Tapping in this way will unleash a normal attack. When it comes to battles themselves, the goal is, as you’d expect, simply to lower the enemy Pokémon’s health bar to zero, whereupon it will faint and you’ll be faced with the next puny opponent who thinks they’ve got what it takes.Īttacking – Attacking is the main component of gym battles, and is as simple as tapping the area of your phone’s screen where the enemy Pokémon appears. You can take up to six Pokémon into battle with you, so make sure you pick your best six in order to have the highest chance of victory. Related: Pokévision alternatives – Best Pokémon Go maps and trackers Gym battles aren’t all that complicated but can be a tad overwhelming if you go into one without knowing the fundamentals. OK, so how do you actually start winning battles? Well, you’re going to need to understand a few basics first. Just leave behind one of your own Pokémon to take control – you might want to keep hold of your more powerful Pokémon, though. Once the overall Prestige number hits zero, which could take multiple battles, the gym is yours for the taking. Every time you defeat a trainer who’s defending a gym, you’ll lower the Prestige score, and defeating all the trainers at a gym will lower the score by 2,000. What’s a Prestige level? It’s a number which you’ll see it in the upper-left corner when you tap on a particular gym. Players can control gyms by defeating Pokémon that have been stashed there by the last player enough times to lower the gym’s Prestige level to 0. Firstly, it’s important to note that you can’t just challenge your mates to a random battle if you happen to be in the same area – although we really hope the developer, Niantic, sorts itself out and adds this feature ASAP.īattles are limited to gyms: landmarks and places of interest in the real world which have been designated as gyms by the devs. There’s some confusion over how battling works among newcomers to the game.