Battling gyms in Pokemon Go- for dummies

[wheezles]

Help please!

We've made it to Level 27 without ever battling in gyms. But, we spend a fortune on buying coins, which I've put a ban on! DSs occasionally play in gyms but don't know what they're doing and never win.

I've literally just been collecting them and filling up my pokedex til now. I've been googling but feel more confused than ever

Please can I have a simple guide to this?! Thank you!

If you're level 27 yu probably have some Pokemon with CP 2500+. These are the ones you need to use to fight.

Find a gym that is a different colour to your team. Eg you are red, find yellow or blue. Touch on gym and read off what level it is. Start by fighting a gym which is level 1, 2 or 3 until you learn. There is a button in the bottom right corner which looks like a boxing glove, visible when you've clicked into a gym. Press button and then six of your Pokemon will be displayed (you will fight with these). Press go button. Then you will see your opponent in the middle. Keep manically clicking on the opponent and you will see it's health bar on the top decreasing. You have your own health bar right at the top but under that you will have another bar(s). When that is fully lit you can use your special fight move by clicking and holding on your opponent until the screen changes size, then let go.

Each gym has XP points. You keep repeatedly fighting until XP=0. Then the gym goes grey (no team) and then you put your Pokemon in.

In the shop section where you buy the coins, in the top right is a shield telling you how many gyms you hold. You can collect coins only once every 20-24 hours (?). So if you win a gym and collect immediately then you will not be able to collect from other gyms you win that day. You should prob take as many gyms as you can in one go and then collect coins. Max 10 gyms. Any others give no coins.

Alternatively you find a gym that is the same colour as you, (ideally a fairly low level number and definitely not a level 10) then fight it as normal. At the end of the 6 Pokemon fight, (or when you've beaten all the Pokemon in the gym) you will get a bit of experience and the gym will also have a boost to its "prestige". It may take a few of these training battles but eventually the gym will increase a level so there will be an extra space for you to put your own Pokémon onto it.

I've just started on gyms too but not doing so well as they are all too strong around here.
If you find a gym of your colour you can train to level it up. Exactly the same as fighting at a rival gym. Once it has leveled up there will be a slot for you to add your pokemon in. Sometimes if you're lucky there might be an empty spot waiting.

Also you can get poke coins from Google opinion suveys

Also your six Pokémon that appear on your screen after you've clicked the gym.....you can change them to others if you wish. Just click on the Pokémon you want to swap out and then it'll bring up all your Pokemon and click on the one you want to use instead.

You wouldn't want to fight a fire type Pokémon against a water one for instance.

Keep tapping on the opposing Pokémon like mad. Say you're fighting a snorlax every now and then you might see "snorlax uses body slam" or similar message which will be that Pokémon special move which will wipe your health down. You can side swipe quick to dodge.

When you're fighting under your Pokémon main health bar is another bar and when that's full you can tap and hold on the other Pokémon to use your special move to kill it quicker.

Remember once you're in a gym to go to the shop and collect your coins....which you can only do once every 21 hours. If you get kicked out the gym before collecting you won't get any unless you fight again.

Not very high CP really considering! Because never taken much notice before. Always delete all my potions and revives etc too, assuming I should stop doing that now!

(I hatched that Snorlax the other day. Chuffed to bits!)

That snorlax is good.

And yes, you will need all potions and revives you can get.

Have you levelled your decent Pokémon up as much as you can?

What you need to do is appraise your top twenty, identify the good ones (the words "amazing", "incredible" and "breathtaking" are a good start) and then use spare candy to boost them up. Don't bother boosting the ones with crappy appraisals.

Google "Pokémon go iv calculator" and use a calculator website to input the details of your Pokémon to see if they're worth levelling or not.

Those pokemon's have all been powered up, as much as they can, actually no they could be more but we've none of the Stardust left.

There's a gym at my work so on my lunch I can spend 45 mins there. Will give it a go tomorrow with your tips!

What about the potions, revives etc? What are these for? How do I use them?

Got an iPhone so can't do the Google opinion suveys I think.

Most gyms have the same few pokemon in them so learn which pokemon work best against them. Also change nicknames so you know which attack moves each pokemon has.

Watch some youtube videos. Knowing when to dodge an attack is important too.

Start reading The Silph Road sub Reddit and get a handle on prestiging gyms.

I hold 10-16 at any time now but have built up that slowly (now L31).

Your best best is to try and get into stable gyms that hold at the L7-L10 level for weeks or even months. Use Pokemon half the CP of the ones you are attacking in the gym for maximum 1000 points per battle. Best all rounders for prestiging in the 900-1200CP range are: raticates with bite and hyper beam; wigglytuff with anything (but esp hyper beam). Use electrodes or elektabuzz to wipe out Gyarados and Kingler; use parasects or tangela with solar beam to wipe out Vaporeons; a small Vaporeon or Golduck with hydropump will deal with any fire types; a sea dragon with dragon breath and ice against Dragonite.

You have to revive fainted Pokémon (when they have been kicked out of a gym or been beaten in battle/training) and heal them with potions. Really simple.

The battle challenge lies in selecting the best Pokemon for types and in putting the right Pokemon in a gym to sit high enough not to be first out and to contribute to a nice mix of types to make taking it down harder. A gym full of Vaporeons or Gyarados requires the same type attacker to defeat; mix it up with exeggcutors, Snorlax and it's a bit harder.

As you fight, your Pokémon lose hit points until they're knocked out - then you go on to the next of your six. Once the fight is over and you've (hopefully) put your own into the gym, then you click on your Revives and it will show you your unconscious Pokémon. Revive them then click on Potions and Heal the wounded ones up to full strength.

So if I am in a gym and battle and lose overall - do I keep fighting again then so I can take the gym?

DC has a lesson in a gym twice a week - I did take the gym once but didn't know about the coins

I had a fair few gym battles before I worked out exactly how to collect my coins - it's not really obvious that you have to go to the shop to collect them.

What do I use againsr 2000CP+ Vaporeon? They're v popular around here. I have a couple of 900+ Raticates. Would they do?

I am a gym virgin btw.

Use Tangela against vaporeon

I always think in terms of elements when battling..So vaporeon is water so mud or electric are good for fighting.

If you are training up a gym use low half the cp of what is on the gym.

This runs through the weaknesses of the common gym defenders.

Would help if I pasted the link!

pokemongo.gamepress.gg/gym-defenders-tier-list

This has been super helpful, thank you all so much! I've 4 gyms I can battle at (one near home, one at work, two in the village) but they're all Level 7 or 8!

However I tried the one near home tonight and did really well- (it was the same colour as me, red!) with 5 of mine I knocked out 6 of theirs, but their 7th one killed my 6th!

Regret deleting all my potions etc now...