taking down a gym solo
Does anyone have any tips for taking down enemy gyms alone? I'm level 22 and don't have many powerful pokemon yet. If I defeat the lowest CP pokemon and the run away, I can heal up my pokemon and keep going back and chipping away at the prestige until I eventually defeat them all. This seems to work better than trying to take them all on at once. Thanks all!
Answers
Seems to me taking down gyms is pretty easy, so long as you have the time.
If I were you, I'd focus on getting the pokemon on the 'highest DPS per type' page. Picking the highest DPS attacker to fight a defender who's weak to them makes killing them super easy.
For example, a nice Parasect/Venomoth/Scyther/Pinsir with good bug attacks can demolish Exeggutors. My 1100 CP Parasect regularly takes down ~2000 CP Exeggutors on defense.
Similarly, Victreebel's can demolish Vaporeons, and so on. Picking your match ups well, and learning to dodge, should allow you to at least get through 6 - 8 opponents in most gyms. Once you can fully clear the gym, you get a big bonus, and at that point you can take down the gym much quicker.
It's not that hard, just depends on how much time you have and consumables. I'm level 27 and consistently hold/defeat gyms.
Get a Vileplume, Exeguttor with solar beam at least, Victreebell as well. Vaporeons done.
Strong Flareon which easy to get cuts down grass defenders.
I don't have a strong snorlax, lapras or dragonite, so have to choose my team wisely, but unless there like 3 of those guys over 2k that gym gonna drop somewhat easy.
Pretty much everything previous poster said.
Suppose just a little more as when I first started taking down gyms, I made a lot of these mistakes going in.
Have a plan for each opponent you encounter. If the mon that was your optimal matchup for your first opponent has a negative to neutral matchup, swap him out, don't just bang your head against a wall, there may be a matchup later where he is either favorable or at the very least neutral. The only exception to leave him in just a little bit longer is if he was really close to being able to execute a strong charge move.
My area may be somewhat weak compared to some areas from very large cities, but I get extremely excited to see level 5 plus gyms of opposition to find an exp use for the consumables I'm completely willing to throw away when I'm stocking pokeballs.
Unfortunately I am either in a gym, or it never really gets any higher than level 3 for opposition, which you can just take down in about minutes. There is one exception of a remote gym that's pretty strong with elite defenders. I'd have to bang my head against walls for like a half hour with minimal exp gains and an extreme use of consumables, and not even hold it for 3 hours.
It's really important to know your gyms, we have a gym at a casino where the employees seem to be the same team as me, I've been out of that gym 1 day in the last month.
