Decomposition of a gym attack

Solo game

Well, there it is -- you and that rival gym. Now it's all down to gym composition.


Crap gym

• A starter gym, that is 6000 prestige or lower
• A gym filled with glass-cannons, especially one filled with several sharing the same weakness
• Any gym with more than half of the mons below 2000 cp

Built gym

• A gym at 20 000 or higher prestige that doesn't conform to any of the attributes listed above

Elite gym

• A gym at above 40 000 prestige based around lapras at above 2700 cp or snorlax  at above 3000 cp. OR, such a gym based around chansey at above 1200 cp.

The solo gamer should normally just walk away from an elite gym. It'll take the better part of an hour to tear it down even for the avid raider. In the case of chanseys probably more than an hour.

At the other end lies the crap gym. It'll go down in the number of mons minus one round of battles. No matter what we're talking five minutes or less. Sure, the theoretical 50 000 prestige gym with six pokemons at below 2000 cp will take longer, but it'll still go down like a house of cards.

Just stack your lineup with mons strong against targets that aren't roadbumps, ie don't bother thinking about what to use against a cp 1400 rhydon, for example.

The built gym is where we'll have to switch on our brains before we slug it out. The following is a list of considerations you should make:

• Extremely low hp defenders. Think alakazam or cloyster. No typematching is needed
• Glasscannons. Dragonite, rhydon and gyarados are examples. Typematching, even with 1000 cp lower pokemons, is well worth it. The defender explodes when attacked with the correct type.
• Unknowns. You simply can't remember the weakness. Attack with a snorlax or anything big with good psychic attacks. Chanses are you at least didn't get it wrong.

And the second set of tips:

Shortage of revives

Leave battles before your pokemon is knocked out. Just don't forget to stay prepared to dodge when you switch in the next pokemon.

Only use max revives on pokemons with a lot of (200 hp or more) hit points to restore.

Shortage of potions.

Dig for lower cp pokemons of the correct type to use against the lowest cp defenders. You can just forget about your own mons until you have the opportunity to restore potions from pokestops.

If you have an excessive number of revives it can be worth to re-enter combat with half healed pokemons.

Do look at which potion you use for what damage. The crap 20 hp potions are handy for topping out an almost healed pokemon, but virtually useless for healing up one from scratch.

Small raid

Two or three players attacking. Works like the solo game. Only difference is that crap gyms start at 12 000 cp.

You only need to think about syncing attacks. Avoid joining combat more than ten seconds apart. Should one player fail to join combat, especially if there is a huge difference in defensive capacity between the first defender and the next, just leave combat and join it together again.

Large raid

Six to eleven players attacking.

Don't read this guide. Just tear the gym down.