Pokemon GO: How To Become a Gym Leader

In Pokemon Go, players dont actually need to fight Pokemon in the wild in order to get them weak enough to catch. Instead, catching a Pokemon usually requires properly throwing the on-screen Pokeball at the adorable creatures. The game wouldnt be Pokemon without some battling though and thats where the gyms come into play.

For those who have played Ingress, Pokemon Gos gyms are very similar to Ingress portals (we know this from field testing and leaked gameplay footage). Each player selects a team to join at the beginning of the game (yellow, red, or blue) and one of the main goals of the game is to keep as many gyms as possible under your teams control. Gyms are usually located at points of interest in the real world like a statue, a plaque, or maybe even a coffee shop. Theyll appear on the map color-coded based on which team is currently in control of them. A grey gym is currently uncontrolled and can be claimed by whichever team reaches it first. Gyms look like towers on the map and will be easy to spot.

Once you find an enemy controlled gym, the first step is to check and see if your squad stands a chance. In this game, Pokemon are ranked by CP (combat points) rather than levels, so, for example, you obviously wont want to take your level 200 CP crew in against a gym where the leader has a CP of over 1000. Gyms are protected by a leader (the trainer who has the Pokemon with the highest CP) and multiple other trainers that must be defeated and kicked out before the leader. The higher a gyms Prestige level, the more trainers there are to defeat.