The Let's (Pokemon) GO! Gym Building Guide

Go away Drowzee, no one likes you

Greetings trainers,

With the latest update (released on Nov. 7th 2016), the gym Prestige system has been totally overhauled. It's now 4x harder to hold a gym than prior to the update. Why? It's 2x tougher to level a gym up, and 2x easier to take one down. Details below:

The maximum Prestige earned off a defending Pokemon in a friendly gym is now 500 (down from the previous 1000), and the prestige earned for knocking out a defending Pokemon in an enemy gym is now 1000 (up from 500). The bonus for clearing an enemy gym has been reduced to 1000 (from 1500).

What effect will this have on the metagame? That remains to be determined, but already I've been seeing a lot of former Level 10 strongholds fall. Quite interestingly, not all of them were actually taken down fully, but a number of them have had the first few Pokemon cleared out and were then left alone. These gyms are likely going to get cleared once the first strong player on a gym-run passes by, but in the meantime they're holding.

Overall, I think this change is going to be fantastic for the health of the game, though the most dedicated players will have a harder time collecting 100 coins every day. The question on everyone's mind is now: in this new age of hyper offence, how does someone build a level 10 gym anymore? First, a quick note:

Summary of Gym-prestige mechanics changes

• Against friendly gyms, beating a defender with a lower-CP Pokemon now earns you 250 prestige plus a multiplier. Beating a defender with a higher-CP Pokemon now earns you 125 prestige minus a multiplier.
• Against opposing gyms, beating a defender now reduces gym prestige by 1000, and clearing the whole gym reduces gym prestige by an additional 1000.

With that said, let's get talking about how to build these level 10 gyms. By the way, if you haven't seen our Gym Defender's Tier List yet, be sure to give it a look-over when you can. In the meantime, here is a summary of some of the strongest defenders out there:

You can view the original article here!

As for how to use these Pokemon to build strong gyms, that's a bit more touch-and-go. No system is perfect right now, but here are some ideas behind gym-building in the current metagame:

dat Bubblestrat

Low-CP Mons

Just like in the "How to use the new gym battle system" article, low-CP Pokemon are still the most potion-efficient and quickest way to rapidly level up a gym. However, these new changes hurt this strategy when the gym's empty slots are not ready to be filled immediately. Before, enemy trainers could only take 500 prestige from the gym by defeating a low-CP Poliwag, but now trainers can take 1000 prestige from the gym just for defeating a gimme Pokemon. This makes it far less time-consuming to knock down an empty gym with a low-CP defender at the front, which means the gym is more vulnerable to enemy trainers both as it's being set up, and as it's waiting to be filled.

If you can fill the gym up immediately, then a low-CP Pokemon is still a very quick way to open up multiple gym slots in a group. Once the gym is full, with this new gym system the first Pokemon in the gym is knocked out shortly after the first battle starts (i.e. one Pokemon is beaten), so sly trainers will simply knock out the first Pokemon and run from the battle against a Level 10 gym. This drops the first Pokemon, and lets them face only 9 Pokemon for their first run-through. As such, it doesn't really matter if this first Pokemon is a low-CP mon, or if it's a Snorlax. It'll get dropped immediately regardless.

Pros:

• Quick and easy gym-levelling
• Easy to organize a group to use
• Once gym slots are open, you can drop whatever strong defenders you want

Cons:

• No longer as worthwhile to do without a group
• Longer time spent increasing gym prestige also increases the likelihood that the gym is attacked while it's being started.
• Maxes prestige per battle at 500
• This really hurts time management compared to before, but is still worth it in groups

Low-CP strategies aren't as strong as they used to be, but if you have a small group and want to save on Potions, they can still be quite handy for levelling a gym up to 10 and leaving a few slots for passers-by.

Got to drop a Slowbro because
the gym already had 3 Arcanines

Exploitable gym lineups

This concept was always true before, but is more important now. If you want to leave a strong defender in the gym, but also want to leave the option open for the gym to be levelled up, it can be useful to leave a Pokemon that other trainers can beat easily with lower-CP Pokemon (to maximize prestige earned). Then, once gym slots are open, trainers can fill in the holes left in the gym's defence. But a level 3 gym isn't safe regardless of if it has 3 Snorlax, or if it has 3 Arcanine; k... maybe I'd hold off on the Snorlax gym if I was in a hurry.

So the idea is to start off gyms with Pokemon that are good defenders, but they have crippling weaknesses that team members can take advantage of. Pokemon like Dragonite, Gyarados, Arcanine, and Hydro Pump Vaporeon make good examples of exploitable defenders. Dragonite and Gyarados can both be taken down by low-CP ice or electric types respectively, as they have double weaknesses to these types. Arcanine is just weak to water, which is a terrible weakness exploited by a number of good Water Gun + Hydro Pump users. Vaporeon is just something you can manage with Pokemon like Solar Beam Parasect, especially if you get to dodge Hydro Pumps. Exeggutor is a decent Pokemon to beat, but you have to have a good attacker to take it down; something like Bug Bite / X-Scissor Parasect does a good job.

On the flip side, leaving Pokemon that make it difficult to level up a gym can effectively guarantee the death of the gym. For instance, while a triple Snorlax gym is a great Level 3 gym, how likely are you to stop and spend the time battling three Snorlax just to add one more Pokemon? The gym is hardly more safe, but the time you spend could've been spent on another gym that's more likely to reach higher levels. The name of the game is time management, and that means it helps to make gyms immediately appealing for teammates.

Pros:

• No weak gym defenders
• Once gym slots are open, you can patch up holes in the defensive lineup
• Easy to do without a group, and allows people to stumble across your gym later
• Can earn more than 500 prestige per battle 
• Honestly, a much bigger advantage now than it used to be

Cons:

• Less potion-efficient
• Often forced to earn <500 prestige against certain Pokemon because gym lineups are rarely all at similar CP.
• i.e. often forced to spend more time levelling up the gym
• Time management benefit questionable, as gyms are easier to take down now. So spending more time per gym, only to lose the gym anyways, is inadvisable.
• In other words, best reserved for pumping up a currently-existing gym, rather than starting a brand new one.

In today's age, I think I would recommend using the exploitable gym lineup approach for small groups (2-4 people) that want to start a gym. I think the major motivation to use a low-CP strategy over just building the gym strategically is simply time and potion efficiency. Using low-CP Pokemon uses almost no resources, while using high-CP Pokemon costs you a lot of healing items.

Pokemon that you should put in gyms at the start

The following is a list of Pokemon that are fairly easy to beat using lower-CP Pokemon. If you can, try to drop these strong defenders to encourage teammates to train up your gym:

• Gyarados
• Dragonite
• Rhydon
• Golem
• Omastar
• Arcanine (and other Fire types)
• Exeggutor (sorta)
• Hydro Pump Vaporeon (sorta)
• Nidoqueen/Nidoking (tough to earn 500 prestige off of, but do-able)

You can also bluff having strong Pokemon if you want. For instance, putting a high-CP Mud Slap Poliwrath in a gym makes it look like a strong gym, but it can be trained off of easily. Alternatively, a Water Gun Slowbro is also easy to train off of, but looks like an elite and strong defender. Same thing with Vine Whip Venusaur.

Pokemon to avoid putting in gyms at the start

The following is a list of Pokemon that are really tough to beat using lower-CP Pokemon. If you can avoid it, try not to leave these Pokemon in a gym that's just starting, since it will discourage teammates from training your gym up:

• Snorlax
• Lapras
• Confusion Slowbro
• Bubble Poliwrath
• Hypno
• Wigglytuff
• Chansey (just... why?)
• Clefable (sorta)
• Water Pulse Vaporeon (sorta)

I don't get why people drop Chanseys. They're the worst.

See... like... this gym would probably hold

Thoughts and recommendations

This new age of hyper offence is great for the health of the game. While I no longer get to hold 10+ gyms overnight, I'm never in a position where I can't just take a few gyms to top up my total. This environment is reminiscent of how the game was back in the early days when Pokemon GO had 20 times the user base it has now. This keeps the game approachable to new players, and rewards players willing to put the time in. That said, I feel like the double nerf was a bit much... It'd be appreciated if Niantic continued to allow players to build gyms as fast as others can take them down (i.e. max of 1000 prestige per Pokemon).

If you're looking to hold a gym overnight, good luck. The only way to really accomplish this is to find a gym in an extremely low-traffic area and build it up to Level 10 with friends. What kinds of areas have these gyms? Suburban neighbourhoods with random parks, walking paths, benches, or memorials are a good bet. Alternatively, gyms set up way out along highways that rarely see people stop for long can hold a long time.

The common theme amongst these gyms is that they're out of the way for the majority of players. I was in Japan over the summer and climbed a mountain trail only to find a shrine at the top that was a Pokemon gym. Back in the days where holding a gym was nigh impossible, that gym held for me (likely with only two Pokemon in it) for over a week. Now... that probably doesn't sound impressive, but these were the days when a 1200CP Pokemon was strong, and Vaporeon's Water Gun was 10 BP. Since then, there are gyms I've found that have held for months at a time. But at the time of writing this article, every last one of them has been taken down. Since the update, I've found a couple that seem to be holding, but it's a far cry from the days where level 10 gyms were everywhere.

Cheers,

Let's GO!