And we've arrived at the dethroned king of gym defence, snorlax.
While chansey probably has been a better defender, in terms of wasting time for the attacker, from the very beginning, snorlax' position as the number one defender didn't really come into scrutiny until the patch where chansey got its max CP more than doubled.
Snorlax, like so many other pokemon, have legacy moves, which are no longer obtainable. It's the charge move Body Slam, which has gone from a two bar attack to a three bar one.
While it looks disappointingly weak at first glance, it's fast and the attacker will be hit by it over and over again. The STAB bonus most certainly makes a difference.
Nothing has changed as far as the primary attacks are concerned. Lick is a fast, low damage attack best suited for attacking into gyms, and Zen Headbutt is a slow, comparatively high damage attack perfect for gym defence, especially since it's psychic and alakazam is just about the only commonly seen attacking pokemon strong against psychic attacks.
A legacy snorlax should have Zen Headbutt and Body Slam.
New snorlax have access to Heavy Slam, Hyper Beam and Earthquake. Earthquake is, simply put, a poor attack move. Slow and low damage for a one bar attack.
Hyper Beam comes with the STAB bonus and packs a brutal punch, but it's even slower than Earthquake, with an animation that's just about impossible to miss to boot. An attacker needs to be severely drunk to fail at dodging Hyper Beam.
Heavy Slam lacks the STAB bonus, and is of the steel type, making it ineffective against the abundance of water pokemon out there. Still, it's a relatively fast, two bar attack with acceptable damage.
A new snorlax should have Zen Headbutt and Heavy Slam. Zen Headbutt and Hyper Beam is still perfectly servicable since 25% of the damage is dealt even to a dodging attacker.
That said, a good legacy snorlax with the best moves is still a better defender.
Snorlax comes with over 250 HP, easily placing it among the top five defenders in the game.
Snorlax is best used in gyms that see a lot of action. A very high CP snorlax i basically wasted on a remote gym since you're unlikely to have more than a couple of snorlax maxed out.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
Common defenders, vaporeon
And today the time has come for vaporeon.
Vaporeon pretty much defines the game. With eevee easy to access just about everyone should have access to a couple of quality vaporeon. It also comes with a very high max CP.
This is yet another pokemon that hasn't been stuck with legacy moves. However, for all practical purposes, Water Pulse and Aqua Tail changed places with each other.
There's only one primary move. Water Gun, which is a low damage, fast attack, best used for attacks. As such vaporeon completely lacks a high quality primary move for defence.
The charge moves are Water Pulse, Aqua Tail and Hydro Pump. While Hydro Pump has the highest dps, by far, it's slow enough to be dodged, combined with an animation that's easy to see.
Water Pulse is almost as slow as Hydro Pump, which makes it the worst move of all three.
While Aqua Tail doesn't pack that much of a punch, it's fast and slams into the attacking pokemon again and again and again.
Your defending vaporeon should, preferably, have Water Gun and Aqua Tail.
Hydro Pump is a perfectly servicable secondary option. However, you might want to have that high CP Hydro Pump vaporeon available for attacking into gyms.
Vaporeon comes with a bit over 200 HP, giving it the bulk to be a prime defender. While it's weak against electricity and grass attacks, if your vaporeon has Aqua Tail it'll tear into the poor bulk of jolteon, which is likely to be the most commonly used attacker.
When the attacker is an exeggutor with Bullet Seed and Solar Beam you can wave goodbye to your vaporeon. Those are, however, not as easily gained as jolteon.
Vaporeon can be used in any gym. It's one of the top five defenders in the game.
Vaporeon pretty much defines the game. With eevee easy to access just about everyone should have access to a couple of quality vaporeon. It also comes with a very high max CP.
This is yet another pokemon that hasn't been stuck with legacy moves. However, for all practical purposes, Water Pulse and Aqua Tail changed places with each other.
There's only one primary move. Water Gun, which is a low damage, fast attack, best used for attacks. As such vaporeon completely lacks a high quality primary move for defence.
The charge moves are Water Pulse, Aqua Tail and Hydro Pump. While Hydro Pump has the highest dps, by far, it's slow enough to be dodged, combined with an animation that's easy to see.
Water Pulse is almost as slow as Hydro Pump, which makes it the worst move of all three.
While Aqua Tail doesn't pack that much of a punch, it's fast and slams into the attacking pokemon again and again and again.
Your defending vaporeon should, preferably, have Water Gun and Aqua Tail.
Hydro Pump is a perfectly servicable secondary option. However, you might want to have that high CP Hydro Pump vaporeon available for attacking into gyms.
Vaporeon comes with a bit over 200 HP, giving it the bulk to be a prime defender. While it's weak against electricity and grass attacks, if your vaporeon has Aqua Tail it'll tear into the poor bulk of jolteon, which is likely to be the most commonly used attacker.
When the attacker is an exeggutor with Bullet Seed and Solar Beam you can wave goodbye to your vaporeon. Those are, however, not as easily gained as jolteon.
Vaporeon can be used in any gym. It's one of the top five defenders in the game.
Party Pika
And the party pikachu event has started. Get 'em with another funny hat.
The event lasts for a week.
The event lasts for a week.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Common defenders, rhydon
Next out is rhydon.
Rhydon is yet another pokemon with a huge max CP.
It hasn't seen any major changes to its moves, and you still have your pick between Mud Slap and Rock Smash as primary attacks. Both are slow attacks doing a lot of damage, but Mud Slap gains the benefit of STAB on top of charging up the special move a little faster.
For charge attacks we have Earthquake, Megahorn and Stone Edge, with Earthquake being the by far slowest. Megahorn lacks STAB, which makes this yet another no-brainer.
Your rhydon should have Mud Slap and Stone Edge.
Rhydon comes with a bulk between the 150 gang and vaporeon and lapras at 200. As such rhydon looks like a decent defender with good bulk and high CP. Problem being double weakness against water.
It's basically impossible to avoid players who have a high CP vaporeon with Hydro Pump at hand.
So we end up with yet another glass cannon unsuitable for gym defence. Once again a candidate for a remote gym.
Rhydon is yet another pokemon with a huge max CP.
It hasn't seen any major changes to its moves, and you still have your pick between Mud Slap and Rock Smash as primary attacks. Both are slow attacks doing a lot of damage, but Mud Slap gains the benefit of STAB on top of charging up the special move a little faster.
For charge attacks we have Earthquake, Megahorn and Stone Edge, with Earthquake being the by far slowest. Megahorn lacks STAB, which makes this yet another no-brainer.
Your rhydon should have Mud Slap and Stone Edge.
Rhydon comes with a bulk between the 150 gang and vaporeon and lapras at 200. As such rhydon looks like a decent defender with good bulk and high CP. Problem being double weakness against water.
It's basically impossible to avoid players who have a high CP vaporeon with Hydro Pump at hand.
So we end up with yet another glass cannon unsuitable for gym defence. Once again a candidate for a remote gym.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Common defenders, gyarados
The second commonly seen gym defender is gyarados. Just as dragonite it comes with one of the highest possible CP-max in the game, and this is the main reason you see it in gyms everywhere.
This water/flying pokemon has one older and one newer set of legacy moves.
Those who managed to get one early summer 2016 could have a gyarados with Dragon Breath as primary attack.
The last half a year every gyara came with Bite as the primary move.
Both attacks are low-damage, fast attacks better suited for attacking a gym than defending it.
As for the charge attacks we could get Twister, Dragon Pulse or Hydro Pump. All three attacks are servicable for gym defence. I'd argue that Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse are better.
After gen2 was introduced gyarados comes either with Bite or Dragon Tail as primary attack. With Dragon Tail being a slow, high damage primary the pick is obvious.
Charge moves are Crunch, Hydro Pump or Outrage. Outrage is insanely slow for being being a two bar attack, which leaves us with Hydro Pump and Crunch for a defender.
Both are perfectly servicable, with Crunch coming out slightly in the lead due to being a three bar attack despite lacking the STAB bonus given to Hydro Pump. This forces the rather squishy jolteon to spend time ducking rather than burning right through the defending gyarados.
The best gyardos defender comes with Dragon Tail and Crunch, with Dragon Tail and Hydro Pump as a close second.
Gyarados goes into the 150 HP club, making it a middling defender with an easily abused weakness against electric attacks.
The new movesets should make gyarados stronger as a defender, mostly because electric type pokemon lack the bulk to withstand incoming damage.
This high damage output pokemon works best in a remote gym.
This water/flying pokemon has one older and one newer set of legacy moves.
Those who managed to get one early summer 2016 could have a gyarados with Dragon Breath as primary attack.
The last half a year every gyara came with Bite as the primary move.
Both attacks are low-damage, fast attacks better suited for attacking a gym than defending it.
As for the charge attacks we could get Twister, Dragon Pulse or Hydro Pump. All three attacks are servicable for gym defence. I'd argue that Hydro Pump and Dragon Pulse are better.
After gen2 was introduced gyarados comes either with Bite or Dragon Tail as primary attack. With Dragon Tail being a slow, high damage primary the pick is obvious.
Charge moves are Crunch, Hydro Pump or Outrage. Outrage is insanely slow for being being a two bar attack, which leaves us with Hydro Pump and Crunch for a defender.
Both are perfectly servicable, with Crunch coming out slightly in the lead due to being a three bar attack despite lacking the STAB bonus given to Hydro Pump. This forces the rather squishy jolteon to spend time ducking rather than burning right through the defending gyarados.
The best gyardos defender comes with Dragon Tail and Crunch, with Dragon Tail and Hydro Pump as a close second.
Gyarados goes into the 150 HP club, making it a middling defender with an easily abused weakness against electric attacks.
The new movesets should make gyarados stronger as a defender, mostly because electric type pokemon lack the bulk to withstand incoming damage.
This high damage output pokemon works best in a remote gym.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Common defenders, Dragonite
I'll run what's basically the gym defender of the day for some time.
The first out is dragonite.
This dragon/flying pokemon comes with the second highest possible CP in the game, and in most locations still the highest since players are unlikely to have maxed out their tyranitar, if they have even got one at all.
Most sites rank dragonite as one of the best gym defenders out there. They are all wrong. It's a middling defender.
Dragonite runs with the pack at around 150 HP, making it too squishy to hold its own against good attackers of the ice type. In this case lapras. Even after the gen2 nerf lapras still eats dragonites for breakfast, and by now every high level player has access to at least one or two lapras with ice attacks.
To mitigate that huge weakness dragonite packs quite a punch.
Gen1 dragonites have Dragon Breath and Steel Wing as primary moves. As a defender you want Steel Wing despite the lack of STAB. Too bad steel type attacks are poor against water type pokemon, which means vaporeon and gyarados can also happily attack into gen 1 dragonites, counter to what's written out there.
Gen 1 dragonites have Hyperbeam, Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse as charge attacks. Hyper Beam lacks STAB and will be dodged by any attacker who isn't too drunk to play the game.
While Dragon Pulse has the benefit of STAB and does quite a lot of damage it's almost as slow as Hyperbeam, and will be dodged by most players.
Hence a gen 1 dragonite should come with Steel Wing and Dragon Claw if you plan to put it inside a gym. As usual Steel Wing is more important than the charge attack.
While I have the utmost respect for players who want to avoid building yet another dragonite, myself belonging to that camp, the gen 2 dragonite is a totally different kind of beast.
While still killed at will by lapras, at least these dragonites do a lot of damage before going down.
Steel Wing and Dragon Tail as primary attacks. This is a no-brainer. While Steel Wing was good, Dragon Tail does even more damage and comes with STAB.
For charge attacks we have Hurricane, Hyper Beam and Outrage. At first look Outrage looks like the best alternative, but it's even slower than Hyper Beam, and fires at 50% bar-charge. Your dragonite is going to spend an absurd percentage of the fight powering up that attack while receiving damage.
Hurricane is faster than both Hyper Beam and Outrage, and like Outrage comes with STAB. It also carries the added benefit of mixing attack types.
I recommend a Dragon Tail and Hurricane combo for mixing dragon type attacks with flying type attacks and enjoying the STAB benefit of both.
All that said, I still don't recommend a dragonite as a defender in the first place. It's a good pick for a remote gym that doesn't see much action, and if you have a near perfect one maxed out there's a certain WOW factor when placed in the middle of a city, but it'll still go down like a ton of bricks.
The first out is dragonite.
This dragon/flying pokemon comes with the second highest possible CP in the game, and in most locations still the highest since players are unlikely to have maxed out their tyranitar, if they have even got one at all.
Most sites rank dragonite as one of the best gym defenders out there. They are all wrong. It's a middling defender.
Dragonite runs with the pack at around 150 HP, making it too squishy to hold its own against good attackers of the ice type. In this case lapras. Even after the gen2 nerf lapras still eats dragonites for breakfast, and by now every high level player has access to at least one or two lapras with ice attacks.
To mitigate that huge weakness dragonite packs quite a punch.
Gen1 dragonites have Dragon Breath and Steel Wing as primary moves. As a defender you want Steel Wing despite the lack of STAB. Too bad steel type attacks are poor against water type pokemon, which means vaporeon and gyarados can also happily attack into gen 1 dragonites, counter to what's written out there.
Gen 1 dragonites have Hyperbeam, Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse as charge attacks. Hyper Beam lacks STAB and will be dodged by any attacker who isn't too drunk to play the game.
While Dragon Pulse has the benefit of STAB and does quite a lot of damage it's almost as slow as Hyperbeam, and will be dodged by most players.
Hence a gen 1 dragonite should come with Steel Wing and Dragon Claw if you plan to put it inside a gym. As usual Steel Wing is more important than the charge attack.
While I have the utmost respect for players who want to avoid building yet another dragonite, myself belonging to that camp, the gen 2 dragonite is a totally different kind of beast.
While still killed at will by lapras, at least these dragonites do a lot of damage before going down.
Steel Wing and Dragon Tail as primary attacks. This is a no-brainer. While Steel Wing was good, Dragon Tail does even more damage and comes with STAB.
For charge attacks we have Hurricane, Hyper Beam and Outrage. At first look Outrage looks like the best alternative, but it's even slower than Hyper Beam, and fires at 50% bar-charge. Your dragonite is going to spend an absurd percentage of the fight powering up that attack while receiving damage.
Hurricane is faster than both Hyper Beam and Outrage, and like Outrage comes with STAB. It also carries the added benefit of mixing attack types.
I recommend a Dragon Tail and Hurricane combo for mixing dragon type attacks with flying type attacks and enjoying the STAB benefit of both.
All that said, I still don't recommend a dragonite as a defender in the first place. It's a good pick for a remote gym that doesn't see much action, and if you have a near perfect one maxed out there's a certain WOW factor when placed in the middle of a city, but it'll still go down like a ton of bricks.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Addendum to bubble strat
With the latest patch, only a few hours ago, the latest data for bubble strat became invalidated.
From a quick search I'd say that the Volt Switch combo should still work, but I haven't tried this out.
From a quick search I'd say that the Volt Switch combo should still work, but I haven't tried this out.
And yet another patch
Earlier this morning Niantic changed the behaviour for several primary attacks.
A list with the new damage-numbers and cooldown duration can be found here.
Basically the patch means that a lot of primary attacks that had their damage output and cooldown increased were reverted to their old status. Effectively this means that several attacks that used to be good for attacking but not so good for gym defenders are back where they were.
Overall attacking a gym should produce more damage, and thus a shorter battle, while the defenders do reduced damage.
A list with the new damage-numbers and cooldown duration can be found here.
Basically the patch means that a lot of primary attacks that had their damage output and cooldown increased were reverted to their old status. Effectively this means that several attacks that used to be good for attacking but not so good for gym defenders are back where they were.
Overall attacking a gym should produce more damage, and thus a shorter battle, while the defenders do reduced damage.
Egg hatching chart for the new patch
This egg chart from GO HUB depends on player reports, so there may be errors.
While it's good to know which generation 2 pokemon hatch from what egg, please take a good look at the generation 1 pokemon.
A substantial number of prior 5 km pokemon can now be found in 2 km eggs, and a number of prior 10 km pokemon are now to be found among the 5 km ones.
While the article doesn't say anything about it, I expect 2 km eggs to become substantially more common drops from pokestops compared to before. There are simply way too many pokemon that can hatch from 2 km eggs now.
While it's good to know which generation 2 pokemon hatch from what egg, please take a good look at the generation 1 pokemon.
A substantial number of prior 5 km pokemon can now be found in 2 km eggs, and a number of prior 10 km pokemon are now to be found among the 5 km ones.
While the article doesn't say anything about it, I expect 2 km eggs to become substantially more common drops from pokestops compared to before. There are simply way too many pokemon that can hatch from 2 km eggs now.
Bubble Strat, gen 2
And the people at Silph Road published the latest about Bubble Strat.
Haunter with Shadow Claw versus Kadabra with Confusion was pretty much a no-brainer since Confusion was boosted from 15 to 20 damage with the associated prolonged cooldown.
It also pretty much follows from the same Haunter doing the job against an Abra with Zen Headbutt since pre-patch.
And you should be able to generate 1000 prestige this way, since the Haunter versus Abra did and still does.
The obvious drawback is that it's a major pain to set it up. Finding multiple microscopic Abra will take a while.
Add the cost for evolving them and hoping that we'll end up with the correct moves, while at the same time doing power up on Alakazam number two (that has to get Psycho Cut and Shadow Ball) since Psychic went down the drain.
The interesting news is Diglett (Scratch) or Krabby (Bubble) attacking a Raichu with Volt Switch.
While it seems this won't generate 1000 prestige, chances are you have some left over level 1 Pikachu since the Christmas event when they were found everywhere.
Thus this pair is a lot easier to find.
The main drawback is the brutal candy cost, but the very Christmas event referred to earlier should have you well prepared to handle this.
Basically the 'death of bubble strat' mainly hurt the pairs that depended on the defender having Bubble as a primary attack. Those pokemon were common, and hence the candy cost neglible.
Bubble strat isn't dead -- Bubble is.
Lastly, the raid team I belong to never relied on a real bubble strat. We use a similar method where our attackers most definitely take damage. In that sense it's less effective. We set it up early september, and it still works. Adding a new player into the loop is a matter of hours, worst case. Chanses are they're ready to go, but they just don't know it yet.
Valor and Mystic players in Gothenburg have learned to despise the lowly Parasect -- at least for the three minutes or less it takes us to kick an empty gym to level ten. Our record is two minutes fifteen seconds, and half the raid had problems with their phones that time. If a spoof free environment the gym should effectively reach level 10 in under one minute.
Haunter with Shadow Claw versus Kadabra with Confusion was pretty much a no-brainer since Confusion was boosted from 15 to 20 damage with the associated prolonged cooldown.
It also pretty much follows from the same Haunter doing the job against an Abra with Zen Headbutt since pre-patch.
And you should be able to generate 1000 prestige this way, since the Haunter versus Abra did and still does.
The obvious drawback is that it's a major pain to set it up. Finding multiple microscopic Abra will take a while.
Add the cost for evolving them and hoping that we'll end up with the correct moves, while at the same time doing power up on Alakazam number two (that has to get Psycho Cut and Shadow Ball) since Psychic went down the drain.
The interesting news is Diglett (Scratch) or Krabby (Bubble) attacking a Raichu with Volt Switch.
While it seems this won't generate 1000 prestige, chances are you have some left over level 1 Pikachu since the Christmas event when they were found everywhere.
Thus this pair is a lot easier to find.
The main drawback is the brutal candy cost, but the very Christmas event referred to earlier should have you well prepared to handle this.
Basically the 'death of bubble strat' mainly hurt the pairs that depended on the defender having Bubble as a primary attack. Those pokemon were common, and hence the candy cost neglible.
Bubble strat isn't dead -- Bubble is.
Lastly, the raid team I belong to never relied on a real bubble strat. We use a similar method where our attackers most definitely take damage. In that sense it's less effective. We set it up early september, and it still works. Adding a new player into the loop is a matter of hours, worst case. Chanses are they're ready to go, but they just don't know it yet.
Valor and Mystic players in Gothenburg have learned to despise the lowly Parasect -- at least for the three minutes or less it takes us to kick an empty gym to level ten. Our record is two minutes fifteen seconds, and half the raid had problems with their phones that time. If a spoof free environment the gym should effectively reach level 10 in under one minute.
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Lapras, chansey and blissey
Well, with the addition of blissey to the game the competition for best gym defender died. It's blissey, by a very, very wide margin.
I ran into one yesterday. Admittedly a big one at some 3150 CP. By now I've reached trainer level 37, and managed to max out a 96% dragonite as well as a 100% gyarados. That's closer to 3500 CP dragonite and just above 3200 CP gyarados.
Three attempts, three time-outs. Now, as I've clearly stated earlier, I'm far from the best player, but at level 37 punching at the screen without attempting to dodge with two fairly good attackers really shouldn't result in a time-out.
Lapras received a brutal nerf, but still remains one of the top defenders in the game. One way to make use of it is making a virtue of the recent event when chansey spawned comparably frequently. Frequently enough that a lot of players simply cannot afford to evolve them all if they plan to max out one blissey.
A CP 1100, or above, chansey is still not anything to laugh at. If your group takes on a few gyms you could alternate between slotting in chansey and lapras, basically plugging the gym at the bottom with two or three chansey and filling it up with post-nerf lapras. You'll end up with a gym that's depressinlgy tough to tear down.
Just make sure that different players get the bouncer position.
Of the flip side, adding prestige against dragonite just got faster. Your lapras still eats those nites for breakfast, albeit the combat is a little bit slower, but at the other hand you receive substantially more prestige.
I ran into one yesterday. Admittedly a big one at some 3150 CP. By now I've reached trainer level 37, and managed to max out a 96% dragonite as well as a 100% gyarados. That's closer to 3500 CP dragonite and just above 3200 CP gyarados.
Three attempts, three time-outs. Now, as I've clearly stated earlier, I'm far from the best player, but at level 37 punching at the screen without attempting to dodge with two fairly good attackers really shouldn't result in a time-out.
Lapras received a brutal nerf, but still remains one of the top defenders in the game. One way to make use of it is making a virtue of the recent event when chansey spawned comparably frequently. Frequently enough that a lot of players simply cannot afford to evolve them all if they plan to max out one blissey.
A CP 1100, or above, chansey is still not anything to laugh at. If your group takes on a few gyms you could alternate between slotting in chansey and lapras, basically plugging the gym at the bottom with two or three chansey and filling it up with post-nerf lapras. You'll end up with a gym that's depressinlgy tough to tear down.
Just make sure that different players get the bouncer position.
Of the flip side, adding prestige against dragonite just got faster. Your lapras still eats those nites for breakfast, albeit the combat is a little bit slower, but at the other hand you receive substantially more prestige.
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Gen2, visuell förklaring
Jag hittade en bra bild som förklarar en hel del av nyheterna.
All cred till Agnetha Ericsson.
Edit: translation
Found a graphic illustration presenting some of the news.
All cred till Agnetha Ericsson.
Edit: translation
Found a graphic illustration presenting some of the news.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Gen 2, minor changes
Not all of the news for the new release make us go WOW, but they are interesting in their own way.
Berries
Berries
- Pineapple
- Bananas
The former are best used when you want more candy, and a target arrived with relatively low cp. Say a larvitar or a dratini. Or for that matter a snorlax with very low cp.
I quite honestly can't see a decent use for the berry that makes your target pokemon stay more still. Even when they jump all around they'll stay put sooner or later. Maybe if you're alternating between taking pokestops and catching mons while riding a bus.
Being able to pick your berry from the catch-screen helps.
Evolve-items
Extremely rare drops from poke stops these are one-use items needed to evolve several pokemon. They end up at the very bottom of your item list.
While it might seem tedious that they are so rare now, when we've come a couple of months into the expansion I'm pretty certain we're not as interested in receiving them at all. Right now most of us are stocked up on all of the gen1 pokemon that can evolve into a gen2 pokemon, and for that reason we'd happily receive a dozen of these items now. However, evolving slowpoke number four quite frankly isn't something we need.
Catch-screen
No one should haven missed that we can pick the type of poke balls and berries from the catch-screen.
New medals
One for catching gen2 pokemon
One for catching dark type pokemon
Extra xp
If you catch the pokemon with your first throw you get a little extra xp.
Extra resources
When you catch a pokemon that is the evolved version of another you'll be given some extra candy and a little extra stardust. I've seen some numbers floating around but not verified them. 5 candy for the first evolve and 10 for the second (dragonair and dragonite respectively). 300 stardust and, possibly, 500 stardust for first and second evolve respectively.
Observe that I have not verified this.
Extra xp
If you catch the pokemon with your first throw you get a little extra xp.
Extra resources
When you catch a pokemon that is the evolved version of another you'll be given some extra candy and a little extra stardust. I've seen some numbers floating around but not verified them. 5 candy for the first evolve and 10 for the second (dragonair and dragonite respectively). 300 stardust and, possibly, 500 stardust for first and second evolve respectively.
Observe that I have not verified this.
Friday, February 17, 2017
Gen2, greatest change
In the end the new pokemon will obiviously make the largest impact, but there's a cost in candy to evolve and power up the new mons to their capacity.
At the moment the, by far, greatest change is the new damage for just about every attack move in the game.
Basically we need to reevaluate just about every pokemon we've used for gym battling, and have a look at the high IV ones that disappointed us when we evolved them.
What is clear is that gym battles will become faster, with a corresponding higher damage-output per second.
Right now I'd advice you to have a look at any evolved 90+ pokemon you left behind because it got awful moves. Those moves could be the very best now.
Shadow Ball and Ancient Power have become monster attacks. Solar Beam has been upgraded to the point of insanity, and vaporeon just got Water Pulse and Aqua Tail switched around.
Just about any old primary attack used for the bubble strat has been invalidated. I'm rather certain new attacks can be used instead. Confusion looks promising right now, but I haven't tried it out.
Lapras received a brutal nerf in terms of CP, relegating it to the role of dragonite killer and bouncer. It's still one of the best defenders out there, but needs to be placed in a gym built around a few high cp unevolved chansey.
Blissey became the monster we expected. While stamina didn't increase all that much, she got semi decent attack and defence to go with the absurd bulk.
We're seeing new items in the pokestops, some of them there to mitigate added problems with catching pokemon, some to help us collect candy a little faster and some to enable evolves for pokemon that have it locked to specific items.
All in all I'm looking forward to the coming week, and after that the coming months. Right now to enjoy all the news, and after that to enjoy the new game.
At the moment the, by far, greatest change is the new damage for just about every attack move in the game.
Basically we need to reevaluate just about every pokemon we've used for gym battling, and have a look at the high IV ones that disappointed us when we evolved them.
What is clear is that gym battles will become faster, with a corresponding higher damage-output per second.
Right now I'd advice you to have a look at any evolved 90+ pokemon you left behind because it got awful moves. Those moves could be the very best now.
Shadow Ball and Ancient Power have become monster attacks. Solar Beam has been upgraded to the point of insanity, and vaporeon just got Water Pulse and Aqua Tail switched around.
Just about any old primary attack used for the bubble strat has been invalidated. I'm rather certain new attacks can be used instead. Confusion looks promising right now, but I haven't tried it out.
Lapras received a brutal nerf in terms of CP, relegating it to the role of dragonite killer and bouncer. It's still one of the best defenders out there, but needs to be placed in a gym built around a few high cp unevolved chansey.
Blissey became the monster we expected. While stamina didn't increase all that much, she got semi decent attack and defence to go with the absurd bulk.
We're seeing new items in the pokestops, some of them there to mitigate added problems with catching pokemon, some to help us collect candy a little faster and some to enable evolves for pokemon that have it locked to specific items.
All in all I'm looking forward to the coming week, and after that the coming months. Right now to enjoy all the news, and after that to enjoy the new game.
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
And even more rumours
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Rumourmongering
Some rumours I've encountered about upcoming additions to the game.
http://bgr.com/2017/02/13/pokemon-go-update-battles-trading-soon/
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/pokemon-go-update-niantic-trading-pvp-live-events-2017-2?r=US&IR=T
Basically the same rumours. So we can rather safely assume Niantic hasn't boxed the ideas about PvP and trading. When it'll be implemented remains to be seen.
http://bgr.com/2017/02/13/pokemon-go-update-battles-trading-soon/
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/pokemon-go-update-niantic-trading-pvp-live-events-2017-2?r=US&IR=T
Basically the same rumours. So we can rather safely assume Niantic hasn't boxed the ideas about PvP and trading. When it'll be implemented remains to be seen.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Valentine event, part three
With only three days left of the event it's time to squeeze out the most of it.
I'd personally walk with snorlax or lapras as my buddy, depending on which one needs the most candy.
While it's tempting to walk with a chansey for double candy, they do spawn more often than before. At six to eight candy per catch just rare hunting them should suffice.
With the amount of lures active, normal farming is a lot faster now. If you're in an area with high spawn density, just bypass lickitung. They're a pain to catch and will only slow you down. Also pick something else than the clefable if possible.
If you run into something you're slowly farming to evolve and complete your dex, give it some extra love. It is a double candy event after all.
And don't forget to keep up the pace.
I'd personally walk with snorlax or lapras as my buddy, depending on which one needs the most candy.
While it's tempting to walk with a chansey for double candy, they do spawn more often than before. At six to eight candy per catch just rare hunting them should suffice.
With the amount of lures active, normal farming is a lot faster now. If you're in an area with high spawn density, just bypass lickitung. They're a pain to catch and will only slow you down. Also pick something else than the clefable if possible.
If you run into something you're slowly farming to evolve and complete your dex, give it some extra love. It is a double candy event after all.
And don't forget to keep up the pace.
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Valentine event, part two
So the Valentine event has been running for a couple of days.
Without tracker maps we can now conclude that most players will never even become aware that chansey had its spawn rate increased, because most players will never see one during the week long event.
It's spawning at maybe double or triple the rate of snorlax or lapras, which isn't nearly enough for a casual player. For those with trackers? You'll catch chansey in the double digits, which should help immensely for completing one chansey (and evolve later into blissey). If you're farming, maybe a second or even a third one.
Fifty chansey, with the associated closer to 400 candy, is doable for the hard core farmer.
The rest of us will grab maybe a dozen or two. Say a hundred candy, and a shot at a nice chansey to powerup.
So, what else?
Farm porygon. 300 odd candy or so should be enough if you ever plan to evolve and max out a porygon 2. After the event you'll see porygon once in a blue moon again.
And lures. At six hour per pop you should gather a gang and paint a dozen stops in a big circle pink. Just walk from stop to stop in a six hour bonanza of continuous spawns and bag refills.
Oh, and your buddy will be happy.
Well, that's about it. Lickitung is a pain to catch, we already had all the clefables we needed and even the pink balloon is getting tedious. Slowpoke at least tend to stay in the ball, and a few extra sixpack eggs are always welcome should we want to build an extra exxeggutor.
Did I forget something? Not really. The double candy should only apply to old school big game, namely snorlax and lapras. Possibly a dratini or two, and one week without a change in spawn rates for those simply doesn't make that much of a difference.
Without tracker maps we can now conclude that most players will never even become aware that chansey had its spawn rate increased, because most players will never see one during the week long event.
It's spawning at maybe double or triple the rate of snorlax or lapras, which isn't nearly enough for a casual player. For those with trackers? You'll catch chansey in the double digits, which should help immensely for completing one chansey (and evolve later into blissey). If you're farming, maybe a second or even a third one.
Fifty chansey, with the associated closer to 400 candy, is doable for the hard core farmer.
The rest of us will grab maybe a dozen or two. Say a hundred candy, and a shot at a nice chansey to powerup.
So, what else?
Farm porygon. 300 odd candy or so should be enough if you ever plan to evolve and max out a porygon 2. After the event you'll see porygon once in a blue moon again.
And lures. At six hour per pop you should gather a gang and paint a dozen stops in a big circle pink. Just walk from stop to stop in a six hour bonanza of continuous spawns and bag refills.
Oh, and your buddy will be happy.
Well, that's about it. Lickitung is a pain to catch, we already had all the clefables we needed and even the pink balloon is getting tedious. Slowpoke at least tend to stay in the ball, and a few extra sixpack eggs are always welcome should we want to build an extra exxeggutor.
Did I forget something? Not really. The double candy should only apply to old school big game, namely snorlax and lapras. Possibly a dratini or two, and one week without a change in spawn rates for those simply doesn't make that much of a difference.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
On spoofers
The bad news
Is there a way to stop gps spoofers, ie players who fake their gps-coordinates in order to foll the game into believeing they are somewhere else than where they really are?
Probably not.
To begin with, if you're looking at a tracking map and find something interesting you pop into your clothes (if you're indoors) leave, find a transport and arrive, hopefully in time to make an attempt at a catch.
The spoofer teleports.
The result is that even using maps you're still left with lower quality material compared to a spoofer.
They teleport between gyms as well.
Ever added prestige to a gym in the middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight, and poof, the slot you opened up is suddenly occupied? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried adding prestige to a gym in the middle of, etc, etc, etc, just to notice the gym is losing prestige faster than you can add it? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried tearing down... , and notice it's going down slightly slower than it should? That's a brainddead spoofer. You don't defend a gym solo and expect to win, not even if you're spoofing.
Ever seen a gym magically grow like a mushroom and noone is there? That's a spoofer with twelve accounts. One for the prestige mon, one for kicking it out, and ten for populating the gym.
And they teleport.
The good news
If you're still a decently sized group of players doing gyms together several times a week you'll be able to push a gym to ten and populate it within ten minutes.
Spoofers usually play solo.
Spoofers have to visit pokestops.
Spoofers have to collect stardust, or their material falls behind.
It's horribly expensive in terms of potions and revives to tear down three or more level ten gyms alone. Not to speak of a minimum of two hours down the drain, even with teleport.
You can deplete their potions and revives by doggedly pushing those gyms back to 10 at a fraction of that cost.
The really good news
In the end the spoofer will find somewhere else to go, or they'll fully atomate refilling their bags, ie go botting.
Niantic are mass-banning bots.
The best news
Is really a tips, or at least a suggestion. If you run into a group tearing down a friendly gym filled with spoofers of your own colour. Why don't you give them a hand? They're probably sick and tired of spoofers just like you. You might get some help in return.
Is there a way to stop gps spoofers, ie players who fake their gps-coordinates in order to foll the game into believeing they are somewhere else than where they really are?
Probably not.
To begin with, if you're looking at a tracking map and find something interesting you pop into your clothes (if you're indoors) leave, find a transport and arrive, hopefully in time to make an attempt at a catch.
The spoofer teleports.
The result is that even using maps you're still left with lower quality material compared to a spoofer.
They teleport between gyms as well.
Ever added prestige to a gym in the middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight, and poof, the slot you opened up is suddenly occupied? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried adding prestige to a gym in the middle of, etc, etc, etc, just to notice the gym is losing prestige faster than you can add it? That's a spoofer.
Ever tried tearing down... , and notice it's going down slightly slower than it should? That's a brainddead spoofer. You don't defend a gym solo and expect to win, not even if you're spoofing.
Ever seen a gym magically grow like a mushroom and noone is there? That's a spoofer with twelve accounts. One for the prestige mon, one for kicking it out, and ten for populating the gym.
And they teleport.
The good news
If you're still a decently sized group of players doing gyms together several times a week you'll be able to push a gym to ten and populate it within ten minutes.
Spoofers usually play solo.
Spoofers have to visit pokestops.
Spoofers have to collect stardust, or their material falls behind.
It's horribly expensive in terms of potions and revives to tear down three or more level ten gyms alone. Not to speak of a minimum of two hours down the drain, even with teleport.
You can deplete their potions and revives by doggedly pushing those gyms back to 10 at a fraction of that cost.
The really good news
In the end the spoofer will find somewhere else to go, or they'll fully atomate refilling their bags, ie go botting.
Niantic are mass-banning bots.
The best news
Is really a tips, or at least a suggestion. If you run into a group tearing down a friendly gym filled with spoofers of your own colour. Why don't you give them a hand? They're probably sick and tired of spoofers just like you. You might get some help in return.
Monday, February 06, 2017
On bubble strat
I've received a number of questions concerning bubble strat.
To begin with, what is bubble strat? It is a method to quickly add prestige to a friendly gym without spending any potions or revives. In an ideal world you should be able to push an empty gym all the way to 50K prestige alone in about twenty minutes.
In a not so ideal world you won't manage to flee from the next battle in time to avoid having your attacker swatted like a fly.
The setup
The link at the top of this post shows a number of attacker-defender pairs. Not all of the 'verified 1000 prestige without taking any damage' work. A hundred revives and twice as many potions can testify to that.
You'll have to find and test what works for you, on your phone and with what you have managed to catch.
Personally I run with abra and krabby as defenders. A Haunter (for the abra) and a gastly for my krabbys make up my attacking team. My abra makes my haunter go splat about one fight out of five. The gastly/krabby combo is 100% barring network lag.
You'll need to check the IV for the small critters you catch. But a simple ruleset is as follows:
Defender
To begin with, what is bubble strat? It is a method to quickly add prestige to a friendly gym without spending any potions or revives. In an ideal world you should be able to push an empty gym all the way to 50K prestige alone in about twenty minutes.
In a not so ideal world you won't manage to flee from the next battle in time to avoid having your attacker swatted like a fly.
The setup
The link at the top of this post shows a number of attacker-defender pairs. Not all of the 'verified 1000 prestige without taking any damage' work. A hundred revives and twice as many potions can testify to that.
You'll have to find and test what works for you, on your phone and with what you have managed to catch.
Personally I run with abra and krabby as defenders. A Haunter (for the abra) and a gastly for my krabbys make up my attacking team. My abra makes my haunter go splat about one fight out of five. The gastly/krabby combo is 100% barring network lag.
You'll need to check the IV for the small critters you catch. But a simple ruleset is as follows:
Defender
- Poor overall stats, quickly available in-game via the appraise functionality
- The best stat should be attack
- 10 hp
- A primary attack that is slow. Almost always corresponds to high damage output
Attacker
- Lower cp than the defender. If possible half or lower
- As high attack stat as possible without pushing the cp too much
You need one attacker, but you can make good use of multiple defenders
Companions
- Six cp 10 pokemon (five is enough)
How to use bubble strat
The basic usage is to push a gym to either level seven (20K prestige) or level 10 (50K prestige). If you're a group of players together you can stop adding prestige when it's enough to drop pokemon inside to reach your target. Each added pokemon also adds 2000 prestige to the gym.
Drop a bubble defender into the gym. Chose your attacker and fill the remaining five slots with companions to make certain your attacker has the highest cp of your lineup.
The bubble defender (or defenders) will stay at the bottom when you're done. Having it kicked out one way or another is preferable.
The legit way is to drag around a friend from a rival team. The not so legit way is to have a low level extra account from a rival team.
After the defender is kicked out you prestige back a level and add a proper pokemon. Rinse and repeat until no bubble defenders are left.
A neat trick when you encounter a gym at almost 20, 30 or 40K prestige alone is to push it to the next level, and then you do not drop your preferred pokemon inside, but you add a bubble defender.
Eight short battles later the gym should reach next level again. Wait for someone to snipe the free spot and have your bubble defender kicked out. Add a little prestige and drop your prefered pokemon inside a substantially stronger gym. Works best at high traffic gym.
For gyms I don't care all that much about I'll sometimes push it to 50K and just leave my krabby inside in the hopes that the gym will fill upp. With some luck I might even be able to collect coins for my crabby.
For gyms I care about and that are very close to my home I do the same thing. The difference being that I check the gym from time to time to see if my krabby has been kicked out. Usually means the gym was either torn down or stands at level nine or ten. Time for some old fashioned prestige.
Please do rename your bubble attackers and defenders. If you name then 00something (zero zero something), they'll be at the top when you display your pokemon using the name-sorting. Picking out your attacking team takes ten to fifteen seconds rather than over a minute.
Raid
Using bubble strat or similar approaches enables a group to build a gym to level ten within minutes. Our record is two minutes, fifteen seconds, including half of the team having problems with their phones. This was done using a bubble-lookalike method where your attackers still take a lot of damage.
The method used here is immediately dropping two or three prestige pokemons inside when the gym is won. Each player will add 2 or 3K prestige to the gym before composing a new attacking team.
A full raid encountering no problems should be able to do this in one minute flat given (almost) identical defenders.
The main reason players have trouble with their phones is that slots get sniped while you add prestige to the gym, and this sometimes locks your phone in the dreaded "error" mode, which disables you from taking part in combat until one more pokemon has been added to the gym.
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Big gyms, from the bottom
I realised something so obvious it was hard finding it out.
High level gyms are defined by their bottom most defenders.
Of course it's best to have good defenders all through the gym, but when that can't be achieved it's best to have the highest quality defenders at the bottom of the gym. This is especially true for gyms at 25K prestige or above.
The reason is that if the pokemon at the bottom is very easy to beat, then an attacking player could simply flee after beating it for faster prestige decrease until that pokemon is kicked out.
For example a level 10 gym with four weak pokemon at the bottom is extremely easy to kick down to under 20K prestige.
Conversely the same gym with four top class defenders at the bottom would force the attacker to go through the number nine to seven defenders more than once.
This makes lapras an extremely valuable defender due to its comparatively low max cp in combination with being a grade A defender. The same goes for exxeggutor.
High level gyms are defined by their bottom most defenders.
Of course it's best to have good defenders all through the gym, but when that can't be achieved it's best to have the highest quality defenders at the bottom of the gym. This is especially true for gyms at 25K prestige or above.
The reason is that if the pokemon at the bottom is very easy to beat, then an attacking player could simply flee after beating it for faster prestige decrease until that pokemon is kicked out.
For example a level 10 gym with four weak pokemon at the bottom is extremely easy to kick down to under 20K prestige.
Conversely the same gym with four top class defenders at the bottom would force the attacker to go through the number nine to seven defenders more than once.
This makes lapras an extremely valuable defender due to its comparatively low max cp in combination with being a grade A defender. The same goes for exxeggutor.
Saturday, February 04, 2017
Renaming your pokemon
There are a number of reasons and ways to rename your pokemon. I'll quickly go through the ones I've seen most and the one I use myself.
- IV
- Stats
- Attacks
- Gym
- Role
IV
The potential of the pokemon. Usually as a percentage. Especially useful when you have two or more pokemon of the same kind with approximately the same cp as well.
Stats
Attack, defence and stamina. Three numbers between 0 and 15 each. Indirectly holds the IV information.
Attacks
What attack moves the pokemon has. Indirectly holds the role information.
Gym
Which gym the pokemon currently is assigned to. You'll have to come up with abbreviations you can remember. Gives you instant info on which gym was succesfully attacked when you find one of your pokemon needing a revive.
Role
Attacker, defender or multipurpose. Basically defined by the charge attack move. A one-bar move usually means it's an attacker, and three or more bars means it's a defender. Two bar moves usually work well for both purposes.
For primary attacks the general rule is that fast attacks with low damage is best for an attacker, while slow attacks with higher damage is for defence.
Using smart abbreviations allows you to combine information types.
Friday, February 03, 2017
Keep your route in order
This post is aimed at those who do not use the plus, but are entirely dependent on the phone. If you're using the plus you're basically able to fire away at every target within sight as long as you take your pokestops with your phone.
Most of us have habitual routes we walk (or cycle, or whatever) when we catch pokemon and take pokestops.
Those routes may vary depending on wether we primarily catch pokemon or primarily refill our bags.
In the latter case, learn to keep your route in order. I personally use trams for refilling bags.
Even when you're only after replenishing your bag, there are places where pokestop-density becomes lower in terms of time needed. Ie there's a 30 second or longer period between two pokestops you want to take. This is a perfect opportunity to squeeze in an extra attemot at catching a pokemon.
Don't be afraid to run away from the catch if the pokemon doesn't stick.
It doesn't add a lot, but a twenty minute tram ride gives me maybe an extra dozen pokemon caught where I earlier didn't try to catch one at all. In the long run it sums up.
If you're moving in traffic, red lights are added opportunities to cram in an extra throw or two.
Most of us have habitual routes we walk (or cycle, or whatever) when we catch pokemon and take pokestops.
Those routes may vary depending on wether we primarily catch pokemon or primarily refill our bags.
In the latter case, learn to keep your route in order. I personally use trams for refilling bags.
Even when you're only after replenishing your bag, there are places where pokestop-density becomes lower in terms of time needed. Ie there's a 30 second or longer period between two pokestops you want to take. This is a perfect opportunity to squeeze in an extra attemot at catching a pokemon.
Don't be afraid to run away from the catch if the pokemon doesn't stick.
It doesn't add a lot, but a twenty minute tram ride gives me maybe an extra dozen pokemon caught where I earlier didn't try to catch one at all. In the long run it sums up.
If you're moving in traffic, red lights are added opportunities to cram in an extra throw or two.
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Winter gear
For those of us who are actually walking around playing Pokemon Go the word 'gear' doesn't imply in-game items.
High quality walking shoes make your feet happy, and a touchpad pen is friendly to frozen hands. They are preferable to touchgloves since those really don't handle winter temperatures all that well.
Layered clothing is a classic among people who are used to being outdoors, and I wouldn't cheat on the knickers. They make a distinct difference.
A thermos with something warm is always nice, and for the hardcore walker energy bars come in handy. Sure, those could be substituted by any kind of food that's fairly apetizing even when cold, and can be held in your hands.
A hat, or a hood. I kid you not. Frozen ears can destroy an otherwise perfectly decent walk. And, if you're carrying a backpack, drop a light weight rainjacket inside. Oh, a foldable, foam seat cushion costs just about nothing, weighs nothing and fits inside the smallest of backpacks.
Down for sub zero, synthetics or wool for above. Down just can't handle getting wet.
For the extremely hardcore walker there are guides out there. OK, that was rather extreme. We're playing Pokemon Go after all.
Don't cheat on the USB-cable for your powerbank. There are cables, and there are cables. If your phone drops battery-capacity despite being plugged in, chances are the cable is at fault.
High quality walking shoes make your feet happy, and a touchpad pen is friendly to frozen hands. They are preferable to touchgloves since those really don't handle winter temperatures all that well.
Layered clothing is a classic among people who are used to being outdoors, and I wouldn't cheat on the knickers. They make a distinct difference.
A thermos with something warm is always nice, and for the hardcore walker energy bars come in handy. Sure, those could be substituted by any kind of food that's fairly apetizing even when cold, and can be held in your hands.
A hat, or a hood. I kid you not. Frozen ears can destroy an otherwise perfectly decent walk. And, if you're carrying a backpack, drop a light weight rainjacket inside. Oh, a foldable, foam seat cushion costs just about nothing, weighs nothing and fits inside the smallest of backpacks.
Down for sub zero, synthetics or wool for above. Down just can't handle getting wet.
For the extremely hardcore walker there are guides out there. OK, that was rather extreme. We're playing Pokemon Go after all.
Don't cheat on the USB-cable for your powerbank. There are cables, and there are cables. If your phone drops battery-capacity despite being plugged in, chances are the cable is at fault.
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