What Pokémon should you evolve or power up?
USER GUIDE | Submitted by TeddybearXDToday i will be discussing a question that has been asked my nearly every single player who plays Pokemon Go: which Pokemon do I evolve and/or power up? Choosing to evolve a Pokemon with high CP but not great IV’s, rather than a high IV Pokemon with lower CP can sometimes save you a ton of stardust. As a lvl 32 player, I have had a lot of experience in seeing how IV’s really affect your Pokemon Combat Power.
Also, I will be using an IOS app called PokeStats to show the difference in a Pokemon’s max CP with 100% IV’s and with 0% IV’s. First I will be discussing the impact IV’s make in a Pokemon’s CP.
How IV affects MAX CP
Let’s say I have two Snorlaxes and I am a level 40 player (this will be relevant later). Both are currently at 2500 CP, but:
- one has 100% IV’s and Max CP of 3355
- the other has 0% IV’s and Max CP of 2926
If I chose to power up the 100% IV Snorlax to it’s max CP, I would need to power it up all the way to 3355 CP, which is the max CP Snorlax can have (at level 40). However, if I were to power up the 0% IV Snorlax, it would only go to 2926 CP which is the max it can have with 0% IV’s.
| IV % | Max CP |
|---|---|
| 100% | 3355 |
| 0% | 2926 |
| Δ Max CP | 429 |
When it comes to a Snorlax, you can expect there is approximately a 400 CP difference between 100% IV’s and 0, but let’s not forget that Snorlax is one of the highest CPs in the game: this 400 CP difference is around the maximum difference between highest and lowest CP of any given Pokemon.
This really isn’t a huge difference. If you have a Pokemon that is in the highest or second highest IV tier, it really is not that far away from perfect Max CP. So evolving a Pokemon with IV’s in the first or second tier is a good idea, you don’t need to wait for the perfect IV’s.
Never power up a Pokémon before evolving it! If you get a bad moveset, it’s CP value doesn’t really matter and you probably don’t want to power up it!
When to Power Up a Pokémon
Let’s talk about when to power up a Pokemon. All Pokémon have movesets they gain when they evolve, consisting of one fast move and one charge move. When it comes to types and quality of movesets, some movesets are purely better than others, some are better for attacking gyms or defending them.
For the best movesets of each Pokemon I will again be using PokeStats, as it lists all movesets and their ranking for both attacking and defending gyms.
Let’s say you have two different Lapras. One is 1700 CP and has Ice Shard and Blizzard, which is 88% as good as the best defensive moveset for Lapras. The other has Ice Shard and Ice Beam, which is the best defensive moveset for Lapras, except this Lapras has 1100 CP.
Powering up the Lapras with the best moveset will cost significantly more stardust and Lapras candies than the higher CP Lapras with the good, but less damaging, moveset.
My advice is to see how many candies and stardust you are willing to spend to get the better moveset. IV’s do factor in as well, but aren’t nearly as important as moveset.
Moveset will determine more than anything how well your Pokemon does in battle whether that be attacking or defending. If you don’t have IOS or don’t want the app, check out Game Press’s moveset grades to see which movesets are best for attacking and defending for each Pokemon.
TL;DR:
- IV’s are not as important
- Moveset is extremely important
- CP before evolving/powering up is important
Thanks for reading, look for more of my guides soon!
