
High traffic
As for the drop and walk scenario it'll go down quickly. Basicaly it's questionable wether it's worth the effort running a medium sized raid in this environment, but sometimes you just want to do it.
Glass cannons are more important for this situation compared to the drop and walk one. Unless you use three glass cannons make certain the proper defender has higher cp than the squishies. This to maximise the speed at which you kick the gym to level five.
You want to fill the three vacant spots immediately in order to prevent the sniping of a spot. In these days of automated bots and joystick players it's sometimes a matter of seconds before free slots are occupied by an 'invisible' player.
Increase prestige and slot in your highest cp defenders as you go. If your proper defenders have lower cp than the glass cannons you may have to risk it and increase prestige with empty slots in the gym.
I personally wouldn't risk it, because even three or four players should be able to increase the 2000 prestige needed to allow the insertion of a new pokemon at a decent pace, no matter which pokemon stands in the bottom of the gym, well, barring chansey.
After 20000 prestige, and gym level seven, this is no longer true.
All in all, focus on high damage pokemon rather than really good defenders, because this gym is going down within an hour or two anyway.
The alternative is showing off.
It's high traffic after all and as such highly visible.
Been travelling far away? Show the local players that Mr. Mime / Tauros / Farfetch'd / Kangashkan that is normally unavailable in town.
Or got yourself a 100% pidgeot that you maxed out?
If it's for showing off you can go wild. The gym is going down soon after all.
Occasional traffic
This is normally the best type of gym for a medium sized raid.
I recommend a single glass cannon and a speedy increase of prestige to whatever gym level you're aiming at with only one pokemon inside the gym.
It might even be worth it to increase prestige all the way to 34000, which is enough for building the gym to level 10 by means of inserting eight pokemon.
Of course, if your local metagame has this specific gym a common target for bots and joystickers, then this won't work. However, arguably such a gym should be redefined as a high traffic one.
But for the one glass cannon you should insert the best defenders available here.
Either slot in snorlax / lapras only (and I really mean just lapras OR just snorlax), or make sure you mix your defenders well.
In the latter case you should aim for a composition where two defenders of the same type (or rather the same type-weakness) never sit as neighbours. This should force attackers to shift pokemons between each battle, which makes them take a little extra damage and leaves them with a large number of pokemon needing healing.
Observe the total lack of chansey here. Chanseys are best used in a chansey-only gym. You're building the gym beyond level three, and trust me, you really, really, really don't want to increase prestige against a chansey.
Either way, built properly, this is a gym that could very well stay up for a few days. If you've built it so passersbyes can add pokemons to empty slots, then this gym could take on a life of its own and stay up for a couple of weeks.
Remote
The same building principles as for the occasional traffic gym is valid here. However, focus on high class defenders at medium capacity. Basically the highest cp lapras / snorlax / vaporeon, etc you haven't done any extensive powerups on.
Be prepared to say byebye to that pokemon for a few weeks.
You made an extra effort going to this gym. Make sure it's prepared to go all the way to level 10. That means it should hit 50000 by adding pokemons to the empty slots.
Basically you're aiming at deterring every solo player who happens upon the gym.
2500 cp or better per pokemon is a good goal. There is no real reason to go above 2800 cp, which leaves room for a maxed out arcanine or machamp or similar pokemon. Depending on how many players you are there should be room for one or two of those gimmicky pokemons.
Tomorrow we'll look into the full raid.
For the purspose of this post a medium sized raid is any group that decides to build the gym but lacks the ability to fill it with ten pokemons.
The goal should be a level seven gym, or 20000 prestige. Observe that for each free slot in a gym the prestige-requirement for a given level is lowered by 2000.
This post will only concern itself with the composition of a gym. The mechanics behind building it is for a later post.
High traffic
As for the drop and walk scenario it'll go down quickly. Basicaly it's questionable wether it's worth the effort running a medium sized raid in this environment, but sometimes you just want to do it.
Glass cannons are more important for this situation compared to the drop and walk one. Unless you use three glass cannons make certain the proper defender has higher cp than the squishies. This to maximise the speed at which you kick the gym to level five.
You want to fill the three vacant spots immediately in order to prevent the sniping of a spot. In these days of automated bots and joystick players it's sometimes a matter of seconds before free slots are occupied by an 'invisible' player.
Increase prestige and slot in your highest cp defenders as you go. If your proper defenders have lower cp than the glass cannons you may have to risk it and increase prestige with empty slots in the gym.
I personally wouldn't risk it, because even three or four players should be able to increase the 2000 prestige needed to allow the insertion of a new pokemon at a decent pace, no matter which pokemon stands in the bottom of the gym, well, barring chansey.
After 20000 prestige, and gym level seven, this is no longer true.
All in all, focus on high damage pokemon rather than really good defenders, because this gym is going down within an hour or two anyway.
The alternative is showing off.
It's high traffic after all and as such highly visible.
Been travelling far away? Show the local players that Mr. Mime / Tauros / Farfetch'd / Kangashkan that is normally unavailable in town.
Or got yourself a 100% pidgeot that you maxed out?
If it's for showing off you can go wild. The gym is going down soon after all.
Occasional traffic
This is normally the best type of gym for a medium sized raid.
I recommend a single glass cannon and a speedy increase of prestige to whatever gym level you're aiming at with only one pokemon inside the gym.
It might even be worth it to increase prestige all the way to 34000, which is enough for building the gym to level 10 by means of inserting eight pokemon.
Of course, if your local metagame has this specific gym a common target for bots and joystickers, then this won't work. However, arguably such a gym should be redefined as a high traffic one.
But for the one glass cannon you should insert the best defenders available here.
Either slot in snorlax / lapras only (and I really mean just lapras OR just snorlax), or make sure you mix your defenders well.
In the latter case you should aim for a composition where two defenders of the same type (or rather the same type-weakness) never sit as neighbours. This should force attackers to shift pokemons between each battle, which makes them take a little extra damage and leaves them with a large number of pokemon needing healing.
Observe the total lack of chansey here. Chanseys are best used in a chansey-only gym. You're building the gym beyond level three, and trust me, you really, really, really don't want to increase prestige against a chansey.
Either way, built properly, this is a gym that could very well stay up for a few days. If you've built it so passersbyes can add pokemons to empty slots, then this gym could take on a life of its own and stay up for a couple of weeks.
Remote
The same building principles as for the occasional traffic gym is valid here. However, focus on high class defenders at medium capacity. Basically the highest cp lapras / snorlax / vaporeon, etc you haven't done any extensive powerups on.
Be prepared to say byebye to that pokemon for a few weeks.
You made an extra effort going to this gym. Make sure it's prepared to go all the way to level 10. That means it should hit 50000 by adding pokemons to the empty slots.
Basically you're aiming at deterring every solo player who happens upon the gym.
2500 cp or better per pokemon is a good goal. There is no real reason to go above 2800 cp, which leaves room for a maxed out arcanine or machamp or similar pokemon. Depending on how many players you are there should be room for one or two of those gimmicky pokemons.
Tomorrow we'll look into the full raid.
Friday, January 06, 2017
On gym defence, part three, composition of a gym
When populating a gym you're basically faced with one of three situations:
- Drop and walk
- Medium sized raid
- Full raid
Drop and walk
Whenever you're three players or less you can all pop one pokemon into the gym without the need to raise its prestige.
I'm a bit subjective here, but as far as I'm concerned a gym belongs to one of three categories:
- High traffic
- Occasional traffic
- Remote
High traffic
A high traffic gym would be one at, for example, a multi line bus stop, a mall or anywhere else you'd expect a lot of people to pass within gym-combat distance of the gym.
It's going down quick no matter what you do. I suggest this is one of the situations where a dragonite makes perfect sense. It'll come crashing down like a ton of bricks, but it'll inflict quite some damage while doing so.
Occasional traffic
People will pass within fighting distance from the gym several times per hour, but there are also longer periods when no one is there.
Either go for deterrent and place one of the best gym defenders you have,
or
feed the gym with high cp glass cannons (but avoid dragonites). Glass cannons invite team members to add prestige to the gym. Gyarados and Rhydon are perfect. Dragonites are prone to block people from even theoretically being able to top the defenders you've placed, and it's kind of pointless to spend time adding prestige to a gym which you, from a fair distance, can see you'll be unable to avoid the bouncer role.
Observe that vaporeon works both as a deterrent as well as an invitation to increase gym prestige.
Remote
This gym needs you to walk the extra distance to reach. People pass it a few times per day but not much more.
I'd suggest medium capacity deterrent. Say a 2500 snorlax for example. This is where you stove away the highest cp, low IV class A defenders you have. However, avoid chansey.
Up to 20 000 prestige it's perfectly doable to increase prestige to a gym based around medium capacity snorlax and lapras. While not as intimidating as an elite gym, a solo player walking into a level six or seven gym with lapras and snorlax all above 2400 cp is likely to walk away.
Tomorrow we'll take a closer look at the medium sized raid.
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