30 Pokemon Go hacks and tips you need to know

25. How to keep a gym

Niantic and Nintendo have designed Gyms in such a way that it’s tough to keep them for any length of time. However, there are a couple of ways to make it harder for other Trainers to take your Gym away.

The first is by installing a good defender in your Gym. GamePress’ Pokemon GO wiki has come up with a tier list of ideal defenders, based on average stats, weaknesses, and movesets. Top-tier Pokemon like Snorlax, Lapras, and Dragonite all provide active deterrents for would-be attackers, and their typing makes it hard to counter them. (Dragonite, for example, is only really threatened by Ice-types and fellow Dragon-types, with it having a quadruple weakness to Ice.) They also tend to have higher stats overall.

Also, try not to leave an Arcanine alone in there. While Arcanines have extremely high stats, they’re pure Fire-types. Unfortunately, pretty much every trainer these days has at least a Vaporeon, which easily counters it with its Water Gun.

Moreover, if you want to really keep a Gym for your team, train in it to raise its prestige. By raising its prestige, the Gym itself levels up. It can then hold more Pokemon, and, if you manage to slot one in there, you can reap the benefits of defending it as well. More on that later, though.