Pokemon GO Tips: Why Vaporeon is so Strong

Pokemon GO has been out long enough for people to start seeing trends and figuring out the best Pokemon to use in battles. It is no secret that Vaporeon is one of the best — and what you usually see reigning supreme at a gym, or at least used to attack one.

So why is this Pokemon so much better than most? Well, the answer lies in data collected from the game and how battling works in GO.

Vaporeon’s Reign

Gamepress‘s Pokemon GO site has stats on all 151 Pokemon from the game files. This information allows us to compare Vaporeon to all other Pokemon.

First-hand experience has also shown many Vaporeon, that I noticed were hard to defeat, and now we know why.

Below are the stats for Vaporeon.

Stats

• Max CP – 2816
• Base Attack – 186
• Base Defense – 168
• Base Stamina – 260

CP is important because it is basically the Pokemon’s level. A high CP makes a Pokemon difficult to defeat if you have a low CP.

Attack and Defense are decent but not amazing compared to some Pokemon. The problems lies in 2 things: Stamina and ease of acquiring it.

Vaporeon’s stamina is one of the highest, which means it can take a lot of damage. Since battles are real-time, Pokemon with higher HP have a big advantage.

Vaporeon is also very easy to get because Eevees are fairly common and it only takes 25 candy to evolve. Most Pokemon of equal power or more would need 75-125+ throughout all evolution stages. Plus, you can force Eevee to evolve into Vaporeon.

Even after that, many are about the same or worst than Vaporeon overall. Mix that with the attacks being pretty good, and you have a strong opponent that’s easy to get.

There are stronger Pokemon for sure, like Snorlax and Lapras, but they are a lot more rare. Since Vaporeon is so easy to get, nobody in the same tier even comes close.

Another thing that adds to this is the lower type advantages in this game. Super effective moves are only 1.2x compared to 2x in the normal games, and resistances are 0.8x instead of 0.5x or less. This means that even Pokemon that Vaporeon would normally be weak to won’t make a huge difference.

Things could change in the future, and ultimately your trainer level is the most important factor in your Pokemon’s power. Still, it is good to know why Vaporeon is so strong and the reason behind it.