13.12.

2017 Pokémon Go Guide

From Beginners to Advanced

by AlpolloOptik
Suggestions and corrections to AlpolloOptik@gmail.com
version 2.1.1
Content
Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2
1 Resources ........................................................................................................................................ 3
1.1 Experience and Trainer Level .................................................................................................. 3
1.2 Candy ....................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Stardust ................................................................................................................................... 4
1.4 Pokécoins................................................................................................................................. 5
1.5 Berries...................................................................................................................................... 6
2 Pokéstops ........................................................................................................................................ 6
3 Gyms ................................................................................................................................................ 6
3.1 Attacking a gym ....................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Defending a gym...................................................................................................................... 7
3.3 Gym badges ............................................................................................................................. 7
4 Raid battles ...................................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 Raid rewards ............................................................................................................................ 8
4.2 Raid bosses and levels ............................................................................................................. 8
4.3 Premier balls ............................................................................................................................ 8
5 Catch probability ............................................................................................................................. 9
5.1 Catch chance for consecutive throws ................................................................................... 11
5.2 Candy expectation value ....................................................................................................... 11
5.3 Throwing Technique .............................................................................................................. 15
6 Moves, IVs and more ..................................................................................................................... 16
6.1 Pokémon stats and IVs .......................................................................................................... 16
6.2 Pokémon Combat Power (CP) ............................................................................................... 17
6.3 What makes a good attacker? ............................................................................................... 19
6.4 Pokémon Moves .................................................................................................................... 20
6.5 Damage calculation and break points ................................................................................... 21
7 Weather Effects ............................................................................................................................. 24
8 Teambuilding ................................................................................................................................. 25
8.1 Pokémon nests, events and weather .................................................................................... 25
8.2 Raids ...................................................................................................................................... 25
8.3 Eggs ........................................................................................................................................ 26
8.4 Buddy Pokémon .................................................................................................................... 26
8.5 Teambuilding example .......................................................................................................... 26
9 Pokébattler Guide ......................................................................................................................... 27
9.1 Pokébox ................................................................................................................................. 27
9.2 Raid Simulations .................................................................................................................... 27
10 Useful Links................................................................................................................................ 28

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Introduction
First, I would like to make clear what Pokémon Go (PoGo) is all about, and that is having fun! Meeting
other people and getting around are positive side effects, at least for most players.

As is often the case, there is not that one “best” way to play PoGo. Everyone has his or her own prior-
ities and ideal way of playing. Some people want to fill out their Pokédex as quickly as possible, others
are more interested in gym fights and raids, and still others use PoGo primarily as a motivation to get
outside each day.

I personally have a scientific background, so my way of playing is influenced by that. I try to use the
resources (Stardust, Pokécoins, golden Razz Berries, etc.) as efficiently as possible and maximize my
success at raids by choosing the best counter Pokémon. In this guide I will try to share some of my
experiences and provide tips and information for beginners as well as experienced players. For the
ones who get overwhelmed by the math have no fear, there will be a summary at the end of every
section. remember, it is NOT necessary to understand all of the game’s mechanics to play the game
successfully and have fun!

Many thanks to the inspirational and awesome PhillyEv, Nik0lAu5, Waidla87, NovemberDays,
Radlman, and everyone who supported the creation of this guide with suggestions and corrections.
Special thanks go to the Silph Road team (Link) for publishing great research and establishing their
subreddit as a place for scientific discussion around the game (Link). I also want to thank the Pokébat-
tler team for creating such a wonderful tool to simulate battles and raids.

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1 Resources
There are many different resources in PoGo that are acquired in diverse ways: namely Experience (XP),
Stardust, Candy, Berries, Pokécoins and special items. There are a few strategies, relevant to both be-
ginners and advanced players, to use them as efficiently as possible.

1.1 Experience and Trainer Level

Experience is needed to increase the trainer level. A higher trainer level allows one to power up Poké-
mon to a higher level, unlocks additional items from Pokéstops, and lets you encounter higher level
Pokémon in the wild.

The biggest goal is reaching level 30. This is the maximum level of Pokémon in the wild (except for
weather spawns, see Weather Effects) and is the level that unlocks the last item (max-revives). Up to
trainer level 30, the maximum level of wild Pokémon is equal to the trainer level, with the exception
of Wild Pokémon enhanced by weather effects. From level 30 on the gain in combat power (CP) per
power up is halved, meaning the Pokémon’s strength increases at a significantly slower rate (see 6.2
Pokémon Combat Power (CP)).

Selection of sources for experience (XP)

• Catching a Pokémon
o Base: 100
o Curveball: 10
o Nice throw: 10
o Great throw: 50
o Excellent throw: 100
o First throw: 50
• Evolving: 500
• Raids:
o Level 1: 3000
o Level 2: 3500
o Level 3: 4000
o Level 4: 5000
o Level 5: 10000
• Spinning a Pokéstop: 50
• Spinning a new Pokéstop (marked with a halo): 250

A complete list can be found here.

XP strategy
The fastest way to get XP is by mass evolving Pokémon in combination with a lucky egg and ideally a
double XP event. The goal is to evolve as many Pokémon as possible during the 30-minute duration of
the lucky egg. Best suited are Pokémon with low candy cost (Pidgey, Rattata, Sentret, etc.), but every
common Pokémon works. One evolution lasts around 20-25 s, so it is possible to evolve around 60-80
Pokémon per lucky egg. Force closing the app and restarting skips the evolve animation and can sig-
nificantly increase the number of evolutions per lucky egg on fast phones (video example).

To guarantee a smooth evolution session, one should sort the Pokémon one plans to evolve, for ex-
ample by renaming them to “#” or by making use of the search function. Using the keyword “evolve”

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returns only Pokémon with enough candy for an evolution (other search functions). Combined with a
limitation of Pokédex numbers, one can build a custom evolution query (link). Example:

evolve&16,19,21,161,163,177

shows all Pidgey (16), Rattata (19), Spearow (21), Sentret (161), Hoothoot (163) and Natu (177), if you
have enough candy to evolve them. “&” is the logical AND; “,” is the logical OR.

If you don’t want to enter the query by hand every time you can use the text replacement function in
the phone settings. Using iOS you go to Settings → General Settings → Keyboard → Text replacement.
Enter the query above or a custom query of your choice and add a shortcut like “!evo”. Entering “!evo”
in the PoGo search field and hitting space will enter the preset search query.

Ideally one should save enough candy to do 60-80 evolutions in one session to make full use of the
lucky eggs. During double XP events you gain 2,000 XP per evolution, so up to 140.000 XP per lucky
egg.

1.2 Candy
Candies are needed to evolve and power up Pokémon. The power up costs increase at higher Pokémon
levels. Every Pokémon family, meaning all evolutions, shares the same kind of candy.

Candy sources:
• Catching a Pokémon: 3 (1st evolution, e.g. Pidgey), 5 (2nd evolution, e.g. Pidgeotto), 10 (3rd
evolution, e.g. Pidgeot)
Feeding a pinap berry before a successful catch doubles the received candies (see 1.5)
• Transferring a Pokémon: 1
• Evolving a Pokémon: 1
• Hatching a Pokémon (Source):
o 2 km: 5-15
o 5 km: 10-21
o 10 km: 16-32
• Feeding a Pokémon in a gym: 1 (low chance < 1%)
• Walking with a buddy Pokémon: 1 candy every 1, 3, 5 or 20 km (depending on species)

1.3 Stardust
Stardust is required in addition to candy to increase the Pokémon’s level. Similar to the candy costs,
the stardust costs increase at higher Pokémon levels.

Stardust sources:
• Catching a Pokémon: 100 (1st evolution), 300 (2nd evolution), 500 (3rd evolution)
+25 % if it is a weather empowered type (see 7 Weather Effects)
• Bonus for 1st catch of the day: 500 (2500 for a 7-day streak)
• Feeding a berry in a gym: 20
• Hatching a Pokémon (Source):
o 2 km: 400-800
o 5 km: 800-1600
o 10 km: 1600-3200

As you accumulate high level Pokémon, stardust can become a scarce resource. Therefore, I highly
recommend using it with caution and plan the “investments” carefully. Information to make good de-
cisions will be provided in section 6 Moves, IVs and more.

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1.4 Pokécoins
Pokécoins are an in-game currency used to purchase special items. Some of these items are very valu-
able and can’t be received from Pokéstops. Pokécoins can be purchased with real money or by defend-
ing gyms. For every 10 min defended one receives one coin, up to a limit of 50 coins per day (500 min,
8:20 h). Important: The coins are only awarded when a Pokémon returns after being defeated in a gym.

The following items can be purchased with Pokécoins:

• Pokéballs, max-revives, max-potions:

Usually not worth buying, since they can be received from Pokéstops
• Lure modules (85-100 coins):
Activation at a Pokéstop spawns one Pokémon every 3 min for a duration of 30 min
• Incense (50-80 coins):
Activation spawns one Pokémon every 5 min, or one every 60 s if moving with more than
200 m/min (12 km/h).
• Incubator (150 coins)
One incubator that gets destroyed after the 3rd use
• Super Incubator (200 coins, only during some events)
One incubator that gets destroyed after the 3rd use and reduces the hatch distance by 33 %.
• Premium raid passes (100 coins)
• Bag space upgrade (200 coins)
• Pokébox upgrade (200 coins)
• Lucky egg (50-80 coins):
Double XP for 30 min

How should I spend my Pokécoins?

Pokémon box and bag space upgrades can be a huge quality of life improvement and one should invest
some coins up to a point where one doesn’t have to destroy items and transfer Pokémon all the time.
These upgrades have been discounted during some events, so spending then can be a nice way to
conserve coins.

Apart from that, premium raid passes are usually the best investment. One gets another chance to
catch a fully evolved Pokémon of one’s choice, which is generally useful right away (e.g. Legendary
Pokémon, Tyranitar, Machamp, etc.). Raids also award quite a bit of both trainer XP (a rapid way to
level up if you are with an active raiding group and do not have enough candy to evolve many Poké-
mon) and gym XP (which can increase gym awards, which allegedly include the chance to obtain an EX
pass).

Incubators can be worth an investment. The most efficient way of using incubators is to only hatch 10
km eggs, but many trainers use incubators on 5 km eggs during double stardust and/or double candy
events. If one really wants to invest a lot of money, it is possible to incubate 9 eggs at a time to get
some extra Stardust and candy. Contrary to raids, it is not possible to choose which Pokémon will hatch
and the possible Pokémon change from time to time. A reliable source for the possible hatches can be
found here.

Lucky eggs are best used (and purchased) during double XP events, since the increase is multiplicative
leading to 4-times XP making the XP strategy even more efficient.

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1.5 Berries
There are four different kinds of berries with different effects when fed to a Pokémon while catching
it. One can only feed one berry at a time and it must be reapplied if the Pokémon breaks out. It is not
possible to combine different berries – only one berry can be used per catching attempt. Berries can
be received from Pokéstops (except for Golden Razz Berries, which are an exclusive reward for com-
pleting raids).

• Razz Berry: Increase of catch chance

• Golden Razz Berry: Great increase of catch chance
• Pinap Berry: Double candy for successful catch
• Nanab Berry: Reduction of movement and defense animations (example)

Berries can also be used at gyms to increase the defending Pokémon’s motivation (see 3 Gyms). Pinap
Berries are very useful to acquire a lot of candy for certain Pokémon, while Golden Razz Berries are
best used on strong and rare Pokémon. A surplus of standard Razz and Nanab Berries can be used for
feeding at gyms.

2 Pokéstops
Pokéstops are a source for a great variety of items, especially Pokéballs, potions, revives and berries.
The quality of the received items depends on the trainer level (see Table 1). Pokéstops also reward
rare evolution items that are needed to evolve certain Pokémon (e.g. Upgrade (Porygon), metal coat
(Scyther, Onix), …). Successfully spinning a Pokéstop every day for 7 days grants bonus items and a
guaranteed evolution item. Spinning 10 unique Pokéstops within 30 min also grants bonus items and
experience. The item drop rates have been changing in the past, but at the moment normal Pokéstops
provide mostly Pokéballs, while gym Pokéstops also provide potions and revives at a higher rate.

Level Unlocked Item(s)

5 Potion, Revive
8 Razz Berry
10 Super Potion
12 Great Ball
15 Hyper Potion
20 Ultra Ball
25 Max Potion
30 Max Revive
Table 1: Trainer level and unlocked items (Source)

3 Gyms
Gyms serve as

• Spawn points for raid bosses

• Pokéstops that can be spun like standard Pokéstops, granting bonus items depending on the
gym badge (see 3.3 Gym badges)
• Source for Pokécoins. A gym has space for up to 6 Pokémon of one team and generates coins
for the defended duration.

Pokémon in a gym lose their “motivation” over time, i.e. their CP gets reduced. The motivation loss
depends on the Pokémon’s maximum CP. Pokémon with high CP lose motivation exponentially faster
than Pokémon with low CP (details). High stamina Pokémon with a low max CP (e.g. Chansey) tend to
be the best long-term defenders while high stamina Pokémon with a high max CP (e.g. Blissey) tend

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to be the best short-term defenders. Holding a gym brings advantages for the defending team such
as bonus items for spinning the Pokéstop and bonus balls for completed raids (see section 4 Raid bat-
tles).

3.1 Attacking a gym

Defeating a defending Pokémon reduces its motivation. Without interruptions a Pokémon at full mo-
tivation must be defeated three times to be kicked out of the gym. From the time one Pokémon is
kicked out, the defending team is not able place a new Pokémon in the gym for 10 min. A good strategy
to conquer strongly defended gyms can be found here.

3.2 Defending a gym

Gyms can only be defended by feeding berries to the defending Pokémon. One Trainer can feed a
maximum of 10 unique Pokémon up to 10 berries per 30 min. Nanab Berries are slightly more efficient
than Razz and Pinap Berries. Every consecutive berry suffers from diminishing returns (see Table 2).
Golden Razz Berries are an exception and always restore 100 % of the motivation.

Berry Pinap or Razz Berry Nanab Berry

1 12 % 15 %
2 4.8 % 6.0 %
3 2.4 % 3.0 %
4 1.2 % 1.5 %
5 0.96 % 1.2 %
6-10 0.8 % 1.0 %
all 10 25.36 % 28,7 %
Table 2: Restored CP by feeding berries (Source)

It is also possible to remote feed at gyms where one has a Pokémon assigned as defender. Simply go
to the defending Pokémon in the Pokébox and click “go to gym”. When feeding a Pokémon remotely
the restored motivation for non-golden berries depends on the distance to the gym.

3.3 Gym badges

Every interaction with a gym (fighting, defending, feeding, completing raids, …) awards gym experience
(details see Table 4) for gym badges (bronze, silver, gold, details see Table 3). Gym badges increase the
number of items and experience gained by spinning the gym Pokéstop.

Badge Gym Experience Bonus Items, (Team bonus)

Bronze 500 1, (1)
Silver 4000 2, (1)
Gold 30000 3, (2)
Table 3: Gym badge experience(Source)

Activity Gym Experience

Defending a gym 1 per min
Feeding berries 10
Deploying a defender 100
Winning a raid 1000
Winning a battle 0,01 per defender‘s CP
Losing a battle 5
Table 4: Gym badge XP sources (Source)

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4 Raid battles
Raid bosses are strong Pokémon that spawn for 45 min in a gym. Depending on their level they can be
done solo or require several players to be defeated. Successfully completing a raid awards special re-
wards depending on the raid bosses’ level and the number of premier balls received.

4.1 Raid rewards

The Silph Road research team did some excellent research regarding the raid rewards (link). Summa-
rized: The more premier balls one gets and the higher the raid level, the more rewards one gets. The
following items can be acquired from raids:

• Revives, Potions
Only useful if one doesn’t get enough from Pokéstops
• Rare Candy
Feeding to a Pokémon of choice converts them into candy of that Pokémon’s family
• Golden Razz Berries
The best berries to catch Pokémon and restore motivation in gyms
• TMs
Item to change a Pokémon’s attacks

4.2 Raid bosses and levels

There are five different raid levels. Raid bosses of the same level all have the same hit points (HP, see
Table 5), but keep their natural base stats for attack and defense (source, see also 6.1). Pokémon who
naturally (when they are not a raid boss) have high attack and defense but low HP are the hardest raid
bosses, because the HP stat gets scaled up with a higher factor. For example, a Blissey’s HP as a level
1 raid boss would get increased by a factor of 2 (600/313), while a Shuckle’s HP would be increased by
a factor of 19 (600/32) and it would keep the highest defense stat in the game.

Raid level Hit points (HP)

Level 1 600
Level 2 1800
Level 3 3000
Level 4 7500
Level 5 12500
Table 5: Raid boss hit points (source)

The Pokébattler website (link) is a very good source for raid strategies. Its simulations are pretty accu-
rate and offer a vast variety of battle strategies and the use of custom Pokémon teams (see Pokébattler
Guide).

4.3 Premier balls

The amount of premier balls rewarded depends heavily on the player’s and team’s performance (see
Table 6).

Source Awarded balls

Base (raid boss defeated) 6
Individual damage 0-3
Team damage 0-3
Gym control 2 for gym controlling the team
Table 6: Premier Ball sources at raids

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The bonus balls for damage depend on the total damage done by the player and the team (see Table
7 and Table 8).

Individual damage Bonus balls

<5% 0
5 % - 15 % 1
15 % - 20 % 2
> 20 % 3
Table 7: Required individual damage percentage for bonus balls (Source)

Team damage Bonus balls

< 20 % 0
20 % - 40 % 1
40 % - 50 % 2
> 50 % 3
Table 8: Required team damage percentage for bonus balls (Source), numbers are rough estimations.

Looking at the required percentages one sees, the optimal raid group consists of a maximum of four
players of the same team, ideally raiding at a gym under their team’s control. One should always try to
battle a raid with the least number of players possible to maximize premier balls rewarded for every-
one. In groups of 10 or more players, those on the minority team will often only get 6-8 balls, heavily
reducing their chances of catching the raid boss.

What should we do if there are not enough players to split teams?

In this case it is possible to support a small team until they can finish the raid on their own. At this
point the supporters just leave the raid and complete it on their own. Important note: The support
should be as little as possible, so that the remaining players still have a chance to get the full damage
bonus.

Using this “split and boost” technique, one can also split groups of 8 or 9 people of the same team for
raids that require approx. 5 people, resulting in 1-2 more balls for everyone. This requires some expe-
rience, but it increases the catch chances and raid rewards for everyone!

5 Catch probability
A Pokémon’s catch probability depends on several factors such as throw bonuses, the Pokémon’s
Level, and ball and berry choices (see Table 9). Each Pokémon also has an individual base catch rate
(BCR), so some are harder to catch than others.

Warning: The following sections about consecutive catch probabilities and expectation values are a bit
more math heavy. They are meant for people, who want to know how, lucky they were with their
catches. If you don’t want to dive deeply into it, I recommend sticking with the graphs and summaries
below them.

The catch rate is given by:

𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑐𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑙𝑙⋅𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑒⋅𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑙⋅𝐵𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦
𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 1 − (1 − )
2 ⋅ 𝐶𝑃𝑀
𝐶𝑃𝑀 is a value dependent on the Pokémon’s level (Source). This is especially important since weather
boosted raid bosses now must be caught at level 25 instead of 20. A good analysis on the effect of the
weather boost on catch rates can be found here (link).

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 Bonus Factor
Golden Razz Berry 2.5
Razz Berry 1.5
Curve ball 1.7
Throw bonus 2-Radius, Radius ∈ [0, 1]
Pokéball or Premier Ball 1.0
Great Ball 1.5
Ultra Ball 2.0
Bronze medal for catching Pokémon of the same type 1.1
Silver medal 1.2
Gold medal 1.3
Table 9: Multipliers increasing the catch chance (Source)

Examples for base catch rates:

• Suicune, Raikou, Entei, Lugia, Ho-Oh: 2 %

• Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres: 3 %
• Level 4 raid bosses: 5 %
• Mewtwo: 6 %

Figure 1: Combined catch probability for Pokémon with a BCR of 2 % (Source)

Figure 2: Combined catch probability for Pokémon with a BCR of 3 % (Source)

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The difference between a straight ball and a curve ball is remarkable. A curve ball without any other
bonus is almost as good as a straight excellent throw and the maximum catch probability using curve
balls is around 1.5-times as high as without. If you are not throwing curve balls start practicing right
now.

5.1 Catch chance for consecutive throws

Mathematically we are facing an urn problem with two different “balls” [“caught”, “broke out”]. We
draw 𝑁-times with replacement. The ball distribution is according to the catch chance and depends on
the individual throw. The probability of catching a Pokémon after 𝑁 balls is therefore given by:
𝑁

𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ = 1 − ∏(1 − 𝑃𝑖 )
𝑖=1

𝑃𝑖 is the catch probability of the single throws. If every throw is identical, i.e. 𝑃𝑖 = 𝑃, we get

𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ = 1 − (1 − 𝑃)𝑁
so, we first calculate the probability of not catching it 𝑁-times and then get the opposite event.

5.2 Candy expectation value

Using the equation for the consecutive catch chance we can calculate the candy expectation value (the
average amount of candy received per raid). Assuming all throws are equal, it only depends on the
choice of the berries. The examples below assume an average great throw with a curve ball and trans-
ferring the Pokémon after a successful catch. All examples are made using my spreadsheet (link). Feel
free to make a copy to see the results for different parameters.

2 % base catch rate, great curve ball, Pinap Berry (6%) and Golden Razz Berry (14 %)
𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ = 1 − (1 − 𝑃𝑃 )𝑁𝑃 (1 − 𝑃𝐺 )𝑁𝐺
𝑃𝑃 is the catch probability with a Pinap Berry, 𝑁𝑃 the number of Pinap throws. 𝑃𝐺 and 𝑁𝐺 are the catch
probability and the number of Golden Razz berries respectively.

The candy expectation value is therefore given by:

⏟ − (1 − 𝑃𝑃 )𝑁𝑃 ) + 𝐶𝐺 ⋅ (1
𝐸 = 𝐶𝑝 ⋅ (1 ⏟ − 𝑃𝑃 )𝑁𝑃 (1 − (1 − 𝑃𝐺 )𝑁𝐺 )
𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ,𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑝 𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ,𝐺𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑛

𝐶𝑝 and 𝐶𝐺 are constants for the rewarded candy with a successful Pinap or Golden Razz Berry catch
respectively. Looking at the second term, we see that the expectation value depends on the order in
which the berries are used. Going with Pinap first is reflected by 𝑃̅𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ,𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑝 = (1 − 𝑃𝑃 )𝑁𝑃 , the chance
of not catching it after 𝑁𝑃 Pinap throws. Using Golden Razz Berries before Pinaps reduces the chance
of catching it with a Pinap Berry and therefore the expectation value as well.

Since some Pokémon (e.g. raid bosses) can be useful even at level 20, it makes sense to also include
the total catch probability. So, we define a simple decision metric:
𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ ⋅ 𝐸
𝑀𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 =
𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡.
𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡. is just a constant to normalize the results. If we want to include the Pokémon’s IVs (see section
6) we could use them to weight the catch probability and the expectation value:
10
𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝐸 𝐼𝑉% −
𝑀𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝐼𝑉 = 𝐼𝑉 ⋅ + (1 − 𝐼𝑉) ⋅ , 𝐼𝑉 = 15
max(𝑃𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ ) max(𝐸) 5
15
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𝐼𝑉 is a rescaled value of the 𝐼𝑉% to the interval [0, 1], since raid bosses don’t have the full IV-range. One
could also add another subjective weight depending on the personal preference – catching more raid
bosses or getting more candy.

Pinap Berries Golden Razz Berries Total catch probability Expectation value Metric
0 10 77.9 % 3.11 0.99
1 9 75.8 % 3.21 1.00
2 8 73.6 % 3.29 1.00
3 7 71.1 % 3.35 0.99
4 6 68.4 % 3.39 0.97
5 5 65.5 % 3.42 0.94
6 4 62.3 % 3.42 0.91
7 3 58.8 % 3.40 0.86
8 2 54.9 % 3.37 0.80
9 1 50.7 % 3.31 0.74
10 0 46.1 % 3.23 0.67
Table 10: Catch probability and candy expectation value for different berry strategies (10 balls, 2 % BCR)

Pinap Berries, IV [%] 100 96.7 93.3 90.0 86.7 83.3 80.0 76.7 73.3 70.0 66.7
0 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92 0.89
1 0.97 0.98 0.99 0.99 1.00 1.00 0.99 0.98 0.96 0.94 0.92
2 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.99 1.00 1.00 0.99 0.98 0.96 0.95
3 0.92 0.93 0.95 0.97 0.98 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.99 0.98 0.97
4 0.89 0.91 0.93 0.95 0.97 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.99 0.98
5 0.85 0.87 0.90 0.92 0.95 0.97 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.99
6 0.81 0.84 0.87 0.90 0.93 0.96 0.98 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00
7 0.77 0.80 0.83 0.87 0.90 0.93 0.96 0.98 0.99 1.00 1.00
8 0.72 0.76 0.80 0.83 0.87 0.91 0.93 0.96 0.97 0.99 0.99
9 0.68 0.71 0.75 0.79 0.84 0.87 0.91 0.93 0.95 0.97 0.98
10 0.62 0.66 0.71 0.75 0.79 0.84 0.87 0.90 0.93 0.95 0.96
Table 11: Decision metric dependent on Pokémon’s IV (10 balls, 2 % BCR)

Candy Expectation Value, 2 % base catch rate

3,60

3,40

3,20

3,00

2,80

2,60

2,40

2,20

2,00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Pinap throws (great curve ball)

Figure 3: Candy expectation value depending on the number of used Pinap instead of Golden Razz Berries, 2 % BCR, 10 balls,
1st evolution (3+1 candies)

Page | 12 of 28
Summary:
A mixture of Pinap and Golden Razz Berries returns the highest candy expectation value. This is
achieved by throwing roughly the first half of balls with Pinaps and the rest with Golden Razz Berries.
The total catch probability drops from roughly 78 % to 65 % because of using some Pinaps instead of
Golden Razz Berries. This strategy is mostly useful for raid bosses with bad IVs, especially if one already
has a “better” one and no longer needs it for the Pokedex. In the long run, one receives around 10 %
more candy at the cost of 13 % less Pokémon caught. This strategy also has the externality of saving
Golden Razz Berries for the future high IV encounters when an “all-Golden Razz Berry” strategy might
be more desirable to better ensure capture.

If one wants to choose a mixed strategy, the simple metric suggests throwing 1-3 Pinaps (see Table
10Table 10: Catch probability and candy expectation value for different berry strategies (10 balls, 2 %
BCR)), while the advanced IV-metric recommends to start using Pinap Berries on Pokémon below 83%
IVs up to a maximum of 6 throws (see Table 11). In the end everyone must choose his/her own strategy
depending on personal preferences. There is not one perfect strategy that maximizes each variable.

2 % base catch rate, great curve ball, Pinap Berry (6%) and standard Razz Berry (14 %)

Candy Expectation Value, 2 % base catch rate

3,40

3,20

3,00

2,80

2,60

2,40

2,20

2,00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Pinap throws (great curve ball)

Figure 4: Candy expectation value depending on the number of used Pinap instead of normal Razz Berries, 2 % BCR, 10 balls,
1st evolution (3+1 candies)

Summary:
Using normal Razz Berries instead of Golden ones, the highest expectation value is given by just throw-
ing with Pinap Berries (see Figure 4). The total catch probability drops from around 61 % with just Razz
Berries to roughly 46 % with 10 Pinap throws, while returning 30 % more candy on average.

Page | 13 of 28
5 % base catch rate, great curve ball, Pinap Berry (6%) and Golden Razz Berry (14 %)
Here we have another example of a typical level 4 raid boss with a base catch rate of 5 % and 10 candy
for a successful catch (3. evolution), i.e. Tyranitar.

Pinap Berries Golden Razz Berries Total catch probability Expectation value Metric
0 10 98.7 % 9.87 0.68
1 9 98.3 % 11.27 0.78
2 8 97.8 % 12.42 0.85
3 7 97.1 % 13.38 0.91
4 6 96.2 % 14.14 0.95
5 5 95.1 % 14.75 0.98
6 4 93.7 % 15.21 1.00
7 3 91.9 % 15.53 1.00
8 2 89.5 % 15.72 0.99
9 1 86.5 % 15.77 0.96
10 0 82.5 % 15.68 0.91
Table 12: Catch probability and candy expectation value for different berry strategies (10 balls, 5 % BCR)

Candy Expectation Value, 5 % base catch rate

20,00
18,00
16,00
14,00
12,00
10,00
8,00
6,00
4,00
2,00
0,00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
# Pinap throws (great curve ball)

Figure 5: Candy expectation value depending on the number of used Pinap instead of Golden Razz Berries, 5 % BCR, 10 balls,
3rd evolution (10+1 candies)

Summary:
Compared to the example with 2 % base catch rate, the maximum of expected candies shifts signifi-
cantly towards more Pinap throws. One should also note that the expectation value only increases by
around 5 % between the first half of the balls and the maximum, while the total catch probability drops
from 95 % to 85 %. If one therefore wishes to maximize the candy one should only use the Golden Razz
Berry on the last ball.

The simple metric reflects that the expectation value barely raises after the first half of the balls and
suggests throwing the second half with Golden Razz Berries. Therefore, we get a total catch probability
of around 95 %, while reaching 93.5 % of the maximum candy expectation value. Throwing with 10
Golden Razz Berries leads to a total catch probability of 98.7 %, but the candy expectation value drops
to 62.5 % of its maximum.

Page | 14 of 28
5.3 Throwing Technique
Besides the number of balls, the throwing technique has a substantial influence on the catch probabil-
ity. Every missed throw has a catch probability of zero!
Therefore one should practice being able to hit great
throws most of the time. One should only go for excellent
throws if one really hits them reliably. The difference be-
tween a great and an excellent throw is not too big, so that
sometimes missing some excellent throws in exchange for
hitting some can be worse than always hitting great
throws.

Once one can reliably hit great curve balls throws, one can
really profit from the following trick (details see Figure 6,
video example):

1. Hold the ball until the circle gets to a size that can
be hit reliably. Release the ball at the bottom of
the screen (make sure not to throw it).
Remark: If the Pokémon breaks out, the circle
does not reset, so it only must be set once if all
steps are performed correctly.
2. Wait patiently, until the Pokémon starts its de-
fense animation. (Note: The flash got removed)
3. Grab the ball and start spinning it.
4. Perform 2-3 spins (1.5-2.5 s depending on the ani-
mation length and throw distance) before you re-
lease the ball. Make sure to release it before the
animation has ended.
5. With a bit of training and good timing the ball will
hit the boss just after the animation has ended.

Important Note:
The ball must be released before the animation ended,
otherwise the circle size will change. Patience and timing is
the key to successfully catch raid bosses. It is even possible
to hit the boss between two back to back defense anima- Figure 6: Locking target trick comic (Source)
tions, so it is possible to hit every throw!

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6 Moves, IVs and more
Before we start discussing which Pokémon are useful and worth the Stardust investment, we need to
think about what makes a Pokémon strong.

6.1 Pokémon stats and IVs

Every Pokémon in PoGo has three different base stats:

• Attack (Atk), proportional to the damage output

• Defense (Def), inversely proportional to the damage received
• Stamina, proportional to the Hit Points (Sta)

In addition to these base stats, which are equal within one species, every Pokémon has individual val-
ues (IVs), that are added to the base stats. IVs for wild Pokémon range from 0-15, and from 10-15 for
Pokémon hatched from eggs or caught after raid battles. Wild Pokémon therefore have an average of
50 % perfect IVs, while hatched Pokémon and raid bosses have an average of 84 % IVs.

A Pokémon’s total stats are given by (Source):

𝐴𝑡𝑘 = (𝐴𝑡𝑘𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒 + 𝐴𝑡𝑘𝐼𝑉 ) ⋅ 𝐶𝑃𝑀

𝐷𝑒𝑓 = (𝐷𝑒𝑓𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒 + 𝐷𝑒𝑓𝐼𝑉 ) ⋅ 𝐶𝑃𝑀
𝑆𝑡𝑎 = (𝑆𝑡𝑎𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒 + 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝐼𝑉 ) ⋅ 𝐶𝑃𝑀
𝐶𝑃𝑀 (combat power multiplier) is a constant that depends on the Pokémon’s level (details). Typical
values for good Pokémon for attack, defense and stamina are around 150-200, so IVs add up to 10 %
of the base stats.

Since IVs can have a significant impact on a Pokémon’s strength, it is worth checking them if one wishes
to identify the strongest Pokémon. Outside of the game there are several websites and apps that use
the given information on the Pokémon screen to estimate the IVs. The game itself has the appraisal
feature which provides a rough estimation of the IV range. A combination of ingame function and IV
app usually leads to precise results.

Before using external apps or websites I personally prefer to use the in-game appraisal function to pre-
filter the caught Pokémon, transferring every Pokémon below 80 % IVs. I do however make some ex-
ceptions for Pokémon with a high level, a high attack IV (13-15) and a useful evolution that can be
effectively used to battle without the investment of Stardust (i.e. high Eevee, Machop, Exeggcute, …).

IV Percentage Team Instinct Team Mystic Team Valor

IV values
82.2 % - 100 % Overall, your Pokémon Overall, your Pokémon is a won- Overall, your Pokémon simply
37 - 45 looks like it can really battle der! What a breathtaking amazes me. It can accomplish any-
with the best of them! Pokemon! thing!
66.7 % - 80.0 % Overall, your Pokémon is Overall, your Pokémon has cer- Overall, your Pokémon is a strong
30 - 36 really strong! tainly caught my attention. Pokemon. You should be proud!
51.1 % - 64.4 % Overall, your Pokémon is Overall, your Pokémon is above Overall, your Pokémon is a decent
23 - 29 pretty decent! average. Pokemon
0 % - 48.9 % Overall, your Pokémon has Overall, your Pokémon is not Overall, your Pokémon may not be
0 - 22 room for improvement as likely to make much headway in great in battle, but I still like it!
far as battling goes. battle.
Table 13: Appraisal messages for overall IVs (Source)

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To make use of the appraisal function one must understand the Team leader’s messages first. They
always rate the overall IV percentage first (see Table 13), followed by a rating of the Pokémon’s highest
IV: attack, defense and/or stamina (see Table 14). They also rate the Pokémon’s size, which has no
impact on the game to this point apart from a few specific medals in the Trainer screen.

Highest IV value Team Instinct Team Mystic Team Valor

15 Its stats are the best I’ve ever
seen! No doubt about it!
13-14 Its stats are really strong! Im-
pressive.
8-12 It’s definitely got some good
stats. Definitely!
0-7 Its stats are all right, but kinda
basic, as far as I can see.
Table 14: Appraisal messages for the highest stat(s) (Source)
Its stats exceed my calculations.
It’s incredible!
I am certainly impressed by its
stats, I must say.
Its stats are noticeably trending
to the positive.
Its stats are not out of the norm,
in my opinion.
I’m blown away by its stats.
WOW!
It’s got excellent stats! How
exciting!
Its stats indicate that in battle,
it’ll get the job done.
Its stats don’t point to great-
ness in battle.

6.2 Pokémon Combat Power (CP)

A Pokémon’s combat power is roughly given by

𝐶𝑃 ≅ 𝐴𝑡𝑘 ⋅ √𝐷𝑒𝑓 ⋅ 𝑆𝑡𝑎 ∝ 𝐶𝑃𝑀2

It is worth noting that a Pokémon’s stats scale linear with the CPM, while the CP scales with CPM
squared. The Pokémon’s damage output per second (DPS) therefore doesn’t scale linearly with its CP.
The CP is not a measure for a Pokémon’s DPS, but rather a rough measure for its total damage output
(TDO).

How does a Pokémon’s battle ability improve with its level?

To answer that question one should look at the CPM, the CP and the required Stardust at every level,
relative to its respective maximum value (see Figure 7).

CP, CPM and Stardust

100%
90% CPM

80% CP

70% Stardust

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Figure 7: Combat Points, CPM and depending on the Pokémon level (Source)

Page | 17 of 28
 CP per power-up and per Stardust
1,6% 0,016
CP Gain
1,4% 0,014
CP / 1000 Stardust
1,2% 0,012

CP / 1000 Stardust
1,0% 0,010
CP gain

0,8% 0,008

0,6% 0,006

0,4% 0,004

0,2% 0,002

0,0% 0,000
10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Figure 8: CP per level-up and CP per level-up and Stardust depending on the level

The following is notable:

• A Pokémon at level 20 (hatched Pokémon and raid bosses) has already reached 75 % of its
max. stats and 57 % of its max. CP, while only requiring 17 % of the total Stardust cost if pow-
ered-up from level 1.
• A level 30 Pokémon has already reached 92 % of its max. stats and 85 % of its max. CP, while
only requiring 46 % of the total Stardust cost if powered-up from level 1, or 30 % (75,000) if
started at level 20.
• Powering up a Pokémon from level 30-40 requires twice the stardust as from 20-30, while
only increasing the stats by 8 % and the CP by about 15 %.

Stardust is the most limiting factor in the game, and one should therefore spend it carefully and effi-
ciently, making sure to look at the CP gain relative to Stardust cost (see Figure 8). One can clearly see
that the efficiency gains quickly decrease at higher levels. More precisely: it gets halved from level 20-
29.5 and from level 29.5-30.

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Powering up a Pokémon past level 30 should only be done if one
has a large surplus of Stardust, the Pokémon in question has at
least 85 % perfect IVs, and if one already has a good amount of
common raid boss counters at level 30. A Pokémon with bad IVs
at level 40 can be worse than the same Pokémon with perfect
IVs at level 30! There is one exception apart from pure vanity
that can justify power-ups above level 30 and that is the exist-
ence of a damage break point (see section 6.5)

Example for different IVs

To illustrate the influence of IVs we compare a wild Level 30
Dratini with 0 % IVs and a hatched level 20 Dratini with 100 %
IVs. Both get evolved and the level 30 Dratini gets powered up
to level 40 at a cost of 150,000 Stardust and 182 candies. If we
now power-up the level 20 perfect IV Dragonite, we see that it
already reaches the same stats at level 30 (Def, Sta) and level
32.5 (Atk) respectively, at the cost of only 103,000 Stardust and
92 candies.

The same comparison of a level 30, 50 % Dratini (wild average)

and a hatched, level 20, 83 % Dratini (hatched average) leads to
equal values at level 36 (Sta), level 36.5 (Def) and level 37 (Atk)
respectively. The costs for the power-ups from level 20-36 (37)
amount to 153,000 (169,000) Stardust and 150 (170) candies.
So, for roughly the same investment one gets a Pokémon of
equal strength, but the high IV Pokémon can potentially reach a
higher damage break point for its moves (section 6.5)
Figure 9: Common power-up costs for differ-
ent levels (source)
6.3 What makes a good attacker?
There are two relevant qualities:

• DPS: Damage per second

• TDO: total damage output until fainting

To successfully complete raid battles within the time limit, DPS is most relevant. The TDO only deter-
mines if the player must revive or join the fight with a new team. An ideal attacker has high DPS as well
as high TDO. High DPS attackers are usually preferred because they can quickly deal high damage and
therefore get rewarded with more premier balls (see 4.3 Premier balls), especially during raids when
the full time allotment is not needed for completion. Besides the Pokémon’s base values there are two
more major factors:

• STAB: same type attack bonus, a damage increase for Pokémon that use moves that match
their own type (factor 1.2)
• Type effectiveness: Every type has different resistances and weaknesses that get multiplied
in case of a double typing (see Table 15 and Figure 10).

So for example, using a Golem with rock type moves against a Moltres with fire type moves results in
the Golem taking around 30 % less damage and the Moltres taking almost double the damage, when
comparing the Golem to a “neutral” attacker.

Hence one should try to get attackers with attacks of the same type (that ideally match the attackers
Pokémon type) to better exploit the opponent’s weakness. The best way to find out what attackers
Page | 19 of 28
are best against every Pokémon is by using simulation tools such as the Pokébattler (see Pokébattler
Guide).

Type effectiveness Factor

Very effective 1.4
Doubled very effective 1.96
Not very effective 0.71
Doubled not very effective, “immunity” 0.51
Table 15: Type effectiveness multipliers

Figure 10: Type effectiveness overview(Source)

6.4 Pokémon Moves

Most Pokémon have a move pool of two fast and three charge moves, but they can only know one
each at a time. One can change the Pokémon’s moves by using fast or charge TMs. Using a TM lets the
Pokémon forget its current move and learn a random move out of its remaining fast or charge move
pool.

The difference between fast and charge moves is simple: Fast moves can be used all the time, deal
damage and charge “energy”, while charge moves can only be used if enough energy has been saved
up.

Fast Moves
Fast moves have three major properties:

• Damage
• Energy gain
• Animation time

The animation time is only relevant for defenders in terms of damage potential, because defenders
have an additional delay of around 2 s that has a more negative impact on short moves with low dam-
age per animation than on slow moves with more damage. For attackers the main impact of the ani-
mation time is when one is planning to dodge, which is much easier to do with quick moves.

If we want to compare the effectiveness of fast moves, we should look at the damage per second (DPS)
and the energy gain per second (EPS). Usually fast moves have either high DPS or high EPS (example
see Table 16). In the game one can only find the damage per animation, but most IV apps also show
DPS, EPS and animation time for the Pokémon’s moves. Since the fast move’s performance also

Page | 20 of 28
depends on the EPS, one should always also take the charge move into account, when comparing fast
moves.

Fast Move Animation Time Base Damage DPS (with STAB) EPS
Confusion 1.60 s 20 15 9.4
Psycho Cut 0.60 s 5 10 13.3
Table 16: Comparison of two psychic type fast moves (source: Poké Genie App)

Charge Moves
Charge moves have the following properties:

• Damage
• Animation time
• Energy cost

The biggest difference between charge moves is the energy cost. There are moves with one charge bar
(100 energy), 2 bars (50 energy each) and 3 bars (33 energy). All charge moves are superior to the fast
moves in terms of DPS, so one should always use them to maximize damage output. That also means
that a Pokémon’s DPS is significantly lower when it faints just before it is able to use a charge move
(thus “wasting” the charge).

To compare different combinations of fast and charge moves it is best to look at damage cycles. One
calculates how many fast moves it takes to gain enough energy to use a charge move, adds up the
damage of the fast moves and the charge move and then divides it by the whole cycle’s duration. The
resulting DPS number takes the fast and charge move’s DPS, as well as the fast move’s EPS into ac-
count.

Most DPS rankings one can find online and in IV apps for example include the Pokémon’s cycle DPS.
The only thing DPS rankings don’t consider is the energy Pokémon gain when they take damage (0.5
energy per HP lost, Source). This is only included in simulation tools such as the Pokébattler.

When comparing simulations to reality one also must consider “wasted” energy, i.e. when the Poké-
mon gets hit while the energy bar is full and the charge move hasn’t been used yet. Single bar moves
are more likely to waste energy compared to multi bar moves since they can only be used with a full
bar. So sometimes move sets that are superior in theory can perform worse in real battles due to these
“wasted charges”.

6.5 Damage calculation and break points

The damage calculation is given as follows:

1 𝐴𝑡𝑘𝐴𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑟
𝐷𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒 = 𝐹𝐿𝑂𝑂𝑅 ( ⋅ 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 ⋅ ⋅ 𝑆𝑇𝐴𝐵 ⋅ 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠) + 1
2 𝐷𝑒𝑓𝐷𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟

𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 is the move’s damage, 𝑆𝑇𝐴𝐵 is the bonus factor for Pokémon using moves that match their
type, and 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 is the type-effectiveness factor (Source).

One should note that every move deals at least 1 damage and that the result gets rounded down. This
results in damage break points depending on the attackers Atk and the defenders Def values. The lower
a move’s base damage is, the less break points it has. This means that the damage dealt for some
moves against the same defender doesn’t increase for several power-ups, but when it “jumps” it often
increases significantly (mostly around 10 % for fast moves).

Page | 21 of 28
A very nice tool to calculate damage break points can be found here and the corresponding Reddit
post here. The Gamepress guide on breakpoints can be found here.

Example: Machamp against Tyranitar raid boss

Table 17 shows the damage of Machmap’s (234 base attack) fast move “counter” against a Tyranitar
raid boss (212 base defense) depending on the Machamp’s level and Atk IV. It is notable that the dam-
age only jumps at levels 21.5, 25, 29 and 36 with perfect Atk IV. At level 29 Machamp already reached
around 93% of its maximum damage potential. After level 36 only the damage for his charge move
(e.g. dynamic punch) increases from 113 at level 36 to 117 at level 40. Since charge moves deal around
50% of the DPS it is roughly a 2% increase from level 36-40 at a cost of 72.000 Stardust and 98 candies.

In some cases there are important defensive break points, e.g. a Gengar against a Mewtwo with the
fast move “Confusion”. Assuming perfect Def IV, the Gengar can only survive long enough to be able
to use its strong charge move “Shadow Ball” if it is level 32.5 and above.

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 Level, Atk IV 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
20 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
21 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13
22 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
23 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
12 12 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
24 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
25 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14
13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14
26 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
13 13 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
27 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
28 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14
29 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15
14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15
30 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
31 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
32 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
33 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
34 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
14 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
35 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
36 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16
37 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16
38 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16
39 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
40 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16
Table 17: Machamp’s fast move "Counter" damage break points against Tyranitar (Source)

Page | 23 of 28
7 Weather Effects
With the release of generation 3 in December 2017 dynamic weather effects were introduced. The
current weather is displayed in the bottom right corner of the map. There are seven weather condi-
tions, that boost different Pokémon type’s (see Table 18) spawns and combat abilities. The weather
condition updates every full hour (source).

Weather Spawns
• Increased spawn rate
• 25 % extra Stardust for successful catches
• Increased maximum level for catching (35 wild, 25 raid bosses)
• Increased minimum IVs for wild catches (apparently 4)

It is definitely worth it to go out and hunt strategically with the weather. For example, magikarps will
be a good target during rainy weather. The saved Stardust of a level 35 catch compared to a level 20
catch is huge (150,000). Even when the level 35 Pokémon has only average Ivs it will be 24pprox.. as
strong as a level 30 Pokémon with high Ivs. It has never been easier to get a team of decent Machamps
(cloudy), Golems (partly cloudy) or Gyrados (rainy).

Weather Combat Effects

Attack moves of the boosted types are 20 % stronger. How the increased damage is calculated is not
clear yet. Either the boost is applied to the base damage and rounded up before the normal damage
calculation, as indicated in the affected Pokémon’s summary screens. Or the +20 % is just another
factor in the damage formula, like STAB or type effectiveness. In any case, paying attention to the
weather can make raid battles a lot easier.

Weather Condition Boosted Types

Sunny/clear Grass, Fire, Ground

Rainy Water, Electric, Bug

Partly cloudy Normal, Rock

Cloudy Fairy, Fighting, Poison

Windy Flying, Dragon, Psychic

Snow Ice, Steel

Fog Dark, Ghost

Extreme none
Table 18: Weather conditions and boosted types (source)

Page | 24 of 28
8 Teambuilding
Besides getting a few decent defenders (e.g. some from this list) one should focus on building a team
of strong attackers. Which attackers and how many of each depends on personal goals. If one wants
to do level 2 and 3 raids solo and higher raids with the minimum number of players, a full team of
optimized counter-Pokémon at high levels is required. If one only wants to battle gyms or contribute
a bit in bigger groups, a small team of good generalists, such as Dragonite, Tyranitar, Mewtwo and so
forth is enough.

A good first approach is looking at attacker tier lists, e.g. at Gamepress (Link). The attacker tiers not
only include raw DPS, but also consider how many favorable raid matchups a Pokémon has. One step
further is to start using Pokébattler’s Pokébox feature, which lets one enter a specific team and test it
against raid bosses. This way one can find out what your current team is capable of and what the
optimal lineup of Pokémon for a given opponent would be (see 9 Pokébattler Guide)

8.1 Pokémon nests, events and weather

A good way to quickly acquire large amounts of candy for a specific Pokémon family is visiting so called
“nests”. Many public parks and specific areas are classified as a nest, which means that one specific
Pokémon spawns more frequently in this area. In contrast to normal spawns they are not dependent
on the region or biome but are rather from a pool of all nest-Pokémon. This pool includes the majority
of Pokémon with a few exceptions of rare species (e.g. Dratini, Larvitar, Mareep, etc.) and legendaries.
The nest’s Pokémon usually changes every two weeks. The next likely change time can be looked up
at the Silph Road Nest Atlas (Link, countdown in top right corner). If one lives in an area with an active
community, most of the nest Pokémon will be reported on the map; otherwise you must check the
local parks by yourself to see.

In addition to nests there are increased spawns for types boosted by the weather (see Weather Ef-
fects) and sometimes events with special spawns such as the Ghost-event around Halloween. There
have been events with themes such as water, fire/ice, stone (“adventurer”), love (Chansey) and so
forth. These events often also have increased spawn rates for rare Pokémon that usually don’t ap-
pear in the nest pool.

The goal when visiting nests and events, other than accumulating a lot of candies, is catching high IV
and/or high-level Pokémon. Many level 2 and 3 raids can be done solo with Pokémon on level 30 even
when they don’t have perfect IVs (e.g. 6 level 30 Espeon with average IVs 8/8/8 can solo a Machamp
Raid). High level Pokémon often serve the purpose even without any investment and can save thou-
sands of Stardust. They are a good basis for a team and can later be replaced by better attackers with
high IVs which are worth powering up further. Visiting nests is even more efficient when the nest Poké-
mon is boosted by the current weather!

8.2 Raids
Besides nests, raids are the best way of quickly acquiring strong Pokémon. Raid bosses have above
average IVs (minimum 10/10/10) and are usually the highest evolutionary form, so they can be directly
used in battles. Raids up to level 2 can usually be done solo even by trainers below level 30. Most Level
3 raids can also be done solo, but often require a full team of good attackers around level 30. Level 4
raids require at least 2-3 players with perfect counters above level 30, but can also be done comforta-
bly with groups of 5 and more. Legendary level 5 raids usually require 5 or more decent trainers above
level 30 to be completed.

All those numbers are rough estimations and heavily depend on the stats of the raid boss. To get a
good feeling for the difficulty of a specific raid one can check out Pokébattler’s simulations (see

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Pokébattler Guide and https://www.pokebattler.com/raids/). I personally run the simulations with
counters at level 20 and level 30 to get a feeling.

So far non-legendary raid bosses have only changed once on 11/5/2017. Whether they are going to
change like nests every few weeks or only a few times is not known at the moment.

8.3 Eggs
Like raids bosses, hatched Pokémon also have above average IVs. The problem is that one can’t choose
the Pokémon, and the chances of hatching the desired Pokémon are very low (roughly 0.4 % - 3 %,
details). Doing raids is therefore more cost efficient.

8.4 Buddy Pokémon

For buddy Pokémon there is no perfect choice for everyone and every region of the world. Generally,
one should walk with a buddy, that has a low distance per candy like Geodude/Golem or rare Pokémon
that don’t appear in nests like Dratini or Mareep. Golem is the best pure stone type attacker at the
moment and very good against the legendary bird raid bosses. Dragonite is the best “neutral” attacker
with a lot of type resistances (but watch out for ice type moves!). Dragonite is often not much slower
than the best raid boss counters and therefore very flexible as a team backup. These two are just ex-
amples and there might be parts of the world where they are more common, and one would choose
another Pokémon instead.

8.5 Teambuilding example

The following example includes raid bosses that were available at the time of publishing. Since raid
bosses can now change, one will have to work around that. Important Pokémon will sometimes be
easier and sometimes be harder to acquire depending on their appearance in local nests and whether
they are raid bosses.

A good way to start building a team is soloing level 2 raids like Exeggutor. This can often be done with
Pokémon at level 20 and higher. Ideally the level 2 raid bosses can be used to start soloing level 3 raids
such as Machamp. Machamp is one of the best general attackers at the moment and is the best counter
to common defenders such as Blissey, Chansey, Snorlax and Lapras. It is by far the best counter to
Tyranitar. A Machamp raid can be done solo with 4-6 Exeggutor at level 29.5 (extrasensory break point
with 15 Atk IV, Source) or other good Psychic types such as Espeon and Alakazam. Getting weather
boosted, high level Eevees and evolving them into Espeons (10 km as buddy before evolving) is a good
and cheap alternative. Exeggutor is also the best grass type attacker and among the best counters to
Rhydon and Golem.

The next goal should be to build a small team of good Machamps with two fighting type moves. It can
be used to quickly clear gyms and for Level 4 Tyranitar raids. Once one has a sufficient number (around
4 at level 30 or 6+ at level 20), one can start doing Tyranitar raids with 3-4 trainers with a similar team
(Source). Remember that quick reviving mid-raid might be better than fighting with 1 or 2 non-optimal
counters if you don’t have a full team.

Tyranitar is a very powerful dark type attacker and among the strongest generalists in the game besides
Dragonite and Mewtwo. It is also the best counter to a Mewtwo raid boss (watch out for Focus Blast!)
other than Mewtwo itself. It is even theoretically possible to do a Mewtwo raid with 4 trainers and just
level 20 Tyranitars (Source).

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9 Pokébattler Guide
One of the best, if not the best, tool to simulate battles and especially raid battles is the Pokébattler
(https://www.pokebattler.com/). It’s most important features are raid guides and the Pokébox. This
section here is just a quick introduction. A very detailed help section, including tutorial videos, can be
found on their website (Pokébattler help).

9.1 Pokébox
The Pokébox allows you to (manually) import your own Pokémon or Pokémon you want to test in raids.
A login with common accounts such as Google is required, and the entered Pokémon will be assigned
and saved to the account. Since it is against Niantic’s TOS the Pokébattler can’t access the game’s data
directly, so one must enter each Pokémon manually.

The Pokébox is the best tool to find out which of one’s Pokémon are the best against specific raid
bosses (including simulations against every move set) and how many similar trainers are required to
complete the raid. Once the strongest Pokémon are imported to the Pokébox one can go to a raid
simulation of choice and simply click the “switch to my Pokébox” button instead of simulating attackers
at a chosen level. One can now find the results for the best Pokémon inside the Pokébox and even a
summary screen with estimations for time to win and success probabilities for every possible boss
move set (example see Figure 11).

Figure 11: Simulation results of a Machamp raid using Pokémon from the Pokébox

9.2 Raid Simulations

In the website’s raid section (https://www.pokebattler.com/raids) one can find a list of all current raid
bosses. Clicking on a specific one starts a simulation and returns the results (with level 30 attackers by
default). One can modify the dodge strategy and the attacker level. The returned Pokémon list offers
the following information:

• Raid boss move set (set to a specific move set for more accurate results)
• Attacker’s best move set (see all possible moves by clicking on the list icon)
• Number of required Pokémon of that type (skull)
• Time to win (inversely proportional to DPS)
• Power (proportional to TDO)
• Overall (mixture of Power and Time to win)

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Interpreting the results
To successfully complete a raid the time to win is the most relevant measure. If it is below 180 s (175 s
including possible delays) for raids of level 1-4 and below 300 s for level 5 raids it is possible to defeat
the raid boss solo. If the time to win is above the raid’s time limit, more than one trainer is required,
analogously for other multiples of the maximum raid time. If the time to win is only slightly below the
maximum time, the number of deaths becomes relevant. If it is above 6 after dividing it by the number
of required trainers, one must calculate with a time buffer for rejoining and maybe also reviving top
attackers.

The example of a level 3 Scyther raid shows that a combination of the best 6 attackers at level 25 can
defeat it in time and without having to revive (see Figure 12). Depending on the Scyther’s move set the
ranking and the number of required Pokémon might shift. One should also be aware that legacy move
sets like a double rock Omastar are shown. Some move can even be defeated by level 20 Pokémon,
e.g. Fury Cutter/X-Scissor Scyther by 4 Moltres and Fury Cutter/Aerial Ace or Night Slash Scyther by 5-
6 level 20 Golems.

Figure 12: Simulation results of a Scyther raid with counters at level 25 (source)

10 Useful Links
• Level 3 Solo Raidguide I:
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/tier-3-raid-solo-guide
• Level 3 Solo Raidguide II:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/78h68x/your_guide_to_solo-
ing_tier_3_raids_a_writeup/
• Level 3 Solo Raidguide III:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/comments/6k6pob/soloing_tier_3_raids_us-
ing_only_level_30_pokemon/
• Level 2 Solo Raidguide:
https://articles.pokebattler.com/2017/10/24/a-little-guide-to-2-star-raid-solo/
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