As soon as you have playing Pokemon Go for a while, you will realize that each pokemon can have different attacks, and sometimes even attacks of different types. What are then the best moves/attacks for each pokemon? How do I know which pokemon should I power up or evolve?
In the image below we have 2 Pidgeys of same CP but with different attacks. Which one is better? You don’t need to worry, I have developed a tool that will show you the best moves for each pokemon, you just need to type your pokemon name, and all the possible attacks will be displayed for that pokemon.
Click here to go to the Pokemon Go Best Move calculator
Each pokemon has 2 types of attacks in Pokemon Go
The two kind of moves / attacks of your pokemon are:
- Quick attack: This one is the basic attack of your pokemon and you can use everytime you press your phone screen during a battle. Using this gives you energy that will allow you to use your special attack after you have enough of it.
- Special attack: Your special attack is stronger than the quick attack and you can use it only once you have enough energy. You can recharge your energy by doing “Quick attacks” and also by dodging the attacks of the enemy (by swiping left and right). Once your energy bar has been completed, you can throw your special attack by holding down your finger on the screen for instead of tapping.
To know how strong an attack is, check its “Damage” indicator
On the picture above you can see that on the right side of each move or attack, there is a number (blue circle). This is the damage the attack causes. The higher the better.
So what is the best attack then?
The best attack for a particular pokemon is the one that has the highest possible damage points.
To know all the possible attacks for each pokemon and the damage points of each check the Pokemon Go Best Move calculator at this link.
AND
Is a “very effective attack” against your opponent’s pokemon.
Of course if fighting another pokemon you need to also consider the Type of the attack. If the enemy has a water pokemon, you shouldn’t engage on a fight with a fire pokemon as it will not be very effective against the water. The chart below shows you what is best against what.
To read it you need to check the left column first. There you need to select a type. Then you can check by keeping on the same row, how effective is that against the others.
For example check the left column where it says “Fire”. Then move to the right to see how fire affects each other class. You will see, as I have marked in blue, that fire is very effective against bug.
So let’s look at Pidgeot, he has the Hurricane Attack that only takes 1 energy bar for 60 damage. Shouldn’t the speed it takes to fill up the bars play into account for which attack will do more damage. If I can fire of Hurricane 4 times for 60 damage each for 240 total damage in the same time frame as it takes to trigger Air Cutter for 100 damage, shouldn’t Hurricane be consider the best ability? So it’s not the highest damage as shown in the other post, but the highest number shown on the screen/in the Special Detail, right?
Dear Daniel, you are right. I have generally assumed it take same amount of time to fill, as it is what I have experienced in the game. At the same time I have not scientifically measured the speeds etc so I don’t have an answer. There are also more things to take into consideration. It is true that an attack that has 4 bars that add up to 105 for instance totally has more damage than one attack of 60… but one needs to understand that it takes more time to launch those 4, and there is an opportunity cost to it. So while you where wasting time longpressing, you could have been inflicting standard attack damage.
Hence… it is still complicated to undrstand what the really best attacks are. The purpose of this guide is to show the basics, so that people can then experiment and come up with best combinations :D! I personally like attacks that have 4 bars because I can inflict more heavy damage early on, which ends up the fight quicker. This is also something to take into account! If you only have 1 long bar… maybe the fight will be over even before you have had chance to throw your special attack!
Then, should i keep one with higher general power or the one with special power? Bit confused
Hi! With regards to which one you should keep, that’s a more complex question! I personally try to avoid the special moves that have 5 bars, and the ones that have 1! I like to have a more balanced attack that allows me to throw it often enough, but not so much that it doesn’t allow me to inflict a lot of damage with my standard moves on the meantime! And of course, you need to also take into consideration the type of the attack depending on what do you want that particular pokemon to be good against. If you want it to be good against grass, then keep the fire moves etc.