Pokémon moves have been an important part of the franchise since its beginning, from the damage counters of the Trading Card Game through to the upcoming and most promising Z-Moves of Pokémon Sun and Moon. Pokémon GO, of course, continues the trend, and while battling isn’t yet the most exciting part of the mobile game, much of the players are now at the point where the interest is in maximising CP for the strongest team, along with catching the best Pokémon in Pokémon Go and, of course, figuring out their strongest moves.
Despite the relative simplicity on the surface, a Pokémon’s moveset can make a pretty remarkable difference to its success in taking down gyms. Movesets play a central part in how the most serious players choose when to Power Up and evolve their Pokémon precisely because a fully-evolved, maxed-out Dragonite could still get taken down by something weaker if the moveset isn’t right. Below are the Pokémon moves you should know to make sure that your Pokémon are winning gyms:
1. Stab
Same Type Attack Bonus or STAB is an attack bonus applied to Pokémon using the same type of move as their type is. For example, a Bulbasuar using Tackle will do weaker damage than a Rattata using Tackle, that’s because Bulbasaur is a grass/poison type Pokémon while Rattata is a normal-type Pokémon and Tackle is a normal-type move, giving Rattata the STAB bonus. Same type attack bonus, or STAB, is an important factor in deciding a move’s strength. A move’s power is multiplied by 1.25 – so a 100 Power move is instead 125 Power – when the Pokémon using it is the same type as the move, so it’s well worth adding that to your thoughts on how to kit out your squad.
2. Fast Attacks
In battle, fast attacks are your primary attacks. To execute them you just need to tap on your Pokémon to execute them. Fast attacks build-up stamina which are used for Charge Attacks and generally, Fast Attacks are do weaker damage than Charge Attacks.
Eurogamer reports that, Fast Attacks in Pokémon Go revolve around two key factors: the damage dealt per second (DPS) and the amount of Energy generated from each attack.
That’s largely because the main factor which determines how often you can use the move is the amount of time it takes for the attack animation to complete. Fast Attacks don’t have any other resources which govern their use, so it’s simply a case of finding out how many seconds it takes to complete the attack before you can immediately use it again. With that in mind, the DPS is how we’ve ranked this list.
The other factor worth noting in assessing the strength of Fast Attacks is the Energy generated. Because the more powerful Special Attacks rely on energy to be used, and as such you’ll want to balance your Fast Attacks’ damage with generating as much energy as possible, depending on how often you want to use your Special Attack.
3. Charge Attacks
You could say that Charge Attacks are a Pokémon’s special moves. You execute a charge attack by tapping and holding on your phone’s screen. Charge attacks use up stamina and they take longer to execute but are a lot stronger than Fast Attacks.
While you may just look at your Pokémon’s species and say that it’s a strong Pokémon depending on that. Moves can make or break a Pokémon, and generally you’d want your party Pokémon to have powerful moves that they can use to bring down enemy Pokémon.
Sources:
Pokémon sun and moon official website for the cover image
