Best Pokémon to level or evolve for gyms in Pokémon Go
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Which Pokémon are worth evolving and powering up, and which ones should go back to the Professor?
As you catch Pokémon in Pokémon Go, you collect Stardust and Candy, which can be used to level up and evolve your pocket monsters.
But how should you best spend that hard-caught Stardust and Candy? What Pokémon are the best for evolving and leveling up for gym battles, and which ones should just be transferred back to the professor? Here's the deal.
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What are the best Pokémon to evolve right now?
In late 2016, Pokémon Go "re-balanced" a lot of Pokémon, raising the power of some and lowering the power of others. For example, Snorlax, Gyrados, and Rhydon got significant boosts (buffed) while Blastoise, Arcanine, and Slow Bar got signifiant reductions (nerfed). That means the "best" have changed. The concept behind the "best", though, remains the same.
What are the best Pokémon to level up for holding Gyms?
If all you want to do is place your Pokémon on Gyms and hold those Gyms so you can collect your daily coin and Stardust bonus, you've got some new heroes to hold with, according to Gamepress.
That list takes into account a lot of different things, like what attackers will throw your way. If you want a simpler method, though, you can use this: Evolve the Pokémon with the highest possible CP and then max them out as much as you can and put them on a Gym that doesn't turn over very often. A Pokémon with a 3000+ CP sitting on top of a Gym that doesn't change teams much is going to be on there for the long hall.
Here's the current list for (approximate) maximum CP on Pokémon Go:
- 3530 Dragonite (Steel Wing and Dragon Pulse ideal)
- 3305 Snorlax (Zen Headbutt and Hyper Beam or Body Slam)
- 3250 Rhydon (Mud Slap and Stone Edge)
- 3230 Gyrados (Bite and Dragon Pulse)
- 3110 Vaporeon (Water Gun and Water Pulse or Aqua Tail)
Alakazam has very low HP for its CP level, Dragonite is incredibly vulnerable to Cloyster, and any high-level player who puts in the time and potions can tear down any gym in fairly short order, but as a general rule being on top of a Gym keeps you there longer than being at the bottom.
What are the best Pokémon to level up for attacking Gyms?
Gamepress has also updated their best attackers list, to account for the increase in Alakazam's damage, among other things.
There are some other factors to consider, though. If you live in an area where there are a ton of Vaporeon and Gyrados on Gyms, Jolteon will be one of the best Pokémon to evolve and max out, since its electricity can tear through water types. If there are a lot of Dragonites, Cloyster will be one of your must-maxes.
In general, though, given many people will simply stick the highest CP defenders they can on a Gym (see above!) you probably want their best counters among your attackers.
- Cloyster or Lapras (Frost Breath and Blizzard) to counter Dragonite.
- Rhydon (Mud Shot and Earthquake or Stone Edge) to counter Snorlax.
- Vaporeon (Water Gun and Hydro Pump of Aqua Tail) to counter Rhydon.
- Jolteon (Thunder Shock and Thunder or Thunderbolt) to counter Gyrados and Vaporeon.
- Exeggutor (Zen Headbutt and Solar Beam) to counter Vaporeon and Rhydon.
Dragonite, by virtue of its stats, is also one of the best attackers in the game.
Your style of play can also be a factor, though. If you're great at dodging, Alakazam can unless incredible amounts of damage per second (DSP). It has relatively few hit points, though, so if you don't dodge it'll be taken out quick. Snorlax, on the other hand, is a tank and can plow through several strong Pokémon in succession, dodging be damned, before being taken out. You may also simply like greater variety to play with or have personal favorites you love to use, regardless of how good or bad they are overall.
The most important thing in the game is to enjoy it.
Okay, but how should I go about evolving and powering up to get there?
It's tempting to spend your Stardust powering up the first powerful Pokémon you catch — god knows, I did this to my Clefable after catching it my very first day playing.
But in all honesty, until you hit level 20, it's not really worth it: In those first twenty levels, you're far more likely to catch unevolved Pokémon in the wild with higher stats than a Pokémon you caught at level 2 and spent thousands of Stardust on. I spent a lot on the Kadabra in the above picture, only to catch another Abra later in the game that was only 20CP lower than the evolved version.
Pokémon Go has also run a couple of events now: Halloween, where candy was doubled and buddy walking distance quartered, and bonuses, where Pokéstops gave out extra goodies and Pokémon spawned at an exponential rate.
Waiting for an event to get the highest candy and best spawns, especially for the Pokémon you really care about or want the most, is a perfectly reasonable strategy.
Remember, you can also transfer any extraneous Pokémon for extra Candy if you're looking to stockpile for that perfect Growlithe/Arcanine transformation.
What kind of Pokémon should I level up and evolve?
This is somewhat subjective depending on your area and what Pokémon you enjoy playing, but there are a few things you want to consider when leveling up Pokémon:
- Their hidden IV stats — stamina, attack, and defense
- Their Combat Power (CP), HP (HP), and level arc
- Level cost
- Pokémon rarity
- (Evolution only) STAB bonus
First and foremost, all Pokémon have three "hidden" stats: stamina, attack, and defense, collectively called "IV stats". You can get a good idea of where your Pokémon ranks by having your Team Leader appraise your creature. In general, you don't want to level up or evolve creatures with low IV stats, since there's no way to train these up — they're assigned to Pokémon at random.
From those base stats, CP, HP, and Level arc will dictate just how powerful you can make your Pokémon. In general, unevolved Pokémon around 600-1100 CP are ideal candidates for leveling or evolving — a 750CP Eevee (which you'll be able to catch after level 20) will turn into a mighty powerful Flareon, Jolteon, or Vaporeon for gym battles.
Anything with a lower CP isn't worth wasting your Stardust or Candy (unless you're trying to power-level your character). Instead, send those lower-CP creatures to the Professor for an extra Candy.
You'll also want to look at how much Stardust and/or Candy it costs to level up or evolve your Pokémon — it'll cost a lot less to raise the HP of a creature like Lapras than Tangela or Jolteon, for instance.
In addition, some Pokémon are simply rarer than others: If you're trying to raise up the stats of your Vaporeon, keep in mind that you'll also need that Eevee candy to evolve a Jolteon or Flareon.
Lastly (for powering up only), you'll want to look at your attacks and whether they'll award STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus). If your Vaporeon has two water-based attacks, for instance, it'll be more powerful than a Vaporeon with a Water and a Normal-type attack. Rarer type attacks are important, too: Dragon attacks, for example, have very few vulnerabilities and can make or break a Pigeot power-up.
Note: This doesn't apply to evolution — when you evolve a Pokémon, their new movesets are determined at random.
Should I level up first, or evolve first?
In my opinion, you should almost always evolve your high-CP base-evolution Pokémon, rather than spend dust leveling up a lower-level creature, then evolving it.
If you're looking for creatures to attack or defend gyms, you'll want to improve Pokémon once they're evolved and give you a great HP and CP and a high level arc; otherwise, you're just pouring lots of Stardust into a low-level creature that may never have a ton of hit points, even at its max level.
By waiting, you can also avoid leveling up a creature you think will be powerful because of its STAB attacks, but losing them on an evolution.
Other questions?
Have any other questions about evolving Pokémon or leveling them up? Let us know in the comments.
