If you want to be the very best at Pokemon Go, you need to read this.
Despite being the most popular app of all time, Pokemon Go is surprisingly inscrutable. There’s no tutorial, no instruction manual, and some of the game’s most basic rules are completely hidden from view. For example, did you know that Arcanine has a better base attack stat than Charizard?
You probably didn’t, which is exactly why you need to check out The Silph Road.
READ MORE: The most comprehensive Pokemon Go guide on the internet
The Silph Road is a community of Pokemon Go enthusiasts who are doing the world a favor by figuring out exactly what makes the game tick. Not long along, the group discovered that each and every species of Pokemon has a set of base stats: Attack, Defense and Stamina. These stats aren’t visible anywhere in the game, but if you have an Exeggutor with the same CP as a Magmar, the Exeggutor will always have a higher attack and defense rating.
Stamina is the third fixed statistic, but considering that it determines how quickly a Pokemon’s special attack meter fills up, it’s far more difficult to measure. Thankfully, The Silph Road community is made up of tens of thousands of Pokemon Go fans who are willing to put in the work to reach a definitive conclusion.
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that many of the most powerful Pokemon in the game are the hardest to find: Mewtwo, Moltres and Zapdos are thought to have some of the highest attack stats in the game, but it’s not even possible to catch them yet. As for the Pokemon that actually are in the game, the “best combined stats” list shows that Dragonite, Snorlax, Lapras, Arcanine and Blastoise are the best overall monsters, while Vaporeon is the best of the Eevee evolutions.
This is all still a work in progress, but if you have any interest in being a competitive Pokemon Go player, you’re definitely going to want to keep up with The Silph Road’s research in the coming weeks and months.
