Difference between revisions of "CP"

Revision as of 18:16, 13 July 2016

CP, Evolving and Powering Up Explained

CP stands for Combat Points. It’s more or less an indicator of how strong the pokemon is, similar to the level system on previous pokemon games you may know from the gameboy, 3DS, etc.

In this game your pokemon don’t level up by earning experience, but they gain CP by powering them up using 1 candy (later on it will costs you 2/3 candy) of the species and an amount of stardust. The cost of stardust to power up a pokemon increases depending on how far on the CP curve the pokemon is. For example at the beginning of the curve it may cost you 200 stardust to power up, but at the end of the curve it may cost you 3000 stardust to power up.

Also keep in mind that powering up is tied to your trainer level. By which I mean that on lower levels you cannot reach the end of the curve simply because the game won’t allow you to power up that pokemon anymore if that pokemon has reached a certain point on the curve.

The CP curve, the white circular line under a Pokemon's CP level, is a relative indicator that indicates how far the pokemon is in acquiring his max CP potential.

Because weight, height, HP, the stage of evolution and the level of the trainer determine what the maximum CP of a pokemon is.

Since a pokemon gains CP when evolved, it is hard to compare two pokemon of the same species that are in different evolutionary stages (e.g. a Pidgey vs. a Pidgeotto).

Therefor it is advised not to compare the CP number, but to compare where two pokemon are on their CP curve.

Important to know is that a pokemon maintains it’s CP curve after evolving. So in the example on the left, if this Pidgey would evolve in a Pidgeotto. The Pidgeotto’s CP curve will remain on the same spot. It will however gain raw CP points.

It is advised to evolve a pokemon to it’s final evolutionary stage, before spending stardust to power it up. The reason this is advised is because of the fact that the maximum CP a pokemon can get is slightly higher when you evolve it to it’s final evolutionary stage before you start powering it up.

Another reason why this is advised, is because a pokemon get’s a higher raw CP number every time it evolves so this is a good way to increase a pokemon’s CP early on without having to spend stardust. A commodity that is hard to come by (only catching a pokemon, hatching an egg or collecting your defense bonus yields stardust).

The last two reasons are that you get 500XP for evolving a pokemon, something that could be very welcome when you’re trying to level up and by leveling up first you can see the attacks a pokemon at it’s final evolution has. This way you don’t waste stardust on a pokemon with attacks you don’t like.

In Which Pokemon Should You Invest?

It goes without saying that it’s better to invest in a pokemon with a higher CP curve, than it’s counterpart, even if it’s in a higher evolutionary stage, with a low(er) CP curve. The reason being is that you will save stardust.

Take for example these two Pidgey species. The Pidgeot (CP510) is at it’s final evolutionary stage, the Pidgey (CP204) haven’t evolved yet.

If I would evolve the Pidgey to it’s final evolutionary stage it will cost me 12 + 50 = 62 candy. By that time the Pidgeot that will come out of that will be around CP600 or higher.

To achieve the same with the Pidgeot on the left it would cost me 1000 stardust + 1 candy each time. Not even considering the increase in stardust and candy cost after a couple of times powering up the Pidgeot (1300 stardust + 2 candy). Probably costing me between 4000-5000 stardust and around 5 candy.

Candy for this species isn’t hard to come by, I get 3 candy for every Pidgey I catch + 1 candy for every Pidgey I transfer. So in this case it would be wise to ignore the Pidgeot (perhaps keep it as backup when I’ve got nothing better to power up) and invest in the Pidgey.

Some people brought up that this wouldn’t be a good choice for rare pokemon, because it’s hard to get candy for those species. Let’s say for example you’ve caught a Dragonite and a Dratini. Let’s also say, for argument sake and because it makes for a clearer picture, the Dragonite is at the beginning of it’s curve and the Dratini is near the end of it’s curve.

Now in this example you could use all your Dratini candy (+ stardust) to power up the Dragonite, but in my opinion it would be better to save the candy until you have enough to evolve the Dratini into a Dragonair, because chances are that your newly evolved Dragonair will be stronger (i.e. have a higher CP) than your vanilla Dragonite. All without spending any stardust.

In general you should invest in the pokemon with the highest CP curve across all evolutionary stages within that species. So if you’re Bellsprout has a higher CP curve than your Weepinbell, invest in your Bellsprout and if the difference in the curve is huge, transfer the Weepinbell for a candy.

Keep in mind though that these decisions are always done within a snapshot. By which I mean that you could find a pokemon with a lower curve but higher CP when you’re a couple of levels higher. So try to remember which pokemon is caught at which level, but in general I wouldn’t worry too much if you keep your pokemon list clean (i.e. transfer the ones you don’t use), since you’ll probably know with one you caught last.

There seems to be one exception to this methodology and those are two of the same pokemon, at the exact same curve. One with slightly lower CP but slight higher HP and one with slightly higher CP and slightly lower HP. This seems to be a trade off the game presents from time to time. I would recommend you choose the one you prefer most, perhaps by even looking at the attacks (even though those can change when evolving).

All in all, it may seem like a lot of things to keep in mind when you invest in a pokemon, but since none of us is reading this to become the best in the world, plus the fact that not everything is known yet, I would recommend just sticking to the ‘highest curve = invest’ doctrine to keep things simple. This will almost always give you the most bang for your buck and assures that you can have strong pokemon on the short term. Especially considering that there’s a good chance you’ll find a better replacement when you’re a couple of levels higher.