How Many Is Enough?
This may come off like a humblebrag, but it's based on lots of grinding to get to trainer level 35, trying to be careful with my dust, and not overextending myself. (I rarely power up past L30, but I do have a bunch of pretty dang useless Gary sitting on the bench.)
That said, how many of the raid boss mons are a minimum to position for the future? For me, dust is the major limiting factor for filling out my teams, but I have about 900K. Thanks to raids and luck grinding, I've caught/evolved/powered/TM'd:
-4 Tyranitar (2 L30 and 2 L20 -- split of dark and rock) 172 candy
-5 Machamp (3 L30 and 2 L20) 133 candy
-2 Gengar (2 L30 and 1L20) 282 candy
-3 Alakazam (1 L30 and 2 L20) 607 candy (plus 4 L30 Espeon)
-2 Muk (1 L24 and 1 L20) 51 candy
-5 Venusaur (3 L30+ and 2 L20) 607 candy
-6 Rhydon (4 L30+ and 2 L20) 841 candy
[Aside: 0 Golem (2 meh Gravelers, lots of Geodude) 813 candy]
-not too relevant IMHO: Snorlax (several), other Eeveelutions (lots), Lapras (several), Arcanine (lots), Exeggutor (lots) and Charizard (2).
Assuming good movesets for the mon above, what (besides Golem) am I missing for the team build-up for the legandaries? What would you still grab before the raid bosses switch?
Answers
I don't really have hard limits for powerups, especially for purely offensive mons in this meta. It depends on what I can find in the wild, how frequently I find that type, and at what level. I am adapting my strategy based on the availability/scarcity of TMs as well. As a general rule, I like to keep it above 82. For instance, my lowest powered Ttar is 80; Machamp 87; Gengar 84; Venu 76; Alakazam 71; D'nite 87. My Rhydons and Eggys are all over the board...haha.
I was a spender, it was a viable strategy when higher cp got you in the top 3 or 4 of a big gym (which earned you more dust and incubators). Now that 80% of my stardust comes from go plus trash, I don't necessary HAVE to save a big heap, but I do need to spend VERY wisely. I'm not seeing Dragonite mentioned, with that much Tyranitar candy you must have earned comparable dratini candy.
It takes some attention to make sure you are keeping it active/paired, but it does allow you to drive, catch, and keep your screen closed. Plus I have a 30month old son, he likes to push the green light--saves me from having him grab my phone to catch some, too. However, in the 7 weeks I've had it, only caught a low IV 1630 Miltank and 30 minutes ago a super low level 30 2105 Pinsir. It is a dust/trash candy collector that picks up some pokestops.
"with that much Tyranitar candy you must have earned comparable dratini candy."
Why do you say that?
Without raids, I had 3 Tyran with enough candy for a 4th, but I had 2 DNites...and only a handful of candy from walking - that is a MASSIVE difference considering how long they have both been available.
Before raids, I had almost no Lavitar candy outside of 4 10k hatches. I have a sort of "river" nearby, so was able to get some Dratini, but not tons (mostly Magikarp, Tentacruel, Staryu and Psyduck, lol). Since Dratini was gen1, I had a headstart on it, but still never amassed much. Once the berries were introduced, I pinap'd every Dratini and Lavitar I saw.
I've encountered 41 dratinis (wild and hatched). I caught 2 larvitars and hatched 7, and caught a tyrantitar in a raid (I didn't catch another one). I assume he hatched a crap ton of larvitars, dratini hatches would come along with that. He omitted mentioning Dragonite because they aren't super relevant toward Legendaries. I mentioned it b/c I'm not really planning or expecting to beat/catch one. Luckily I blindly have some relevant attackers, six level 28-30 Golems and candy for another and 10 sizeable Rhydons
Sure....you have encountered many Dratini, but my point was that you assumed that because someone has T-Rex (candy) then they must have a comparable number of Dratini (candy).
My point is that you can't assume that the number of encounters with one has any correlation with the number encounters of the other.
