GO Battle League

 A cool feature of Pokémon GO is the ability to have random battles with other trainers in what is called the GO Battle League. These battles allow a trainer to collect rewards such as Rare Candy, TMs, encounters with Pokémon, and LOTS of Stardust! But, how do they work? How do you get started? It takes some practice, but once you get into it, it’s a fast and easy way to rack in tons of rewards.

To start off, the GO Battle League is usually split into three leagues; Great League, Ultra League, and Master League. Each league has a specified CP cutoff, besides the Master League which has no limit. For the Great League, the cutoff is 1500 CP, and 2500 CP for the Ultra League. These 3 leagues are either the 3 available or are mixed in with other special cups during events. During these cups, there is still a CP limit like the regular leagues (goes as low as 500 CP), but can limit which Pokémon types can compete. 

Wondering where the rewards come in? Well, before your first battle, you will choose a reward path. You can either go with the top one, which is free and available to everyone, or you can go for the bottom one which yields the same type of reward but in higher quantity. To collect the bottom rewards, you must use a Premium Battle Pass. You do not collect both paths by using a pass for the bottom one. But, the rewards reset every 5 matches. If you win 3 out of 5, you’ll get to claim 3 out of the 5 rewards and then get to select another path. 

When you battle in the GO Battle League, you need a sturdy team that has a wide range of types for its attacks and defenses. As mentioned in the Type Effectiveness blog, you shouldn’t bring all one type to a trainer battle because it will be easier to defeat. You also need to check which weaknesses your whole team has so that you can evaluate how to be stronger. Knowing all of the type effectiveness information you can about your team will guarantee more wins since you’ll know when to switch Pokémon and use attacks. Another great way to ensure better battles is to make sure that you have purchased the second attack on each of your battling Pokémon. This will maximize your options and strategy in a battle. Using a website such as Pokémon GO Database (pokemongohub.net) can help you figure out different combinations for Fast and Charged Attacks.

Dealing with Team GO Rocket

 Have you noticed a strange-looking hot-air balloon following you around the map? That would be the mischievous Team GO Rocket. These pesky trainers can also be encountered at Pokéstops that they have taken over. Your duty as a trainer is to defeat them and rescue one of the captive shadow Pokémon. When you tap on one of the balloons or Pokéstops, you are challenged by one of the members of Team Rocket.

The members of Team GO Rocket are broken down into different levels. The first category would be the Grunts. When you encounter Team  GO Rocket for the first time, you will encounter a Grunt. The Grunt will either be a male or female in a standard Team Rocket jumpsuit. The Grunts are fairly easy to defeat since their team is made up of one type of Pokémon. The Grunt will say a phrase before you battle them that will give you a hint as to what type their team is made of. Some are pretty straightforward. For example, “Battle against my Flying-type Pokémon!” means it is a Flying-type Grunt. The Poison-type Grunt will say “Coiled and ready to strike!” which may be a little harder to decipher. They will also not use their shields when you use a charged attack during battle. Their Pokémon will also be fairly easy to defeat. Once you battle 6 of them, you will be able to create a Rocket Radar from the mysterious components you gather from winning the battle. 

The next level of Team GO Rocket is the Leaders. There are 3 different Leaders to Team GO Rocket; Arlo, Sierra, and Cliff. They are encountered by equipping the Rocket Radar and clicking on a taken-over Pokéstop or balloon, like the Grunts. The Leaders are a bit harder to defeat since they will use their shields against the first two charged attacks you send out. Plus, their lineup of Pokémon will be diversified, making it harder to figure out which Pokémon you need to bring to battle. The Pokémon that you encounter in these battles will depend on the current in-game event and are set. The Pokémon that you rescue in the end will be a specific one for each Leader. 

Finally, you have the Boss. The Boss of Team GO Rocket is Giovanni and can only be encountered by equipping a Super Rocket Radar. Like the others, you encounter Giovanni by tapping on a taken-over Pokéstop or Team GO Rocket balloon. In order to obtain a Super Rocket Radar, one must be active during an event such as Team Rocket Takeover. During this event, the trainer must defeat all 3 leaders to obtain the Super Rocket Radar as a reward for Field Research. Giovanni is very tough. At the end, you will have the opportunity to catch the selected Giovanni Pokémon of the event.

How to Raid

 If you’ve ever been to a Gym with an Egg and a timer on it, you might have wondered what it was for. Or, maybe you’ve hung around long enough to see it hatch and know that is a Raid. In this guide, I will explain how Raids work and how to take them on and defeat them.

When a Raid appears at a Gym, players (over trainer level 5) can gather to overtake the featured Pokémon. The Pokémon featured depends on things like in-game events. Sometimes there will be Raid events where a certain Pokémon will appear more often in Raids than other Pokémon that would usually appear during that time. In order to actually participate in the raid, you need to either be close by and use a Raid Pass (or Premium Battle Pass if you’ve already used your free Raid Pass for the day) or by joining a friend or tapping a far away Gym and using a Remote Raid Pass. 

There are seven different levels of difficulty when it comes to Raids. The first is a Tier 1 Raid, which typically, can be completed by yourself. The Raid Egg will be pink. Next, you would expect Tier 2, but it is actually Tier 3. Tier 3 Raids appear as yellow Eggs and it is recommended that at least 2 trainers attempt it, although if you are leveled high enough, it can definitely be done on your own as well. Tier 4 (Event Raid) is the next one which features a blue Egg. The Pokémon in this raid will be featured as a part of an event like Community or Raid Day and the suggested party size is 4 trainers. Next is Tier 5 which is split into two categories; Legendary and Ultra Beast Raids. The Legendary Raid will feature a purple Egg where you battle a Legendary Pokémon. The Ultra Beast Raid is similar but has a portal instead of an Egg where you battle one of the Ultra Beasts. For both, it is recommended to have a party of at least 5. Finally, there is the Tier 6 Mega Legendary Raid, where as the title describes, you will be fighting a Mega Legendary Pokémon. It is also recommended to have at least 5 Pokémon for this Raid. 

When you win a Raid by depleting the Raid Pokémon’s health bar, you are given a chance to catch it by using Premiere Balls. The number of Premiere Balls granted depends on the type of raid completed, how fast it was completed, and the color of the gym (extra balls if it’s your Team’s color). But be careful; there is no time limit to catch the Pokémon as long as it’s still on your screen, but once you run out of Premiere Balls, it WILL run away, meaning you cannot catch it anymore.

Is my Pokémon good?

How do you know you have a good Pokémon when you catch it? At first glance, a trainer can see the Pokémon’s CP, which is listed above it before and after catching it. You may think that the higher the CP (which stands for Combat Power) the better the catch, right? Well, Pokémon also have stats called IVs (or Individual Values) that really determine how “good” a Pokémon is in battle. 

Perfect Pokémon 

Combat Power does have a role in how strong a Pokémon is; for example, a 1400 CP Dragonite is much less powerful than a 5400 CP Dragonite. It will deal far more damage, as well as have more health. To achieve a higher CP, a Trainer must level up their Pokémon by using Stardust and Candy. When you catch Pokémon, you are given Stardust and the Candy associated with that Pokémon. Stardust collected can be used on any Pokémon, but the Candy can only be used for the Pokémon specified. Evolved Pokémon will receive candy for their beginning evolution. For example, if you were to catch a Dragonite or Dragonair, you would receive Dratini candy. Catching a Dratini would also result in the collection of Dratini candy. Pokémon have a level cap of 1 and a half times your Trainer level. 

Individual Values are shown by assessing your Pokémon. To do this, select one of your Pokémon from your collection. Then, in the bottom right corner, there will be a green circle with 3 lines. Tapping on this will bring up a menu of things that you can do, including “Appraise”. Tapping on this will give you a rating out of 3 stars. There are three columns; attack, defense, and HP (health points) and each of them is on a scale out of 15. If all three bars are filled and the star rating has a red background, it is a 100% IV or perfect Pokémon! On the other hand, all 3 bars being completely empty will be a 0%. The star ratings are based on these percentages. A 0 star Pokémon will be below 50%, a 1 star between 51% and 63%, 2 stars between 67% and 80%, and 3 stars between 82% and 98%. A 100% Pokémon is often referred to as a 4 star Pokémon, even though 4 stars is not an official Pokémon rating in the game. 

Type Effectiveness

 Every Pokémon has an assigned type, and sometimes they have two. The type assigned to the Pokémon will allow you to figure out what it is strong against and what it is weak against. Knowing about type effectiveness is very important when participating in battles against other trainers, completing raids, or taking over gyms. 

A Pokémon with a single type will be most effective when using a move that is the same type because it will gain extra attack power. This is called STAB (Same Type Attack Bonus). For example, a Water-type Pokémon using a Water attack will have increased damage by 1.5 times. When using this attack against a Pokémon that is weak to water, a Fire-type, for example, it will increase the damage by another 2 times. Below is a chart that fully shows type effectiveness among the 18 types available.

                            (Chart is from Pokémon Database (pokemondb.net))

On the lefthand column, you will see that it represents the attacking Pokémon. Going right from one of the types, like Fire to Grass, for example, you will see that Fire is super effective. If you reverse this and go from Grass on the left to Fire, you will see that Grass is not very effective against Fire, but not completely useless like Electric would be to Ground. 

As mentioned before, choosing a party of Pokémon to battle with depends heavily on type effectiveness. But, it is also different depending on what you plan to do. If you want to do regular battles against other Trainers or Team Rocket, you will want to diversify which Pokémon you bring with you. For example, you don’t want to just bring 3 Fire-type Pokémon, as a single Water-type Pokémon could potentially wipe out your team. When looking at the defensive side of the chart, you will see that Steel is extremely well at defending against most types, so having a Steel-type is a good way to help protect your team (minus Fire, Ice, and Ground attacks). But, if you plan on taking up a raid where the selected Pokémon is Dratini, for example, you should only bring Pokémon that you know will be effective against Dragon-types (Ice, Dragon, Fairy).

Becoming Buddies with your Pokémon

Having friends in Pokémon GO is a fun and helpful feature that makes leveling up and getting items much easier. But, did you know you can befriend Pokémon too? Increasing your friendship level with the selected Pokémon yields great benefits as well. I’ll explain how to become Buddies with your Pokémon, as well as the levels and benefits associated with each.

First off, becoming Buddies with your Pokémon is quite simple. To become Buddies, all you need to do is go down near your Trainer profile and you will find a little circle to the right of it. Tap on that, and you can choose a Buddy. The Buddy that you choose will follow you around on adventures as you walk around in the game. Determining which Buddy you’d like to take with you can depend on a few things, but that is ultimately up to the Trainer. You could choose your Buddy based on level, CP, or even just a Pokémon that looks cool or is your favorite. Once you have chosen one and assigned them as your Buddy, they will appear in the aforementioned circle near your Trainer profile, as well as beside you in your Trainer profile.

Best Buddy Ribbon

Now that you’re Buddies, you can increase the Buddy Level. To do this, you must start off by feeding it berries. By doing this for the first time, you will achieve the first Buddy Level by collecting Affection Hearts. The first level you achieve will be “Good Buddy”. By reaching this level, you will have collected your first Affection Heart which will allow you to read the mood your Buddy is in, as well as allow the Pokémon to follow you on the map. The first level is by far the easiest to reach, considering you only need one Affection Heart. 

The second Buddy Level is “Great Buddy”. In order to reach this level, you must obtain 70 Affection Hearts. Now, this is certainly more of a strenuous goal than the one Affection Heart required for the first level. But, there are many ways you can reach the next level and gain more Affection Hearts than just feeding your Pokémon berries, which can be done 3 times a day. Other ways to gather Affection Hearts include battling, capturing a photo of your Buddy, walking, visiting a new Pokéstop, or following a Route together. Affection Hearts for walking, feeding, and battling can be done 3 times a day. Reaching the Great Buddy status will allow your Pokémon to bring you gifts, such as potions or revives. They can also assist in catching Pokémon.

The third level is “Ultra Buddy” and requires a total of 150 Affection Hearts. At this level, your Pokémon will let you know about “interesting locations nearby”. They will also bring you Souvenirs from specific locations that you get to keep and look at whenever you desire. The final and fourth level is “Best Buddy”. By achieving Best Buddy status, you have collected a total of 300 Affection Hearts with your Buddy. Your Buddy will sport a red Best Buddy Ribbon that can be seen by everyone, as well as receive a CP boost for battles.

Everything is Better with Friends!

Everything is better with friends, including playing Pokémon Go. Having friends in-game is beneficial for a few different reasons. Having those friends play the game with you in real life is also very helpful! I’m going to get into why having friends is valuable and will absolutely change your gameplay. 

First off, friends can send you Gifts. These Gifts hold items that can be opened at any time by the trainer, making them a great tool for when you run low on Pokéballs or other items, such as Revives or Potions. A trainer can hold 20 gifts at a time in their Item Bag to send to other trainers. The number of gifts a trainer can receive is only limited by the number of friends a trainer has. But, if you are holding onto an unopened Gift from a friend, that friend cannot send you another one until you open it. So, it’s best to periodically open your gifts so that you can get new ones. A trainer can receive one gift from each friend per day, and vice versa when it comes to sending. 

When trainers send each other Gifts, their friendship level will increase. Trainers can also increase friendship by participating in raids together, battling each other, taking over a gym together, and trading. But, keep in mind that you can only raise your friendship level with that trainer once per day. There are four levels, and reaching a new level will grant both trainers a large amount of XP. By increasing the levels of friendship between you and another trainer, you will also receive benefits such as decreased trade costs. To trade, both trainers must be near each other and they will both pay Stardust to complete the trade. 

With that being said, once a set of trainers reaches the final stage of their friendship level, Best Friends, they have the chance to become Lucky Friends. It is said that the chance of becoming Lucky Friends is around 2% each time you raise your friendship level. If you get the chance to be Lucky Friends with another trainer, you should both strategize a trade since afterward, the traded Pokémon themselves will become Lucky! A Lucky Pokémon will have a guaranteed better stat floor compared to trading normally, which rerolls all of the stats at random. Plus, Lucky Pokémon also requires less Stardust to level up and will also receive a boost in its Combat Power.