How to play Pokemon GO PVP and become a top player [2023]

With Pokemon, Nintendo Gave us one of the best Video Game franchises of all time. Pokemon GO launched in 2016 and quickly became one of the most popular games worldwide. Now, seven years later, it has around 1 billion downloads, and users still love to play it… Even though sometimes we just want to get over it due to some really annoying bugs when it comes to Pokemon Go PVP. 

But it’s a normal thing! Relationships cannot be perfect. 

There are two ways you can enjoy the game: the most common one is to walk around catching as many Pokemon as you can in the wild or in raids, where you can mostly find legendary creatures to complete the Pokedex.

And the second one is getting into the Pokemon Go PVP world! Keep reading if you want to be a master of the game. 

What is Pokemon GO PVP?

We know you want to learn How to play with your buddy in Pokemon Go. PVP battles are absolutely different from what you may have experienced in gyms or raids. This is a player vs. player game mode where you can pick 3 Pokemon to play against another player. You will get into a battle where you will face another 3 Pokemon, and there you can prove who is the best trainer. 

Each Pokemon has Combat Power (CP) and Health Points (HP). Each individual Pokemon is assigned a CP it spawns, and you increase that CP using stardust that you gain playing the game and performing actions like capturing, battling, or completing raids (You can always check the current Pokemon Go raid schedule for this). Not all Pokemon you capture are good for battle. You need to determine if it is good before raising them to do some battling.

How to hunt for good Pokemon?

This is the first and the most important step you must follow before getting into a battle. IVs (Individual values) may vary according to the type of league you want to play, but let’s take as an example the most common one: Great League (1500 CP). 

Each time you catch a pokemon that you want to use for battle, you will need to review it to get to know if it’s the perfect one… It will need to have a certain attack, defense, and health points to be considered useful for PVP battles. But how do you know if it is ideal? There are some tools you can use: 

1) Stadium Gaming

This is a webpage where you can enter the name of a pokemon and its IV values to check if it’s good for battles.

You can type the name of the pokemon:

And once you click enter, you will be able to enter the IVs your pokemon has, and you will get all the info you need to know about it before battling.

You don’t need to have a rank 1 to battle (that would be ideal, but it’s really hard to get it) but, if you want your Pokemon to be the best, try to get one that it’s between rank 1 and rank 500. 

2) Calcy IV

This is an external app that is available for Android and Apple. You can set it up as a floating window in your Pokemon GO app, and each time you catch a Pokemon, you can check the rank it has for battles right there without leaving the game. 

Once you set it up according to what you want to see in the app, it’s straightforward to use, and it will become one of your best friends when you are catching Pokemon or looking forward to the next pokemon go raid schedule. 

3) Poke Genie

It’s an app similar to Calcy IV that can also be a floating window in your Pokemon GO game. You can download this app for both Apple and Android, and it will make your Pokemon hunting life easier. 

How to build the perfect team? 

Building the perfect team requires strategy, and strategy requires time. In order to be a successful player, you need to study… It sounds boring, but it’s one of the most exciting parts of it. 

Your analysis capabilities are everything, but let’s get into this:

There are different leagues and cup tournaments. Each one will determine the top meta Pokemon and which Pokemon you are allowed to use in order to build the perfect team. 

What is a meta? Simple, a meta is composed of the best and strongest Pokemon for a specific league or cup in the Pokemon Go universe.

Sounds easy? 

There is one place where you can go to get an insight into what you will find out there and what Pokemon you will see the most and see how consistent your team is in defeating your rivals and it’s the perfect Pokemon Go PVP assistant.

PvPoke will help you to check how high in rank a certain Pokemon is on a cup, so you can decide what Pokemon you want to use and also counts with a feature named “Team Builder,” where you can input the name of the 6 Pokemon that will be part of your team and let you know your weaknesses and consistency.

Knowing this is absolutely relevant to balance your team, but it’s not 100% true or accurate… That’s why you should know best! 

How can you know if your team is going to work or not? Playing! There’s no other way to learn what is wrong or right than practicing and testing. Put your ideas to work and adjust from there. Your strategy does not need to be the same as others; you can come up with something unique that destroys the meta. 

A Pokemon team does not succeed by itself. Its success is through its trainer. 

Watching YouTube videos will help you get some insights as well. You don’t have to start from scratch. There are great creators that you can rely on. 

How many Pokemon go PVP game modes exist? 

Inside the Pokemon GO world, you will find three different leagues where you can battle: Great League, Ultra League, and Master League. 

• Great League: In this league, you can only battle with Pokemon with a max CP of 1500.
• Ultra League: In this league, you can only battle with Pokemon with a max CP of 2500.
• Master League: There’s no CP limit. You can battle with fully maxed Pokemon. 

Where can I play Pokemon GO PVP?

PVP is all about practice and consistency, and how can you become the best player out there? There are two ways to do it: 

1) Go Battle League

This is a feature that you can find in Pokemon Go that allows you to play 5 sets of battles daily, which means you can battle 25 times a day. There is a schedule that Niantic (Pokemon Go Developers) provides before the start of each season to let you know the dates when you will be able to play each league and also the special cups they will be hosting. 

You will start the season at rank 1, and in order to increase it, you need to win as many battles as possible. Your ‘battle rating’ increases when you win and drops when you lose. 

Go Battle League tracks your progress through 24 Ranks per Season. Each Rank requires a different objective for you to progress, and each one also has its own set of rewards. Once you get to rank 21, your progress is no longer measured for how many wins or losses you have but for points. 

Each time you win a set, you will add points to your rank, and each time you lose a set, you will also lose points. 

These are the ranks you can get: 

• Rank 21—Ace—2,000 rating
• Rank 22—Veteran—2,500 rating
• Rank 23—Expert—2,750 rating
• Rank 24—Legend—3,000 rating

You can get more information about Go Battle League here. 

2) Silph Arena Tournaments

This is a Pokemon GO tournament page that was made for players by players. Each month during the season, Silph creates different cups that are external to what happens on Go Battle League. There are tons of communities around the globe that use this page to organize remote and in-person tournaments. 

A tournament can have up to 7 rounds and 120 players. Each player will battle 3 times against his/her opponent, and the one who gets the most favorable matches will win the round. The pairing will be done according to the player’s points accumulated during the rounds. 

The most competitive players worldwide play on Silph Arena, and your rank is not really an impediment to battle against them. 

It has its own set of rules and its own ranking system, where everyone can join and fight their way to the country’s top or even the global top. 

There are five ranks:

• Trainer
• Challenger
• Ace
• Elite
• Legend

Each tournament you play will make your rank increase or decrease depending on how many victories you get. 

If you want to find a tournament or learn more about Silph, you can go here and have fun! 

Tips to become the Pokemon GO PVP Master

As in every game, Pokemon GO requires practice and effort. There are things you can only learn by playing and losing… Losing is the best teacher, but here you have some things you need to know when you’re a new player: 

1) Your team of 3 needs to be selected using a strategy:

Think about a Pokemon that can be your lead. This will be the pokemon that can win most of the matches against a team of 3 of your opponent. Then, you will need to think about a Pokemon that can do the most damage to the entire line of 6 of your opponent.

That will be your safety switch in case you lose the lead. And you will also need a good closer; it usually will be a Pokemon that can destroy all Pokemon with one charge attack. 

Never enter a battle without studying your opponent. You cannot know what a player will use on GO Battle League, but think about it this way, and you will see the results. 

If you’re playing on Silph Arena, you will be able to see the team of 6 of your opponent, so you can create a better strategy to win your matches. 

2) Make energy and run:

If a match is not good for you, but your Pokemon can live for some time, make sure to accumulate energy before changing to the next Pokemon. The right way to do this is knowing how many fast movements require the enemy Pokemon to get to a charge attack, so the ideal moment to swap your Pokemon to your counter is when the opponent is ready to through the charge attack. 

Your counter Pokemon (one that will not get super effective damage from the enemy) will tank the attack, and you will save energy and shields. 

3) A match is not over until it is over:

Do not quit, always think! The game is not over just because you did not manage to guess the Pokemon your opponent was going to use. Always imagine what can be behind, and plan your strategy. This is a game of thinking, so one right decision can be all it takes for you to recover and win. 

Now that you have the basics to start your journey, go and be the best trainer there ever was. Good luck, trainers!

Get everything you need to play Pokemon GO PVP with your buddies