Life

This Is The Most Powerful Pokemon in "Pokemon Go"

by Elizabeth Ballou

In just a week and a half, "Pokemon Go" has established itself as one of the biggest phenoms of the summer, right up there with the Ghostbusters reboot and the Republican National Convention. Pokemon Trainers the world over are busy catching as many Eevees as they can find, challenging each other for control of enemy Gyms (holla at Team Mystic, y'all), walking more kilometers in the past week than the past few months combined, and trying to figure out what are the best Pokemon you can catch. I am in no way immune to this craze — I've been obsessed with Pokemon since I was a wee little lass and received the Pokemon Red game for Christmas. That means I've been out there with the rest of the world, sending my Vaporeon (named Kate McKinnon, because why not) into battle at every Gym I can find.

Vaporeon isn't the most powerful Pokemon in "Pokemon Go," but it's definitely part of that top tier of kick-butt pocket monsters. As I've been adjusting to a new world order — that of Team Mystic, Team Valor, and Team Instinct, obviously — I've noticed that certain Pokemon do better than others when it comes to duking it out in Pokemon battles. Besides Vaporeon, other popular combatants include Lapras, Exeggutor, Snorlax, Blastoise, Charizard, Dragonite, and Alakazam. But which one is the very best (like no one ever was)?

The answer? Well, there is no exact answer. That's because of the CP and move variations among each type of Pokemon. Let's take Vaporeon as an example. Its basic move is Water Gun, which does 10 damage, but its special attacks include Water Tail (50 damage), Hydro Pump (60 damage), and Water Pulse (30 damage). You could get lucky and evolve a Vaporeon that knows Hydro Pump, or you could end up with one that knows Water Pulse. Note that you can use Water Pulse more often, which helps even out the damage imbalance. However, the moves are still random, and there's no way to change what you end up with.

Also, when you catch Pokemon out in the "wild" (which means, for me, downtown), you have no control over what the CP, or combat points, of any given Pokemon will be. The CP of random encounters tends to rise as you increase your level, but I'm level 13 now and still sometimes run into CP 10 or 20 Pokemon.

However, one Reddit user has crunched all the available numbers to find out which Pokemon has the best chance of being the best. According to Qmike, that Pokemon is...

Snorlax!

Yeah, I know. Snorlax doesn't look very threatening, does it? But it sure does pack a wallop in terms of CP and move damage. Its normal moves include Lick (10 damage) and Zen Headbutt (15 damage), and its special moves include Body Slam (50 damage) and Earthquake (60 damage). It has the best moves and type combination for attacking Pokemon of almost any other type, and it typically has a verrrry high CP (not to mention that the CP can be improved by 42 every time you give it a power-up). Finally, Snorlax has the highest possible HP (health points) number: 258. That makes it an excellent Gym defender, since it's nearly impossible to knock out.

As for finding a Snorlax in the first place? Good luck. I haven't seen a single one. But these maps can help you locate rare Pokemon in your area!

Images: Elizabeth Ballou; Giphy; Giphy