An in-depth look at Gym Decay

Hey there Trainers!

The other day I was wondering about gym decay rate, and was surprised to find that no one had figured out the exact formula yet. Granted, gym decay is somewhat unimportant in the current metagame, as expending any mental effort on defending is a waste of time. But despite numerous posts like these, there still wasn't a finite Gym decay rate algorithm out there.

Since I was last writing, the game has changed significantly, and so have I. For one thing, I live on the other side of the world, and with the change to gym mechanics, my gym motivation decayed significantly as well. But my current location gives me a great group of local gyms that are either high-turnover or hold for up to 4 days undisturbed. So I decided I would test Pokemon over a wide range of CP to determine exactly how gym decay changes with CP.

You can find this calculator, my 250-1299 calculator, and my 2321+ calculator on the Let's GO Decay Rate Calculator page, but I've pasted in the 1300-2321CP calculator here for folks to see.


Let's be honest, this is like... the only thing you care about in this article. Find the 2322+ calculator on the Let's GO Decay Rate calculator page here! I'll be updating the calculator page with calculators for below 1300 CP as well when more data becomes available. Unfortunately I suck at code and so I haven't yet figured out how to merge all three calculators into one.

Disclaimer: In testing this calculator against my recorded data, there was no difference in predicted CP/h greater than 0.30, and no difference in predicted %CP/h greater than 0.01% within the bounds of 1300-2321 CP.

But to see how I've come up with this calculator, read on! Note that the calculator only applies between 1300 and 2321 at the moment. Above ~2321, decay rate is 10% of the Initial CP, and so you can just use the formula (Initial CP)*(0.1) to find your CP/h decay rate, and any %CP/h or "Time until" numbers are the same as CP = 2321.

Summary of findings

DRATINI AHOY!: Pokemon GO! Water-Pokemon Event

Dratini everywhere!

Greetings trainers,

Just an update letting folks know about Pokemon GO's recent Water-Pokemon event in celebration of the Global Water Festival. It seems like they've coded this event to alter the spawn data, making the majority of spawns equivalent to Water-biome spawns. What this means is that Pokemon that spawn in water biomes are now extremely common for the next week! The event runs from March 22nd to March 29th. Here is a list of water Pokemon trainers will want to get their hands on while the going is good:

Gyarados also got a model update,
not sure how I feel about the
colour scheme...

Strong battlers

• Dratini
• Magikarp
• Lapras
• Slowpoke
• Omanyte
• Totodile
• Shellder? (not actually sure this is water-biome associated, despite being a clam)

That's right! Dratini is Water-biome associated, and given that a friend reported catching 4 Dratini in 10 minutes (and I've already seen two today at work), it seems like this is confirmed. This is the week to stock up on Dratini candies and maybe get yourself a few good Dratini to evolve later! I don't think this will affect Dragonair or Dragonite spawns, as those fall into the "ultra rare" spawn category and aren't strictly biome-associated. The same goes for Vaporeon.

Rare finds (some redundancy)

Oh Blastoise... it's so sad how
bad you are now...

• Squirtle
• Totodile
• Lapras
• Mantine
• Omanyte
• Kabuto

If you still don't have a Mantine, now's your chance to get a great one! Not to mention plenty of Totodile candies. And as a personal recommendation: Kingdra is a really good prestige Pokemon, as it doubly resists fire and gets access to Hydro Pump. So if you want to stock up on Horsea candy, now is a good time.

Cheers,
Let's GO!

DPE vs. DPS and New Moves

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• An example of how DPE is useful
• Table of charge moves sorted by DPE
• Table of charge moves sorted by DPE/Cooldown
• Conclusion

Greetings Trainers!

Today's article is going to give a fresh perspective to the metagame. Trainers have previously been focused on moves based around things like damage-per-second (DPS). This made a lot of sense for both quick moves and charge moves, and DPS alone generally reflected a move's utility. Defending moves vs. attacking moves of course had unique DPS calculations, and move cool downs played an important role in how good a move was.

But in the new metagame, I think I'm prepared to say that DPS is not the most important factor in determining a move's utility. Quick moves especially have been largely balanced, and are more similar to each other than before; of course there are better and worse quick moves, but some of the higher-DPS quick moves have longer cool downs, while the slightly lower DPS quick moves allow you to dodge. Pick your poison, but unless you're dodging a lot (which some people do) they aren't all thaaaat different at the end of the day. Not to mention the Energy-per-second (EPS) rate of some of the quick moves is also more important now, and the weakest DPS moves tend to have higher EPS.

But today I'll go over a new concept that should help players understand how the new charge moves work in the current metagame. Damage-per-energy (DPE) is the ratio of base damage to energy consumed. So if you have a high DPE, that means you do lots of damage per charge bar.

DPE is your damage-per-energy consumed. 

If a move does 100 damage, and takes a full charge bar (100% energy = 1.0), then its DPE is: 100/1.0 = 100. 

If a move does 100 damage and takes half a charge bar (1/2 = 0.5), then its DPE is: 100/0.5 = 200. 

The higher the DPE, the more damage per energy consumed.

Let's GO Gym Defender's Tier List - Gen 2

Greetings Trainers!

There's a new mon in town

This article is going to be updated as lower rungs of the tier list solidify, but I think that some Pokemon have made a very definite name for themselves in gyms since the release of Gen 2, and so today I'll be releasing this tier list with the intention of sorting the lower-tiered Pokemon later. For now, I'll just be including ideal movesets, and will work on write-ups for each Pokemon shortly. This article will be updating daily to explain some of the choices. Overall, a greater diversity of Pokemon types are now viable defenders, which is what you'd have hoped given 80 new Pokemon.

For instance, Gyarados massively improved as a defender in the latest update, but only because of new access to Dragon Tail / Crunch or Outrage. All old Gyarados are still middling, but new Gyarados with Dragon Tail make for much better defenders.

Table of Contents

*List last updated March 8th 2017

• Let's GO: Gym Defender's Tier List
• Summary Tier List
• Fast facts you should know
• Honourable Mentions
• Good, but not-yet-tiered

Summary Tier List

Nanab and Pinap, berry cool additions

Greetings trainers!

The release of generation 2 brought with it two new berries: the Pinap berry and Nanab berry. These two have unique effects that should make the catching game a lot more enjoyable. Pinap berries increase the candies you receive upon catches, while Nanab berries make Pokemon slow down and dodge less. These are both useful effects, but exactly how should trainers make the most of these two new effects? For instance, say a Snorlax shows up. Which berry do you use? Razz, to increase the catch chance? Or Pinap, to increase the candy yield? Here are some thoughts, feel free to post yours in the comments!

Pinap Berry (double candy received upon catching)

Gen 2 is live! -This post is updating with new info constantly

Greetings Trainers!

Folks weren't expecting the release of Generation 2 until some time later this week, but Niantic surprised us by releasing Generation 2 Pokemon this afternoon at approx. 3pm PST! If you hadn't heard, the Valentine's Day 6-hour Lure event was also extended until Saturday, so you have time to use your Lures to try and lure up some Gen 2 Pokemon! New berries have also been released, which includes Nanab berries, which make a Pokemon less likely to run, and Pinap berries, which grant the trainer double candies upon capture.


Be on the lookout for prevolutions of new powerful Pokemon like Larvitar, Phanpy, Teddiursa, and Mareep! Also be on the lookout for strong Pokemon like Heracross. And if you have candies available, you can now evolve new Pokemon like Blissey, Scizor, Porygon2, and many more! Maybe pop a Lucky Egg before you do and go on an evolving spree while reaping the benefits of all these new Pokedex entries!


UPDATE 3:30pm PST: Apparently moves have also been re-balanced. More on this as we learn the details, but moves like Psychic, Flamethrower, Dazzling Gleam etc... have been given new damage outputs. For now, catch everything you can and try not to transfer too much!


e.g. Confusion now has 20 base damage, and Psychic is a 100-energy 100 base damage move.




How to make the most of the Valentine's Day event

Greetings Trainers!

Pokemon GO's latest event has folks catching pink Pokemon, with a touch of sweetness; yes, it's double-candy season again! This applies to catches, hatches, and buddy candies, making now the prime time to stock up. Lure Modules also last for 6 whole hours while the event is going, to paint the town pink. Today's article will go over some basic tips to let you know how to best take advantage of this event, regardless of your goals. Maximize your EXP, get the most return on your coins, and of course, catch the most relevant seasonal Pokemon available! This includes considerations for the upcoming 2nd generation of Pokemon, which will be releasing some time in the not-so-distant future!

Table of Contents

• Event Details
• Pokemon you should stock up on right now
• Getting the most out of double candy
• Spending coins wisely
• Conclusion

A look at Gamepress' Gym Defender Tier List

Greetings trainers!

We're still waiting on Gen 2, and the gym metagame has settled since the major CP update, so I thought I'd give the current gym metagame a look-over while we wait.

When the CP update came out, the first place I'd recommend anyone look would be Gamepress' tiering system. The guys there do a great job of analyzing things thoroughly, and I always learn a lot about directions I can explore regarding effective attackers and defenders. I don't always 100% agree with their placings, but I mostly agree, and they justify themselves very well.

Their current gym defender tier list looks like this:
(as a reminder, here's our post-update Defenders Tier List)

Link here: https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/gym-defenders-tier-list