Generation 2 Preparation Tips that You Haven’t Seen Yet

USER GUIDE | Submitted by SeanTr0n on January 9th 2017Since we have expected Generation 2 for over a month now, there have been several articles/videos made that have listed all of the candies and Pokemon you should save so that you can get some of the Generation 2 Pokemon as soon as they are available.

However, I think that there are some more steps that trainers can take to get ready for the complete release of the second generation of Pokemon. These are tips that should begin to pay off within a week of Generation 2 being released.

1. Level Up (especially if you are under Level 28)

Obviously, increasing your level as a trainer will help your game regardless of whether Generation 2 has been released or not, but after Generation 2 is released, the divide between different leveled trainers. This divide will be created by the addition of Blissey. I talked more about the effect Blissey will have on the metagame in this article: Expanded Generation 2 Meta-Impacting Pokemon Analysis, so check it out when you get the time.

You can bet that most of the really hard-core players in the game have already collected loads of Chansey candy and have a strong Chansey ready to evolve as soon as it is possible. These players will power up Blissey and put her in gyms and lower level trainers will simply not be able to defeat Blissey in the given time limit.

To illustrate this, I will use an example from this video:

I am a huge fan of Nick from Trainer Tips, check out his channel if you don’t know about it already.

In this video, Nick shows that it takes about 30 seconds for a level 29 Gyarados with Bite/Hydro Pump, one of the most powerful attackers in the game, to defeat at Snorlax at CP 1855 (so between level 20 and 22, depending on IVs).

Blissey is about twice as tanky as Snorlax, meaning it can take about twice as much damage. This is another thing I learned from Trainer Tips:

Tankiness = a Pokemon’s Defense Stat * HP Stat

So, it would take that Gyarados about 60 seconds to defeat a Blissey at the same level. Now, if the Blissey was at level 37, and the Gyarados was at level 26, it wouldn’t be possible for the Gyarados to defeat the Blissey in the 99 second time limit. Didn’t expect that, did ya?

So far, lower level players have been able to survive by utilizing type advantages and just using a lot of potions to deal with Snorlax, but that won’t be possible anymore. If you are under level 28 you should work on leveling up so you can power up your Pokemon and be capable of defeating the Blisseys that are coming to a Gym near you.

2. Get A Heavy Hitter

For the same reasons mentioned above (Blissey), it will be very important in the Gen 2 metagame for trainers to have Pokemon that can deal a lot of damage very quickly.

Luckily, Blissey has low attack power, so glass cannons like Alakazam and Gengar will be able to take on Blissey and skip a few dodges without fainting early.

The following Gen 1 Pokemon will be the fastest at taking down Blissey:

• Alakazam with Psycho Cut/Psychic
• Dragonite with Dragon Breath
• Gyarados with Bite/Hydro Pump
• Charizard with Wing Attack/Fire Blast
• Starmie/Omastar/Vaporeon/Golduck/Seadra with Water Gun/Hydro Pump
• Arcanine with Bite/Fire Blast
• Gengar with Shadow Claw/Sludge Bomb

Get a Strong Fire Pokemon

In the current meta, particularly after the CP rebalancing update, Fire Pokemon became basically forgettable. Bug Pokemon became the best Exeggutor counters and, despite their high attack power, none of the Fire Pokemon had enough stamina to be strong generalist defenders.

Finally, the abundance of Water Pokemon made Fire Pokemon poor defenders. However, just as Blissey will become very popular after the release of Gen 2, so will Scizor (a dual Bug-Steel type).

Scizor’s typing is almost perfect in the Gen 1 meta, however, its singular type weakness will be great. Scizor’s double weakness to Fire will allow Fire Pokemon to tear through Scizor and its mediocre stamina quickly and take very little damage due to their resistance to both Bug and Steel attacks.