Once you reached Level 5 in Pokemon Go, you’ll have the opportunity to join a team and do battle at your local Pokemon gyms. In addition to being a great source of XP and PokeCoins, Pokemon Gyms are a point of local pride. Those who can take and hold a Pokemon Gym are lauded as heroes, while the losing teams are scorned and shamed.
A Pokemon gym’s strength is determined by how much prestige points it has. Gyms with high prestige have more Pokemon guarding it and will take longer to clear. A gym gains prestige with every victory and loses prestige with every loss, especially if a rival team can defeat every Pokemon guarding it.
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Players looking to quickly take control of a gym will want look for gyms that have relatively few defenders or weak defenders. If you have a Pokemon with higher CP than the “gym leader” (the player with the strongest Pokemon at a gym), you should be able to quickly run through the gym…provided that your Pokemon don’t all have type disadvantages.
Since gym defenses are computer controlled, you automatically have the advantage as you can dodge attacks. The screen will “flash” right before the enemy Pokemon attacks, so you have an opportunity to quickly swipe your screen and get out harms away. When you’re not dodging, quickly tap your screen to attack and be sure to use your charge attack whenever the blue boxes under your health screen begin to fill.
Each time you “clear” a gym, you’ll usually force at least one of the defending Pokemon to flee. You’ll need to repeatedly battle at the gym until all of the defending Pokemon have fled, but the battles should get easier each time as you’ll be facing less Pokemon.
If a Pokemon gym is too strong to take on your own, you can team up with another player to attack at the same time. Both attacking players will appear on the gym screen, and both will get the XP for winning a gym battle. The only downside to teaming up to defeat a gym is if you and your partner are members of different teams. Things could get…awkward if you both try to claim a gym at the same time.
Once you’ve cleared a Pokemon, you can claim it for your team. However, you won’t be able to clear a gym unless your teammates also quickly leave strong Pokemon for the cause. So, it’s highly recommended that you coordinate your gym raids so that your team can leave behind a strong group of Pokemon to hold the gym. You can also raise a gym’s Prestige level by training at the gym in order to (slowly) build up a gym and gain some XP.
So which Pokemon should you leave behind at a gym? The obvious answer is to leave your strongest Pokemon behind, but remember that you won’t be able to use that Pokemon until another team takes the gym. So, if you’re looking to clear multiple gyms, you might want to leave one of your secondary Pokemon at a gym.
Gyms in Pokemon Go are meant to change hands repeatedly, but if you can hold a gym for more than 21 hours, you get a 10 PokeCoin bonus for successfully defending the gym.
Pokemon Go is out in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
