Pokemon GO: Walkthrough Guide for CP, When to Power Up and When to Evolve

Pokémon GO
By: Niantic, Inc. (Nintendo)

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I’ve been playing lot of Pokemon Go (I’m level 21 right now), and one of the biggest questions I get from people is when to evolve their Pokemon. If you’re looking for information on stardust, candies and transferring Pokemon, first see this guide.

First, let me show you the Combat Power (CP) gauge. The whole arch (pink arrow) shows you the current max CP this Pokemon can have. The white part (yellow arrow) shows how close its current CP is to the current max. This helps you tell whether the Pokemon is a strong one. You want the CP to be as close to the max as possible.

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I learned this the hard way, as it’s hard to tell early on, but the max CP of all your your Pokemon (and all Pokemon in the wild) increases as your avatar levels up. This means that no matter how strong you think your Pokemon is, it will always have the ability to get stronger (the current rumor is that the CP caps out when you reach level 30). If your goal is to get the strongest Pokemon of each kind, this means you want to wait before powering up or evolving your less common Pokemon. Unlike in the old Game Boy games, Pokemon here do not grow with you. Only their potential does. And as Pokemon get stronger, it costs more stardust to power them up. Yes, it may seem like 20,000 stardust is a lot. But it’s not when each power-up costs 2500 and only gives you a few CP. That stardust can go real fast if you’re not careful. It’s best to save it up for powering up Pokemon that are already strong and just need a little help maxing out their CP.

Let me use my Dodrios as an example.

I caught a Doduo when I was just a young whippersnapper of a trainer. I thought it had the highest CP possible and therefore would be so strong when I evolved it. So I evolved it. (You can evolve a Pokemon at any time, as long as you have enough candy to do so.) This was it then. I couldn’t power it up anymore. I thought I got an amazing Pokemon. It had 448 CP, which seemed like a lot to me at the time.

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This is that same Dodrio now. It has little over half its max CP

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And this is another Dodrio I have close to its current max CP.

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I come across a lot of Doduos, so it’s no big deal. But I did learn from this to use my stardust very sparingly. It’s exciting to get a Pokemon with a high CP, but unless it’s one I know I’ll see plenty of, I won’t evolve it. And I don’t power any Pokemon up unless I think it’s worth evolving right now or is already evolved and close to current max CP. Here’s what I do instead:

I always keep at least one Pokemon of each type I caught in my bag, no matter how weak. But when I catch duplicates, I keep the ones with the highest CP and transfer the others to turn them into candy. As I get stronger, the Pokemon I meet have a higher CP. I have a much better chance of catching a Pokemon that might be worth evolving when I catch it. If I catch a few of the same Pokemon very close to their current max CP, I keep all of them until I get one that’s considerably stronger.

So if your goal is to have strong Pokemon to use in gyms, I would hold off on using any stardust until you’ve reached at least level 20 or so. Any stardust you waste early on just means you need to earn more later. Each Pokemon you catch only gives you 100 stardust, no matter how rare or hard it was to catch. So keep that in mind before you spend all your stardust to power up your Pikachu you got as a starter. It’s not worth it. And it’s not worth wasting your few precious Pikachu candies to evolve a weak Pikachu into a Raichu. It just makes sense to wait. Patience, grasshopper!

You might even get lucky and catch a fully evolved Pokemon with a very high-CP, saving you both stardust and candy.

Basically, before powering up or evolving a near-max CP Pokemon, think about your own level and whether you’ve been leveling up quickly. If you have been, it’s worth waiting because that max CP will soon grow. If you’re at a high enough level that your next level-up is a long way off, it’s more worth it to invest in your current Pokemon.

Keep in mind that it’s not so black & white as just keeping the highest CP Pokemon. Two of the same Pokemon can have different max CPs and HP but be close to the same CP. They also might have different attacks, so look at those as well. Pay close attention so you don’t accidentally scrap the better one. Take these two Sandshrews I caught. One has a current CP of 424 but his Max CP is lower than the 444 CP. But the 424 has higher HP. So you might want to hold onto both of those and decide later whether to evolve one (or both). The 444 has a higher max CP, though, so will likely higher HP in the end, since it’s got more room to grow. So the 444 is still likely your better choice despite the lower HP. It’s possible that hatched Pokemon are better than caught ones.

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Here’s another example. The 191 Caterpie has a higher HP than the 199 Caterpie, and possibly even more room to grow than the 199. So the 191 is likely more worth evolving.

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Then there’s these two Nidorans just one CP apart. But the 367 looks like it has more room to grow than the 368 and it also has a higher HP.

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Then these two Mangetites are only two CP apart, but the 326 has more room to grow and a higher HP. So that one has more potential and is the better choice to hold onto.

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And between these two Nidorans, the lower CP one has more HP and looks like it could potentially be the better one with a little powering up.

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And these two Oddishes. The lower CP has higher HP and could also catch up with the other’s CP to become the better Pokemon.

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So the main point with the above examples is to compare the CP to max CP as well as HP before tossing out one Pokemon over another.

Also think about how often you see a specific Pokemon and how many candies you have for that Pokemon. If you rarely see them, just hold off. If you see them often and have a stockpile of candies, you can spare the candies to evolve the Pokemon even if he gets replaced in the not-so-distant future.

Right now I’m at a high enough level that if I see an uncommon Pokemon with a near-max CP, I might power it up and evolve it. For instance, this Psyduck I turned into a Golduck when I was level 20. I knew it would be a long while before I find one that’s much stronger than that, because my next level-up was 50,000 XP away. So I made the call to use some stardust and candy to power him up to his current max CP and then evolve him for some instant gratification. Even though his max CP will continue growing, it will be at a very slow rate at this point. So it doesn’t cost me that much stardust to keep him at max CP. If you want to make sure you waste nothing, you could wait even on a Pokemon like that. But then you need to figure out what level is a high enough level for you to feel ready to start evolving and using them in gyms.

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As you can see here, when I got to level 21, his max CP went up a drop. But now I need 75,000 XP to get to level 22, so it was still very much worth evolving him. Continuing to power him up won’t cost too much stardust or candies. But if they cap out at level 30, you may decide that level 20 is still too early for you. You might want to evolve him but not waste any stardust to keep him strong. That’s entirely up to you. I’ve been catching enough Psyducks that I may just leave him as is now and assume I’ll catch a stronger one much later.

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On the other hand, this is my starter Pokemon, Charmander. I haven’t powered him up at all because it would take way too much stardust and candies to ever get his CP comparable to one I can catch in the wild right now. So instead he’ll be transferred to the professor and turned into candy eventually.

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When it comes to common Pokemon like Pidgeys, Zubats, Spearows and Rattatas (and Doduos for me), if you have hundreds of candy, go ahead and evolve some of them. It gives you some good experience points, especially if you activate a Lucky Egg before evolving them all. But I strongly suggest you don’t waste any stardust on them. They’re not worth it (sorry, but they really aren’t.)

Now, if all you care about is filling out your Pokedex and you know you won’t care later down the road that your Pokemon are weak, go crazy and evolve all your Pokemon the second you can. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. 😛

NOTE: If you have a lot of a certain Pokemon (like Pidgey), you can get experience from evolving some of them. Evolving a Pokemon gives you 500XP. If you activate a Lucky Egg before you do all your evolving, you’ll get 1000XP per evolution. So you can try saving up some Pokemon like Pidgeys and Caterpies, while transferring most of them. Some Pokemon only need 12 candies to evolve, so you can get a lot more out of them. Just turn the evolved Pokemon into more candy (don’t waste stardust powering them up) and keep evolving the new ones you find. But be careful not to accidentally turn your strongest ones into fodder. 😉

You can also try this calculator to determine the IV of your Pokemon.

This Post Has 86 Comments

  1. Sajj

    Great help! ill be waiting till i get to level 20 before i start powering up and evolving. It was so sad to catch a blastois with 297 cp :/

    1. A gamer

      Don’t be sad you got a blastoise you spoiled clown

  2. Dado

    great help! but i was thinking, does xs,xl, and the wheight affect pokemon stat in anyway, can you say something about it plz ^^

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I haven’t noticed anything affected by those. I think it’s just cosmetic. But I’ll update if I find anything out about it.

      1. tim

        Keep your starter its a xl, xl yes size matters… a lot. Look into sizes… its a huge factor in combat.

        1. AppUnwrapper

          Where are you getting that info? What does it affect? The servers are down for me right now, so can’t get on to compare my own Pokemon.

        2. AppUnwrapper

          Trying to find a pattern with my own Pokemon and I don’t see one.

  3. nathanathan

    I have noticed that some egg Pokemon appear to have higher max CPs than other Pokemon. For example I have a 491 Psyduck I hatched from an egg that has a 1900 power up cost. I also have a 484 Psyduck I caught that has a 2200 power up cost and a more complete circle. Have you noticed this as well? I had previously been using stardust upgrade cost to decide which Pokemon to evolve but if my 491 just has a higher max I should evolve that one. Or will my 484 Psyduck pass my other one when they evolve because it is more powered up?

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I did notice some Pokemon have slightly higher max CP (and sometimes H)P. But I’m not sure if it’s specifically the ones that come from eggs. From my experience, the high CP translates to the evolved form, so it makes sense to use the one with a higher max.

  4. SilvusSol

    Regarding your Sandshrews, the 444 is clearly the better Pokemon. Why? Look at it’s arch. It’s already at 444 and it’s further back on it’s arch than the other one, meaning it still has room to grow even though it’s already stronger. If you powered it up a few times so that their Arch’s were the same and put them on the same “level” the 444 would be likely end up equal or slightly better in HP but superior in CP by a good amount.

    This is one of the key things that many people seem to be missing. It’s not the current CP and HP, its the CP and HP relative to the Arch position. Think of the Arch position as the Pokemon’s level. Higher or equal CP/HP and further back on the Arch means a better Pokemon that is stronger at a lower level and therefore worth powering up even if the current CP isn’t very high. In with time and investment these “high potential” Pokemon will grow and end up better than the vast majority of Pokemon you catch at higher CP values due to trainer level, even though they started small.

    Right now I have a Pidgey that hatched from an egg at 56 CP that has continuously outclassed every other Pidgey I have caught as I powered it up and it grew to it’s current 328 CP.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I know that. I was just using those Sandshrews as an example. But some lower CP Pokemon have higher HP, so it’s not always 100% better in every way. Sometimes you have to choose the higher HP or CP.

      But to spend stardust on super low CP Pokemon, means you’ll be constantly struggling to keep up with the stardust demand. Most people will likely get bored and give up on the game before they get all their Pokemon powered up that way. It already requires an obscene amount of stardust to keep Pokemon powered up with you as you level up.

      1. D

        I was wondering if the stardust cost was any indication on the cp after evolving the pokemon. If the one with higher stardust cost actually evolved yo a higher cp pokemon. The artical only talked about first form but could the cp range also indicate the evolution form of the polemon so a first form pokemon higher on the cp bar will end with a higher cp after evolution compared with a similar pokemon with similar cp lower on the cp range?

    2. AppUnwrapper

      I’ll try to see if I have another example if I can ever get back on the servers.

    3. AppUnwrapper

      I had some other screenshots already so I added more examples and a better explanation.

      I’ll have to look through my Pokemon later, though, to see if I can find a more ambiguous example.

    4. AppUnwrapper

      How are you figuring out when they’re low CP that they’re worth investing in? It might be doable with something like a Pidgey, but rarer Pokemon would require candies you don’t have to get their CP up.

    5. AppUnwrapper

      Also, I’ve powered Pokemon up and got 0 HP out of it, so there’s no guarantee the HP will catch up in these instances. Which is why I would keep both for now.

  5. captoli91

    Evolving Pidgey, Rattata, Weedle, Spearow and shit is the best way to level up fast as they provide great XP points when attached to a Lucky Egg. I do not have Pokestop within a 10 min range of my home. But i do have my little walking run of 5 km. 2 lucky egg, 2 incense, tons of pokestop and egg incubator. I’ll cash over 25k XP points without being particuly good at throwing balls or even fighting a gym (im under level 20). but continiously evolving those common pokemon….

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Yeah, I mentioned that in my main guide. This was really about when to evolve Pokemon you want to keep and use. But that’s a good point — I’ll mention it here as well.

  6. Marcus

    Hey AppUnwrapper,

    First i have to say great work u did there , nut i have some questions :
    Lets say we have unlimited stardust and candies, wouldt it be the best if we evole the weakest pokemon with 0 % arch ? im mean lets get the example with eevee and vaporeon:

    Eevee gets 17 cp for every powerup but vap gets 40 per power up so when i evolve it rifght at 0% arch then ich have the whole 100 % arch to power it up with 40 each time

    With this the other question is : can you PU more times when u have higher lv ? so when i go from 0% to 100 % at lv 1 i need 2 powerups and when i try it at lv 20 i need 40 powerups or ist the % per PU that it grows the same every time ? because when its the same % then ur methode is better

    i hope u understand what i mean 😀

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Thing is, if you use a low CP Pokemon, how will you know what its max CP is? You can’t really compare it to other Pokemon until the arch starts to take some real form.

      If you had unlimited candy and stardust, sure you can use it on every Pokemon to see which one ends up the strongest. But sadly, that’s not reality. The only Pokemon you can *maybe* do that with are the super common ones like Pidgeys, but why would you want to? What would a slightly stronger Pidgey do for you to be worth all that trouble?

      As for the CP increases for PUs, the CP cap is relative to the Pokemon. An unevolved Pokemon has a much lower cap than the evolved one. So I’m not sure it makes much of a difference whether you power up before or after evolving. It’s deciding altogether whether that Pokemon is worth investing stardust and candies into.

      If you look at my Doduo/Dodrio example, the CP meter stayed in the same place when I evolved. So percentage-wise, it seems the same to me.

      I’m not really sure what you’re asking in the second question. Can you clarify a bit?

      1. Marcus

        ok i will make an example for the second question :
        Trainer A has a valpeon with 0% arch and gives it a power up which increases the arch by 5 %, so he does it 20 times and geht to 100 % . each trainer Lv up the arch drops by 20 % and he gives 4 powerups so its at 100 % again . This goes on until lv 10 trainer , so he did a total of 56 powerups

        Trainer B has the same valpeon ( so really exacly the same ) but waits until lv 10 and then starts powerup , will he also need 56 Powerups to go full 100 % or does every powerup still increases by 5 % so that he only has 20 PUs ?

        if its every time 5 % icrease per powerup then at the end with a valpeon at cp 1 its:

        Trainer A : 56*40 +1 = 2241 CP
        Trainer B : 20 *40+1 =801 CP

        1. AppUnwrapper

          I could be wrong, but I don’t think level affects each power-up. I’m level 23 now so I can’t go back in time and test it, though. :/

        2. luke

          guys try download the iv calculator in app store, the one that is blue colour, when u use it, u will see the arch actually have more stops before complete as u levelling up, this means as u level up, the full cp of pokemons that u catch is also higher, as an example a level 12 player caught a pidgey with 0 cp n a level 15 also caught a pidgey with 0 cp, if both of them level up their pidgey to the max, the level 15 will have more CP and HP as his pidgey have more archstops and can be level up a few times more than the level 12 pidgey,

      2. Marcus

        OK i try it with and example :

        Trainer A is lv1 and got a vaporeon at 1 cp .Everytime he PU , the arch gets filled 5% , so after 20 times the arch is at 100 %. Every lv up the arch go down and he can PU anothe 4 times . He does it up to lv 10 , so its 56 PU in total :

        Vaporeon : 1+56*40= 2241 cp

        Trainer B is lv1 and got the exact same vaporeon at 1 cp but he waits with the PU until lv 10 and then do all at the same time , so will the arch be filled by 5 % every power up(so 20 in total) or will he also be able to make the 56 PU too ?

        if its everytime 5 % then for trainer B:

        1+20*40= 800 cp

        i hope its getting more understandable , so the point is will the arch icrease by 5 %

        1. AppUnwrapper

          Are you getting these numbers from somewhere? The 5%, etc? Have you seen something about the trainer level affecting how much the CP goes up per power up?

          1. Marcus

            no just an example , it looks like its about 5 % but i just use it to make it clear in numbers

            1. Marcus

              thats why im asking u , maybe u know how this cp system really works

              1. AppUnwrapper

                I’d do more testing with it, but that stardust is too valuable!

                1. Marcus

                  yeah i know , i just made it this way from 0-100 % to make clear the concept

        2. RomanGun

          What you’re failing to realize is that, while trainer b is leveling up, the vaporeon’s possible max CP is increasing as well. So, in theory, there is no difference between the way that both vaporeon’s power up.

    2. azrael

      iv it all comes down to iv. the pokemons iv dictates how much cp/hp is added per level up (power up)

  7. Marcus

    no just an example , it looks like its about 5 % but i just use it to make it clear in numbers

  8. Daud

    Crap! I don’t know that lucky egg effect on evolving monster ahhhhhhhhh, so many evolve moment that i missed .. Crap!

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I don’t think it affects the monster itself. You just missed out on experience.

  9. Slarv

    Nice guide how the arch works, thanks.

    The way you evolved the Psyduck was a mistake though, even if you knew the CP would be really good, the actual attack the Golduck receive is random, a 1000cp Golduck with Water gun is way better than a 1400 with Confusion. So powering up before you know the evoled versions attacks is a bad move.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Mine has Water Gun and Ice Beam, though….?
      I catch so many Golducks that I can always evolve another.

  10. MoistMon

    I understand what you are saying when you have two of the same poke with close cp. but I believe you left something out. If you look at your Pokemon that you compared there are differences in the size and height. Some being xs and XL and the like. My theory is that the ones you are tossing for having a lower CP potential have something your not considering. Faster attacks in gym battles. My vaporeon attacks super fast and decimates the opponent faster. More hits with lower cp but faster. It is the xs factor that speeds up the attacks.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Are you basing this off of testing with multiple Vaporeons with similar stats and just different size?

  11. Wesleypopje

    I also have a strange question.

    for example I have 2 pidgey. one has 10 cp the other has 500 CP. Ofcourse the 10 cp pidgey has no curve and the 500 cp has it at max.
    Now I level both pidgey’s up untill I get 2 pidgeot. the 10 cp pidgeot should have zero curve and the 500 pidgeot is at max. Now here is the question.

    Will pidgeot 0 curve get stronger than pidgeot max curve when I level it with candy untill max???

    Here is why I ask. If you level a pidgey it doesnt get much CP while leveling a pideot it gets more cp. So in the long run you will get more CP when you can level up a pidgeot.
    Now the 500 pidgey already has max CP and curve. So on his lower evolution it got his level up which is less CP gain than a Pidgeot would have. And therefore the Pidgeot cannot get grow more.

    Does this mean that the more candy you use to power up a pokemon, the more times you get higher cp and the higher curve pokemon cannot benefit from the leveling with candy so they are weaker in the end.

    There doesn;t seem to be an answer to this on the internet. Am I the only one thinking of this?

    If my example is the case you should be rewarded for farming and using a lot of candy/dust to evolve your low cp curve pokemon and then leveling it. If this isn;t the case, than we should all wait untill lvl 30 catch the highest pidgey and evolve it to pidgeot and there is the max pidgeot. no need to worry about candies and dust and just ignore it…or even better…catch a max lvl pidgeot (shich is still less strong than a half curve Snorlax xD

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Some Pokemon do have more potential than others. But I’m not sure what gives them that potential. I started labeling my Pokemon hatched from eggs to see if they’re better than the wild ones I catch, and sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Size doesn’t seem to matter, either. I’m not seeing any pattern with my Pokemon.

      The problem with training a low CP Pokemon all the way up to its max is that it will cost a ton of stardust and candies and you won’t even know until you’ve invested a ton into it whether it’s any good. You can’t estimate what its max CP might be without at least training it enough to see what its arch looks like compared to others. It just doesn’t seem realistic. And for what, anyway? A Pidgey/Pidgeot is weak compared to rarer Pokemon, so why invest so much time and effort into trying to get the absolute best Pidgey? And the rarer Pokemon are hard enough as is to get enough candies to evolve one or two, much less train a bunch from low CP.

      1. Joules

        I have one Pidgeot that initally started around 480 CP after I had evolved it back when I was level 8 or something. He was near max CP at the time, so every time I leveled up, I kept powering him up to max. I am now level 16 and he is now 920 CP with 93 HP. He absolutely wrecks the ~1300 CP Vaporeons that run the gyms around here. I am starting to think powered up pokemon get much stronger than high CPs that you find in the wild but are not powered up with star dust, but my sample size is just this one Pidgeot. I’ll continue to max him out and see how he does as others get stronger too, but was just wondering if anyone else has noticed anything like this.

        1. AppUnwrapper

          My strongest Pidgeot at the moment is CP 827 with 90 HP and still lots of room to grow (but I’m level 23). I didn’t power him up, but I don’t remember if I caught him like that or evolved him. I’m still saving up a few Pidgeys that I might evolve soon to compare.

          I don’t know that the gym battles are a great test of anything, as it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening. And I heard if two people are battling the same gym at the same time, it might affect how the gym’s Pokemon react.

          Edit: Just evolved a 344 Pidgey to a 637 Pidgeotto to a 1114 Pidgeot. He has 108 HP and room to grow still. Not sure if that proves anything.

  12. Alex

    Question here….

    Max the pokemon’s CP before evolving or evolve first then max CP?

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Honestly, I don’t think it makes much of a difference. I’ve done it both ways. You get more CP per power-up when they’re evolved, but it also takes more CP to max it out. It seems to be a percentage rather than a set amount. Wherever your CP is on the arch before evolving, it’ll stay in that position.

  13. Beate

    Hi! Great guide!

    Is CP the only thing that matters? Like one Pokemon can have more CP than another one of same kind, but the other one might have higher level at one of the two attacks. Still go for the one with highest CP?

    And again, two of same kind of Pokémon. But they have different attacks. How do I know which attacks to go for?
    E.x.:

    Pidgeotto 1:
    CP: 314,
    HP: 58,
    12 Wing Attack (Flying),
    25 Air Cutter (4) (Flying)

    Pidgeotto 2:
    CP: 268
    HP: 50,
    12 Wing Attack (Flying),
    15 Twister (5) (Dragon)

    In this example Pidgeotto 1 has Flying as attack, and Pidgetto 2 has Dragon. It’s like this with many of my Pok╬ô├╢┬ú╬ô├«├ëmons and I don’t know which to choose to evolve. Should I compare them with other Pok╬ô├╢┬ú╬ô├«├ëmons I have? See if there is some other Pok╬ô├╢┬ú╬ô├«├ëmons which has some kind of same attack, and then evolve / power up the other one?

    1. AppUnwrapper

      If you can, I’d suggest holding onto the Pokemon with moves you want until you find a stronger one with the same moves. But I would try to avoid using stardust on weak Pokemon, especially Pidgeys!

    2. MrPau1

      I try to keep them with moves that match their natural ability. Like the pidgeotto with two flying moves would be stronger than the one with a dragon move as its a flying Pokemon and not dragon! Or am I being daft???

  14. MrPau1

    I’m level 15 and have powered up nothing. I jumped from level 10 to 15 by activating a lucky egg and evolving a bunch of rubbish weedles, caterpies, pidgeys and rattatas. I can catch ALOT of them around my way so evolved like 20 pidgeys and 10-12 of the rest. I worry that I’ll waste dust on something and find a stronger one. I had a hunch that if you stuck with one it would be stronger than any you find because your ‘training’ it with the power ups. Power it up and up then evolve it at later time and power again. Like if you powered up your starter from the beginning it would be stronger than anything you could find????

  15. MrPau1

    I found a CP 41 cubone when I was level 9. His arch is just under quater full. The HP is 16 has two ground moves (mud slap and bulldoze) and is XL in weight but normal height. Dust to power him at the mo is 200 a pop.

    Is he worth levelling? Just sticking with it or would this be a waste????

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I don’t see how you could compare him to other Cubones at this point. That’s the problem. With the old Game Boy games, you could just take them into battle and train them up to see how they turn out. But when they start off with such a low CP, it’s too hard to tell if they’ll be stronger in the long run. It would take a *lot* of stardust to get him to max CP and keep him there as you level up. And then you can discover he’s actually weaker than other Cubones you catch.

  16. MrPau1

    Apparently he is common anyway? Yet Lickatung is very rare but when I was in Bath UK in Victoria Park my son caught 7 ???? Go figure. I’m glade and hope they don’t put stardust in the items you can buy with pokecoins. Play to win not pay to win. Sadly I fear they may just do it one day and those that have cash to burn will buy dust and candies and it all means nothing then. It’s good game. I hope in future you can trade, battle with other trainers. wish they would sort the darn footstep thing out too. It’s just random luck at the moment.

  17. dhanesh

    I wana power up my pokemon with candies. I am unable to upgrade what should i do plz tell me

  18. Haftor

    Hey great information!
    I was just wondering why you powered up the psyduck before evolving him? Shouldn’t you power up after evolving just in case he doesn’t get the best moves available? I would really appreciate an answer because I always wondered why some people powered up just before evolving. I am lvl 10 btw.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I think it’s still up for debate whether it’s better to power up before or after. He was close to max, so it didn’t take much to get him to max.
      For rarer Pokemon that I don’t have as many candies for, I would be more careful.

      1. Haftor

        So you do recommend evolving first, then powering up right? (to make sure he has good moves)

        1. Haftor

          Oh and also, sorry for bothering you, but is it a good idea to evolve 1 eevee before lvl 20 just to take over gyms and have one good powerful pokemon?

          1. AppUnwrapper

            Are Eevees common for you? They’re pretty rare for me. I used Dodrios, Pidgeots and Golbats early on because I had sooooo many candies from them. If you have tons of Eevee candies, I don’t see the harm in using some early on.

            1. Haftor

              I only almost have 25 eevee candy at lvl 10… but I mean pidgeots are only so strong, I need at least one 1k+ pokemon before lvl 20. So maybe get a vaporeon. I’ll get back my 25 eevee candy by the time I’m lvl 20+ so I can then get a really good vaporeon. Idk… you’re the pro

              1. AppUnwrapper

                What are you trying to achieve with the gyms? Depending on where you live, it’s going to be very hard, maybe even impossible, to hold more than one gym at a time. If you just want to get a Pokemon into a gym once a day and cash out for your 10 coins, you don’t need a single strong Pokemon. You just need six that can take down some stronger Pokemon together.

                1. Haftor

                  I guess you’re right. So lvl 0-20 is grind and then towards level 20 you can finally see the fruit of your work? And how can you use six different pokemons to take down one stronger one?

                  1. AppUnwrapper

                    Read my gym guide. 🙂 When you take on gyms owned by other teams, you get to take 6 Pokemon into battle. You only need a single strong one when training at gyms owned by your team. And I wouldn’t worry about that now. You can still win gym battles and get your 10 coins without having to train at your team’s gyms.

              2. AppUnwrapper

                25 is not a lot. I don’t recommend using them yet. Catch all the Pokemon you see and then evolve some that you have at least a couple hundred candies for.

        2. AppUnwrapper

          I can’t say for sure, because it’s hard to tell if it affects the CP. I *think* it’s the same either way, but there’s a possibility it’s better to do it before. If there’s no difference then evolving first does make sense.

  19. Bets0610

    Hi guys sorry I have a question but I really need some guidance, I caught a 454 cp Venausar and it meets about the halfway mark on the power level thing (I’m level18) and i was wondering if that means it will only reach about 900 cp which definitely means it wouldn’t be worth powering up, thanks for any responses in advance!

    1. AppUnwrapper

      That does sound like it would be weak, but I haven’t caught a Venusaur myself yet (had one pop up two blocks away the other night when I was already in bed. :/ ). So I have nothing to compare it to.

    2. AppUnwrapper

      I’d say just hold onto it for now and see if you find a better one.

  20. Nick T.

    I’m also a level 21 and I’ve been trying to decide if I should power up and then evolve or evolve and then power up. What is your opinion on this/ does it even matter at all? I’ve been powering up and then evolving, but I’m still unsure.

    Thanks

    1. AppUnwrapper

      I’ve stopped powering up Pokemon altogether. I’m waiting on that. But I still evolve Pokemon I have a lot of candy for. If you don’t have that much candy, I suggest waiting altogether.

      I’m also not sure there’s any difference between powering up before or after evolving. You get less CP per power-up before evolving, but the max CP is lower. So I think it mostly evens out either way.

      1. Nick T.

        Yea I was reading other comments on this thread and you said that when you evolve your Pokemon the max CP bar doesn’t move which leads me to believe it is all just percentage based and it doesn’t matter whether you power up then evolve or evolve then power up. And about saving stardust, I’m going to start doing that. I just got my first gyarados so I got a little carried away with spending stardust. Thanks for the quick reply.

        1. AppUnwrapper

          Exactly.

          Congrats on the Gyarados! I still need a few more Magikarp, but I have a 156 I might evolve when that time comes (maybe).

  21. Chris

    Question, how do you tell what skills are better? Like, if you had two pidgeys and they had the same stats except for the skills. Say, one had quick attack and poison fang and the other had bite and air cutter..who would you transfer?

  22. Wossol

    It’s easy now.

    We should check the IV’s of the pokemon (Google it) and then decide what to do…if you have 100% IV then you should evolve it or something 😀

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Yeah I just added something about that. I hope the calculator is reliable!

  23. Chris

    Hmm guess I’ll have to check out this IV thing now lol I’ve been holding off since it seems like a lot of work .-.

  24. Sad.True

    So true Sir, in this POkemon Go, the actual pokemon is you, yes you, I ampointing at you, you are the pokemon, what matters most in this game is your level as player, not your pokemon. So use your best effort to raise your level. Good luck buddy!!

    I just uninstalled this game seconds after I realize this fact

  25. Benjamim

    Hi, does it matter if I power up before ou after evolving?

    Thank you very much and nice article.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      From my experience, it doesn’t seem to matter. But if you still have a long way to level up, it’s worth it to save your stardust and candy and only power up once you know you’re not going to catch more powerful Pokemon.

  26. Blupp

    I have a 156 Magikarp – if i evolve – what can I expect the Gyarados to become?

    1. Mongoose

      Magikarps mutiply by ten, from what I hear (hence why you need 400 candies.) So I’d max it before you evolve to get the most bang out of your buck.

    2. Jose solo

      1600+

  27. MayBeHeir

    So, I’ve read both this and IV guide and still can’t understand completely which pokemon are best to keep and when is it best to evolve them. As far as I get it:
    1. Calculate its IV to find out if it’s worth to keep
    2. If it has CP close to max, then it’s good to evolve? if not, you have to look for better one?
    Sorry, I might misunderstand something, English isn’t my first language. I would really appreciate it if you explain me if I get it right or wrong.

  28. reg

    hi im a lvl14 trainer but then i hatched a aerodactyl which looks like it has a low co but then when i checked it using thr IV calculator even though it only has 160cp on silphroad it said that its a solid pokemon.
    29/30 on attack/def and 15,15 on stamina should i already power it up ? or wait to lvl up and wait for a better one ? and does trainer lvl affect when i power up a pokemon? thanks

    1. azrael

      when it comes to rare pokemon ivs dont really matter that well. what use is a perfect iv pokemon with 300cp? you cant power it up enough to be useful in gyms. if you think you can collect TONS of candies and stardust then go ahead and keep it but chances are you’ll have found a better aerodactyl by then.

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