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I am a member of a level 7 gym. There are 2 Lapras, 2 Snorlax, 1 Arcanine, 1 Vaporeon, and 1 Pidgey. The current prestige of the gym is 25,432 / 30,000. The Arcanine joined and left the prestige at about 20,500. I trained (even though I'm already a member) to push the prestige to 25,432 so far. This sets a higher bar for someone who tries to conquer this gym, right? I'm not quite sure how it works.

Does this make sense? If I continue training and can push prestige above 30,000, then I've opened an extra defender slot, but I can't control who fills it. Someone walking down the street could notice this extra slot and join. I'd hope for a Dragonite, but I'll take any extra person to help defend.

So, does training a gym that I'm a member of help defend it?

SevenSidedDie
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Just Someone
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1 Answers1

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Yes, it most certainly does! Attacking your own gym results in your gym's prestige increasing. Even if no one adds their pokemon to the defender slot, any attackers who try to take on the gym have more prestige to lower before they make it to 0 - and are able to take over. This means that the higher prestige you have on the gym, the better chance of your team keeping it.

Also, raising the prestige does add another defender slot. As the attacker has 6 pokemon to attack with, the more pokemon defending the gym helps to stop an attacker in their tracks. Although, keep in mind, the more pokemon the attacker defeats, the lower your prestige level, which means that the less time it takes to take your gym down.

EDIT: Simple gym mechanics here.

Community
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TGWaffles
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  • But if you opened a slot and someone puts in a CP10 pokemon, doesn't that open your gym up to losing prestige very quickly? I guess until that pokemon gets kicked out. – Nelson Aug 22 '16 at 03:00
  • @Nelson Yep, it does. And you're right about the kicking out part - that's why Niantic included it in the game. Once they're out, with CP10 pokemons, there's probably no way they're going to be able to raise the prestige high enough to get back in, letting someone else with better pokemon and a higher level attack it and get in. – TGWaffles Aug 22 '16 at 11:12
  • @TGWaffles yeah. Defending a gym is not a "team" effort. The guys with higher CP can sit back and watch while the lower CP "team members" fight for their lives. If a level looks close to being lost, the high CP guys will jump-in and bump up prestige to protect the level. – Just Someone Aug 22 '16 at 15:16
  • @khaeson Yep. Usually we don't see many 7-player+ gyms where I'm from - the less players that are in it, the higher you'll want to increase the CP. That gym of yours looks pretty secure for a while. – TGWaffles Aug 22 '16 at 15:32
  • @TGWaffles Someone put Pidgey in. I kept beating him like a drum. I evolved all my rattatas and pidgeys and used Raticate and Pidgeotto to kill him. With heavier Pokemon I: (kill pidgey / exit), (kill pidgey / exit), etc. With same tactic everyone piled in. But, I'm after pidgey... if I get kicked-out it will be too expensive to get back in.. It's a real back / forth in prestige points now with me vs. unknown number of attackers. The Snorlax on top can sit-back and watch! – Just Someone Aug 22 '16 at 15:54
  • @khaeson Ah, sounds interesting. It would also help if the other people in your team put in a hand for you, but sadly most people don't - they just sit back and let the others do most of the work until it comes to them being knocked out, in which case they defend the gym and stay in. You can see this happening live in some places in LA/NY, or go see some youtube videos - it's quite interesting. – TGWaffles Aug 22 '16 at 16:03
  • @TGWaffles I just bumped prestige from 25,000 to 34,000, and a Vaporeon jumped in. His CP is higher than mine, so I've not really improved my strategic position. The rewards are better for being a member of a high level gym, but I'm still 2nd from the chopping block. For me, it's more "I want to stay a member of the team", not "I want my team to hold the gym". – Just Someone Aug 22 '16 at 19:31
  • @TGWaffles Anyway, I've never defended a gym for 1 day. This is fun. I'll keeping pouring resources into defending it. I just wish I'd put my highest CP pokemon in that gym... I got into this special gym really early. – Just Someone Aug 22 '16 at 19:34
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – TGWaffles Aug 22 '16 at 21:36
  • @TGWaffles My gym got to level 9!!! Then the attacks started. Everyone is dead... just too hard to hold gyms. – Just Someone Aug 22 '16 at 22:45