Version 1.11.4 of Pokemon Go on iOS (or 0.41.2 for Android!) brings two big changes — earning medals to improve your capture chances, and the updated gym training system. Now you can train up to six Pokemon at a friendly gym. The feature doesn’t let you choose teams, save Pokemon, or let you train one single low-CP Pokemon, but there are ways to get around the minor annoyances of the system.
Here, we’re going to discuss everything you can do to totally take advantage of the system. There are ways to organize teams, improve gym prestige, and strategies to help takedown defending Pokemon.
Learn more about the latest updates right here. Niantic might see drops in the player base, but the reported earnings so far have been insane, even if the Netherlands are taking the augmented-reality dev to court.
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5 Ways to Take Advantage of the New Gym Training Update
The Gym changes are included in the 0.41.2 Android / 1.11.2 iOS update. Here’s the description of the changes, straight from the mouth of Niantic:
Updated Gym Training: Trainers can now bring six Pokemon to battle at friendly Gyms. The CP of the Pokemon you are battling may be temporarily adjusted lower for your training session.
This update makes earning prestige much easier than before, but there are some annoying issues still lingering — specifically, that you can’t save a team. Let’s start with a trick to make organizing your Pokemon a little easier.
#1: Change Your Pokemon Names To Create Teams
Pokemon are organized by the name you give them — 0-#, A-Z — and there are multiple ways you can easily organize the Pokemon you want to use to train at gyms.
This only saves you a lot of scrolling, especially if you have a huge Pokedex, and by changing your Pokemon’s names, you can reorganize so your chosen gym training team appears at the top of the list. Of course, you can also favorite the Pokemon you want, but many players use favorites to mark special high-CP Pokemon.
- Change the name of your Pokemon with a “.name” / “0name” / “!!!name” etc.
- Example: !!!Bulbasaur, !!!Pikachu, etc.
- These names will auto-arrange to the top of the list. Use separate symbols to create different teams for different uses.
Once you know how to rename and reorganize Pokemon, it’s not a bad idea to establish a few teams.
#2: Create Multiple Teams
This is all up to your own playstyle, but once you’ve organized some Pokemon into teams, it’s worthwhile to consider how you want to deploy those Pokemon — there are three major teams we’ll suggest:
- Attacker / Defender Team: Pick your highest CP, high damage, best Pokemon for groups like this.
- Prestige Team: Select 5 low-CP Pokemon and one high-CP to maximize your CP gain.
The prestige team is the most important one in this update — if you want to earn high prestige and level up gyms, you can do it easily with the right group of Pokemon.
#3: Earning Fast Prestige
It’s very possible to earn between 1500-2000+ prestige per encounter with the right lay-out. Using Pokemon with half the amount of CP as the Defenders will net you the maximum (or almost) maximum prestige. For example:
- The Prestige earned is based on the highest CP defender Pokemon — that’s the only Pokemon CP you need to pay attention to. Max prestige is always earned when your attacking Pokemon are about 1/2 the CP of the defending Pokemon.
- Example: The highest defending Gym Pokemon is 1500 CP — for max prestige, use 6 Pokemon with 750 CP or slightly lower.
The greatest benefit of the new team training system is that you can lose Pokemon and still gain plenty of prestige. You can switch Pokemon and use two attacking Pokemon to deal with one single Defender.
#4: Always Select a Full Team
Due to the way prestige is calculated, it’s always a good idea to go into a gym battle with all six Pokemon. Bring your best Pokemon, and then select 5 useless, low-CP to bring with you.
- Even if you only need one Pokemon to train a gym, you should still bring 5 extra back-ups.
- Example: Bring an additional 5 Pidgeotto with 10 CP each. Any Pokemon with low-CP will work.
- Change the name of low CP Pokemon to names like “#Placeholder” to easily select the extra Pokemon.
It can be annoying to scroll down and pick your junk Pokemon. If they’re low enough, you can also use them to shield if you plan on using candy to evolve / auto-revive, instead of wasting revive potions on junk Pokemon.
#5: Save Your Super Moves
Here’s a strategy you can enjoy now that was impossible in the previous incarnation of the system. Now you can save your Charge Moves and use Quick Attacks to finish defender Pokemon.
- Don’t waste Charge Moves anymore — defeat a low-HP Pokemon with Quick Attacks and keep your Charge Moves banked for later. Unleashing a Charge Move at the start of an encounter almost always guarantees an easy victory.
You can now save moves while training, making things just a bit easier when earning prestige.
Got your own useful tips and tricks for the latest Pokemon GO updates? Let us know in the comments!
