Lapras as buddy?
Hey guys,
yesterday I was fortunate enough to cath a lapras with 80% iv and ice shard- ice beam as moves. So I'm thinking of eventually setting it as my buddy so I can train it to use as a defender (since I don't have a good lapras for defense yet)
The only thing holding me back is that its starting cp is pretty low (1335) so I would have to walk alot of km's.
So do you guys think its worth to set it as my buddy once I've walked enough with my current buddy, or would you wait till you hatch a good lapras and then power up that one?
Answers
Don't read over this third question!
As you will have to walk a long distance before your Lapras will be "good enough", it is likely that Generation 2 will have released by then.
Assuming you don't have a Snorlax that requires candies, do not overlook Chansey (= Blissey) which will likely be the best defender after Gen 2 full release.
If you neither have Chansey nor Snorlax, I'd also use a Lapras.
If there's nothing else you've got to walk go for it, but don't spend the candies on powering it up in tiny stages. Walk it until you've got enough candies to power it up to a point where you feel you can use it, that way if in the meantime you hatch/catch a better one you can spend the candies on that one instead.
Even if you do get a Lapras from an egg, you're only going to get 32 candies max from it - I'm fairly sure I read that 10k eggs give anywhere from 16-32 candies, which isn't enough to power it up all the way from level 20 to 30 (66 candies), so it's still worth walking this one even if you are waiting for a better Lapras to be hatched, so that you can power up the potential new Lapras all the way.
That's what I'm doing right now, I caught a level 10 Lapras during the bonus Pokestop items + increased spawn event, and I've been walking it since.
If I don't get a better Lapras from my 10k eggs (8 at the moment, looking for the 9th), then I'll power up this one once I've got enough.
Did exactly the same thing. Caught my first Lapras just before the Halloween event (lousy IV with dragon pulse). Walked it to about 50-55 candy then switched back to my Snorlax.
So when I finally hatched a Lapras (thankfully with good moveset), I had an additional 20 odd candy from the hatch, so I think about 75 candy in total and powered it to lvl 30 the same day.
There's one on this site
https://pokemongo.gamepress.gg/cpcalc#/
If you're only concerned about the power up cost, then the only thing that matters is the level of the Pokemon, you don't even need to enter any IVs and you can just choose any Pokemon species, since it's the same for all Pokemon.
Pokemon species and IVs shows you their stats if you were to power them up.
It depends from the area, 100% Lapras will only have 2550 CP at level 30, and even less in your case. So in some areas you can't get a decent spot with that.
I powered up one of my Laprases from below lvl 10 to 30 something, but it was 97 IV, IS/IB (also it was before stats update, and this Lapras was much more powerful defender), and even now I can't put it in some gyms, because it will be on the very bottom.
And I expect it to turn worse in future.
Just be aware of that.
This...
I am lucky and only seem to hatch Lapras out of the big/high CP defenders...(Dratini/Snorlax), but after the buff of everyone else (Vaps), it's hard to use Lapras in gyms unless you are level 36 or so...
I can't put mine in any gyms around me since as stated, it's max CP at lvl 30 is 2550. Mine are all over 82% as well so they are great for gyms with lower CP mons and still defend well, hits hard, wastes time, but those don't seem to last as long and you would be closer to the bottom...Probably nicer for far off gyms which are hard to get to that aren't spoofed since CP of those players/mons tend to be lower.
I've still maxed near all of mine out over level 30 since the candies can't be used for anything else and you might as well (that and I'm sitting on tons of dust).
I'd just walk it if you don't have anything else to defend with, but wait till you can hatch or catch a higher IV one (it needs all the help it can get)...
Another thing to add is as time goes on and assuming we are all still playing, you'll be higher level and can power up a mon higher than level 30 then.
A 2800 Lapras could at least be in the middle of some level 10 gyms if higher level folks decide to stop playing or drop out...
I only powered up mine since I hatched another one and didn't want to take a lvl 20 one to 30 when I had others at 30.
I assume I will hatch more since I believe that stops influence either eggs or pokemon (one or the other).
