New to the extreme end-game, gym raider, defenders

In the end your defenders pretty much define who you are when it comes to gym raiding. For most players the defenders are their outward face. They are the pokemon other players see and associate with your player nickname.

I won't go into the fun defenders, the ones you use to build a thematic gym. We do that from time to time. It's enjoyable, a lot of giggles and laughs, but it's not really gym raiding.


A real defender is as maxed out as you can have it. Just forget the crap about keeping your defenders at low CP in order to minimize motivation decay. That's for fire and forget gyms. If you're interested in low motivation decay then you're not really interested in defending the gym in the first place, and thus you're probably not a gym raider.

Sure, you could have both. Defenders you use for contested gyms and "defenders" you drop into isolated gyms and don't see until several days later because no one else visited the gym.


At level 38 you should have amassed stardust and candy enough to max out two of the prime defenders in the game.

• Blissey (Zen Headbutt / Dazzling Gleam)
• Chansey (Zen Headbutt / Dazzling Gleam)
• Snorlax (Zen Headbutt / Heavy Slam) There is a better legacy charge attack, Body Slam

Until you have the resources needed to max out multiples of these you're going to need secondary defenders. Aim at a total of six defenders since a dozen maxed out pokemon should be perfectly doable at level 38.

Remember the last article. You needed six attackers as well.

I'd go for three of these:

• Vaporeon (Water Gun / Aqua Tail or Water Pulse)
• Milotic (Waterfall / Surf)
• Donphan (Counter / Heavy Slam)
• Steelix (Iron Tail / Heavy Slam)
• Lapras (Frost Breath / Ice Beam) There is a better legacy fast attack, Ice Shard

If at all possible aim at maxing out one tertiary defender as well

• Gardevoir (Confusion / Dazzling Gleam)
• Clefable /Zen Headbutt / Dazzling Gleam)

The tertiaries are all about screwing machamp over.

Now you should have six or seven defenders to drop into gyms.

After that the slow hunt for more blissey, snorlax and chansey starts. Unless you've been lucky enough to chunk up on snorlax or chansey candy you're in for a grueling grind.

Next article is about gym defence. Defence, not defenders.