When Can You Station Your Pokemon At A Rival Gym?

There comes a certain point in everyone's "Pokemon Go" career when they get a little tired of catching Rattatas and want to move onto the big leagues. Yes, eventually we all break and want to start fighting in Pokémon gyms. Maybe you're late to the "Pokemon Go" party or maybe you're not usually about the combat aspect of the game (I'm more of a catch-'em-all girl myself). If such is the case, you may be wondering if you can station your Pokemon at a rival gym on the off chance that you beat one trainer, but get thrashed by the others. Concisely put: no.

If you're going to conquer a a rival gym, you have to pummel them into the ground, kick them out of the building, and take all their money (OK, maybe not the last one, but I think it'd be a great incentives considering that's how the OG games went.) This doesn't mean you have to necessarily beat all of the Pokémon, but it does mean you have to dethrone the team to completion and, more importantly, your timing has to be right.

Essentially, the way to overthrow a gym is by depleting its prestige. Now, the good news is that you will be able to deplete it even if you defeat one rival versus several. That definitely counts for something. But ,ideally, you want to take down as many Pokémon as possible to drain as much prestige as possible.

See, when you enter the world of gym takeover and Pokémon battles, the emphasis on teams become exponentially more important. It's not about trying to be the very best as a collector and more about joining forces to become this unstoppable force... and subsequently, becoming more powerful, respectable trainers individually. This is why it's common for several team members to band together and overthrow a gym as a group: it's easier for several trainers to drain prestige points versus one trainer to keep fighting the good fight, easier to reclaim that prestige as a group than individually. But, be warned, it's also not uncommon to teams to train (read: fight) their own gym to amp up that prestige. You really have to keep a sharp eye on the gym prestige to see what's going on there.

In short, you can't just station your Pokémon haphazardly at a rival team because "Pokemon Go" is placing emphasis on rivalries and friendships alike... just like it did with the original Pokémon games. So if you're going to enter the world of Pokémon gyms, remember that you're also entering the world of "Pokemon Go" solidarity.

Images: 4Kids Entertainment; Giphy