Snorlax Leveling Strategy
Over the course of several months, the poke-gods have smiled on me by bestowing 8 Snorlax (Snorlaxes? Snorli?)! Seven of them are wild, and 1 is hatched. I've picked them up across several of these United States, and no repeat spawn areas. (I've yet to see a Lapras in the wild or hatch one, I probably live in the wrong clime.) Candy is hard to come by, and these hungry guys have me walking the rubber off my shoes.
Here's what I'd like your input about: what strategy should I use to power them up -- Should I pick one and max it, then move to the next? Work them all all simultaneously. Work a small group up? Or something else?
Currently, I'm level 29 and have about 400K stardust saved. I've been sharing candy amongst them (regardless of IV), pushing most up towards 2,000CP or better to make them usable based on their movesets -- defensive ones to hold gyms and offensive ones to take them down.
Obviously, I fight and train/prestige some, but my team is in the minority around here, with just a very few fiercely held gyms. I can usually get a pretty good place in a gym if it's not already L10. My mon sit in 2-5 gyms on a given day, and I usually get kicked out of all but two -- and those are held by my electric-susceptible, but higher CP, Gyrados.
From little to bigger, allow me to introduce you to the gang:
1) 426CP, 64%, 6/10/13, ZH/EQ, Lvl 5
2) 1792CP, 51%, 15/6/2, ZH/BS, Lvl 19.5
3) 1911CP, 58%, 12/2/12, ZH/BS, Lvl 21
4) 1918CP, 13%, 2/3/1, L/HB, Lvl 22.5
5) 1964CP, 87%, 11/13/15, L/EQ, Lvl 21
6) 2058CP, 80%, 13/11/12, ZH/EQ Lvl 22
7) 2205CP, 42%, 11/5/3, L/BS, Lvl 24.5
8) 2363CP, 40%, 15/3/0, ZH/BS, Lvl 26
I haven't turned any Snorlax into candy -- and use the lower ones to prestige. I currently have 8 candy and a lot of Snorlax to feed. At some point, I want to switch my buddy to a Chansey (to prepare for Blissey), but these hippos are hungry. So.....
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on my (happy) dilemma!
Answers
8) 2363CP, 40%, 15/3/0, ZH/BS, Lvl 26.
This is the best one, but very low IVs. Im not sure but i would power him up...best moveset and level 26 already. Maybe with 2800CP its enough to take a nice spot in gyms and wait for other with higher IVs. The 426CP one its not that usefull to prestiging, so i would transfer him since you have many others to use as buddy.
Not sure which ones you are using to prestige, but keep those where they are if they serve you well.
Snorlax' value is more as a defender and ZH / BS is THE best moveset for him for defense. I'd focus on getting #8 to Level 30 then #3 to Level 30. Then depending on how much candy you have left and what your defensive squad looks like, I may think about getting # 2 to Level 30 as well.
At Level 30, Snorlax is about 2700 CP, which is pretty good gym placement depending on where you live. And with that moveset, it would be quite a defensive squad.
3), 6), or 8) are your options for defense, and take 7) for offense.
7 is probably already strong enough, but you can push him a little more if you feel it's necessary. I don't think it's worthwhile though, since Snorlax is a defender and not really an attacker unless you really don't have a solid team.
As for 3, 6, and 8:
3 and 8 have the preferable moveset. 3 has the highest IV while having a good moveset, and 8 is already the highest level. So 3 will have more potential but 8 will cost you less to get to a strong spot.
6 has the highest IV with a usable moveset. Ignore the EQ haters, with Rhydon as such a prevalent counter EQ is not a terrible charge move. It's still not as good as HB or BS (due to the existence of any other matchup) but Snorlax with EQ is still Snorlax. He's still a beast. CP matters most on defence so you place highest in the gym, so 5 and 6 are the ones you'd want and 6 has the defensive quick move.
For a legitimate player you've done well. I have one big Snorlax that continues to cost me much in candy but he's worth it. I can't afford more than him. However, once I hit level 30 the spawned mons I'd begun to run into were often massive level 29-30 mons. Needless to say I prayed to the Poke gods I'd run into huge Snores. Thus far, two have come my way, and they're awesome gym holders. One is a 2726 CP fella with Lick/Hyper and the other is a 2565 CP with Zen/Earthquake. They have decent IVs but it really doesn't matter for this kind of mon. Their base stats are phenomenal and they scream, "You better set aside some time trainer!" to any would be challenger. I'd pick one of your crew to power up (my pet project Snorlax has great IVs) and devote yourself to the coming hunt once you level up. Candy or keep the others. It's really a personal choice: Do you want trophies or do you want to feed your army?
Thanks and congrats on your new tanks! I've always wondered what happens at Level 30 that's so amazing. (I may submit a Q&A about that). If it's because the highest wild mons are that level, then as a Level 29 trainer, wouldn't I still see a bunch of level 27, 28, and 29 wild mons? (Although I don't think I am seeing any/many of those frankly.)
If that were my army of Snorli, I'd keep #1 as my walking buddy (maybe it's just me but I wouldn't candy any snorlax, unless perhaps the exchange ratio was a lot better).
I'd get the rest (except #4) into gyms to start earning their dust, and use #4 for fighting.
As they fall out of gyms, I'd power up the ZH/BS ones, (with the long term goal of getting them to level 30), then put them right back in until Junior earns more candy for them.
With Snorlax, the correct mindset to have is to ignore his IV stats... their only relevance is how high the CP can ultimately go. His awesome base stats more than make up for any differences between 0/0/0 and 15/15/15 in the real world. Focus soley on movesets. Lick for attacking. Zen for defending. EQ is his "worst" move but even that's not useless. The only time to candy xfer any super low-level Snorli (hahah) is maybe during double candy events like this past Halloween.
I disagree IV's mean a lot with Snorlax, perhaps more than with any other mon. The reason is because Rhydons and Gyrados are within 75 cp of Snorlax's max CP. Vaporeons max is around 200 CP below Snorlax as well. I think the difference between a 100% and a 0% IV is about 220 cp (I may be off a little here). All three of these are commonly found in gyms and tend to have very high IV's. Basically these are the mons your low IV, 60% or less, Snorlax will be competing against. Fast forward a couple months and what will happen is your low IV Snorlax will sit on the bottom of the gym making it hard to prestige against while Gyarados and Rhydon sit above it. Dont listen to these guys and power up 5 km candy on something under 50%.
For Dragonite IV's can mean less since a 0% iv Dragonite is still bigger then all other mons at the same level. I can understand why a guy evolves a level 30 40% iv dratini, especially if the candies are very rare. I actually agree with it. With Snorlax my recommendation(which is what I do) is never power up anything under 70% with a min ATK IV of 10-12. Obviously if you spoof yours are all over 93% or whatever it is and nobody cares, not interested. Since you are a legit player doing your grind, getting steps in, I think IV should be paramount not moveset(ZH/any move or L/BS is highly recommended). This will insure that you compete against other Snorlax and sit above rather then compete with high IV Gyrados and Rhyhorns.
My advice is power up 6. Start doing that now and keep powering it up till it sits in a gym. Once you power up a Def Snorlax your committed and gonna take it to 40 eventually. Basically its like having a kid, you commit all the way. Then try to save up 60 candies before committing to a 2nd one. Hopefully you get something better by then.
One more vote to power up your highest IV (#5) - to get a better position in a gym. In my suburban area, some gyms no longer turn over very often, but the weaker mons slowly get kicked out. So I had a fairly strong Snorlax in a gym I liked - I watched over the weeks as he slowly moved lower and lower on the ladder - when the inevitable happened and he did get the boot, I had walked and saved enough candy to power him up about 400+ CP, and now he's back where he belongs. In this situation, the moveset doesn't matter as much as IV and CP, so even though he's Lick/EQ he does just fine as a defender and earns me coins (the real measure of success, AFAICS)!
