Are you able to stay in gyms in your area?

[Kmo86]

Do you manage to stay in gyms or do they change teams regular? For me it seems level of gyms makes no difference. I've been in level 7, 8 and 9 gyms and been knocked out in under 12 hours. Unfortunally all gyms near me are in busy areas so change teams every few hours. Yesterday I got in 3 gyms got knocked out of 2 1 being a level 7 gym. The one I am still in is or was level 4, but on end of a pier so I'm guessing weather and high tide is putting people off going to it for now. I am 3 and half hours from getting my first ever defender bonus after staying in gym 21 hours. Won't be letting it go over that before claiming again if I'm still in.

 

[ichiDad]

Obscure gyms in less popular areas seem to turn over less often. I'm in a few gyms along unpopular bike paths which have stayed for days (even weeks!). Inaccessibility by car seems to help, but not if it is a popular area like a pedestrian mall.

Bad cell service can also be a factor. There are two gyms I have trouble battling because the cell service is weak (I get ... "Network Error"). But if you can get in them, it also seems difficult for others to remove them. Gyms in odd places with no place to sit down also turn over less often (there is one gym I'm in along a road with no parking nearby and no place to sit down).

There is even one gym here which can't even be seen from any road. I've only hiked to it once, but my lone pokemon got removed within hours. The one person who knew I had taken over that gym was the owner of the pokemon I removed, so he/she must have hiked back in to kick me out! Of course there were other hikers but I didn't see anyone else playing the game.

 

[tjumper78]

i try to throw in 10 or more but it's a lot of work and i end up with 7~9 gyms on average. even if i do manage to get in 10 gyms or more, it goes down to 8 or 9 by the time i get home. this morning, i earned 50 gold and some stardust which is right below my average earning of 60 or 70.

 

[RocketGrunt1337]

I have a gym by me that is basically a hidden gem. It's a park that most people don't know about has like 10 stops all within a qtr mile trail and a gym. It's a level 10 now and I've been in it for 4 weeks now. I haven't found another gym where I can last longer than a day at most. I also live in a populated city where Pokemon GO is huge!

 

[UltimateUmbreon]

Where I live it is all about the team you are on. Most people in my area are mystic, and by that nature most gyms are high level mystic gyms. Those hold for weeks. I would say of the 14 gyms within a 3 mile radius of me, 9 of them have been predominantly mystic for weeks. It is rare even for a level 10 valor or instinct gym to hold. It gets frustrating because I could take down a level 10 mystic gym on my lunch, then a few hours later, after work, it's probably back to at least a level 6 mystic gym.

Luckily I have been in a level 7 gym for the last 30 hours or so, but given the time, potions, and revives necessary to take down a level 10 gym on my own, I just don't care enough to go try to do more than that. I think it's a huge flaw in the game because while I understand the social goal of relying on the team to bolster your gym, it really hinders the individual opportunities you have if you just happen not to be around any of your team members. I shouldn't be "crippled" by the fact that no valor players are around me.

 

[Kmo86]

Well I'm still in that gym and it's proved it depends where the gym is cos every other gym in that area has changed teams. This gym is now level 2 was level 4 yesterday. I am lowest cp Pokemon so will be next out. Bit annoying as it's more down to luck than anything else if you stay in gyms seems like nothing you can do really helps.

 

[Sheep]

I've never stayed in a gym for over 24 hours. My Pokémon are always kicked out in under a day even if it's in the quieter areas with fewer gyms and pokéstops. Not much that can be done about that though since I live in NYC ,even though it's in the quietest/least popular borough. I'm happy to conquer them at all haha. ;(

 

[VisualJae]

Nope. If I can hold anything for more than 24 hours, it would be amazing. It's only happened one time for me in the past three months of this game and it barely lasted 24 hours (level 9 Gym). The most Gyms I've held simultaneously was four and by the time I tried to work on my fifth Gym driving around town, the first Gym was taken over. Had to turn in the reward before the previous Gyms went down.

Gyms around here tend to have low to mid-CP2000 Pokémon across the board with periodic CP3000+ Dragonite, and rarely do you ever see a Gym above level 5. I figure once a Gym manages to get into higher levels, it basically puts a bullseye on it for other players to take down.

I mean, that's what I do. If I see a high level Gym, I'll usually take the time to burn it down even if I'm by myself. It is way easier to take down Gyms regardless of the Gym's level and the Pokémon there than to prestige a Gym to high levels.

 

[TheDeathryder]

I used to be able to stay in gyms for days, but the last couple weeks a group of 5 people with even less of a life than me have been taking them back within an hour or so of my taking them. At first I thought a bot was watching the gyms since it happens so regularly, and it's always the same 5 people, then a few nights ago I noticed 2 cars tailing me, so after I took a gym I just sat and waited, and sure enough, the same 5 people took the gym back, then those 2 cars drove off. I took it back and held it for about 45 minutes after that.

 

[Brendino]

Only once have I managed to stay at a Gym for more than 24 hours, and it was actually the one that is closest to my house. It was a level 10 Gym that I was a part of for just shy of 7 days, though right now it's a level 8 Team Valor Gym- all the trainers there have Dragonite, and they're all 2500+ CP. Wouldn't surprise me if they last about a week at that Gym, too :p

 

[Iceman3k]

It depends on the part of town I'm in. I've had gyms dropped within 30 minutes, with others being there for about 6-12 hours.

The longest gym that is still running is a flower shop in a high traffic downtown area, where I have a Snorlax that's been there for 3 weeks.

 

[Kmo86]

Well I'm under 40 min from getting my 2nd defender bonus (3rd if you count when I put Pokemon in) just shows it doesn't matter about level of gym or Pokemon you put in. Actually I have put a good Pokemon in 100% iv 1500 cp hypno. Considering the attackers get 6 Pokemon the defenders will always lose unless no one battles that gym.

 

[tjumper78]

I used to be able to stay in gyms for days, but the last couple weeks a group of 5 people with even less of a life than me have been taking them back within an hour or so of my taking them. At first I thought a bot was watching the gyms since it happens so regularly, and it's always the same 5 people, then a few nights ago I noticed 2 cars tailing me, so after I took a gym I just sat and waited, and sure enough, the same 5 people took the gym back, then those 2 cars drove off. I took it back and held it for about 45 minutes after that.

sucks for players who usually play alone but thats just how it is. my friends (7 grownups playing pokemon together) and i are in 10~15 gyms together. we dont drive around together at night like the group you mentioned does (a lot of people do the same in this area) but we tell each other which gym we just took down and whoever has time go there to level it up. we always try to level it up at least once or twice so that more players can join faster. we have a facebook group chat running, and are always telling each other which gym to go to and what rare pokemon popped up where.
im sure you can find a group to play with by searching on reddit or facebook.

 

[TheDeathryder]

sucks for players who usually play alone but thats just how it is. my friends (7 grownups playing pokemon together) and i are in 10~15 gyms together. we dont drive around together at night like the group you mentioned does (a lot of people do the same in this area) but we tell each other which gym we just took down and whoever has time go there to level it up. we always try to level it up at least once or twice so that more players can join faster. we have a facebook group chat running, and are always telling each other which gym to go to and what rare pokemon popped up where.
im sure you can find a group to play with by searching on reddit or facebook.

I'm a part of a few local Facebook groups. Problem is that I live in a small town, and most of the people here that are on Mystic have full time jobs and kids etc, so it can be hard for them to get out to take gyms like I do, they just play when they have the free time. I got a better look at the Valor players yesterday afternoon, they look like their ages range 16 to 20, and considering that they're in new cars (as in current year model) and can hit my gyms regardless of what time of day I take them, I expect they're the kids of some of the local fat cats that get everything they want from their parents.

 

[Adamw92]

The closest gym to me is constantly changing teams, I held it the other day for around 11 hours but other times I won't be able to hold it for more than 2, it seems to constantly change between Valor and Mystic with it sometimes becoming Team Instinct as it currently is.

 

[Altairis]

I can't even get gyms in the first place... everybody has Dragonites and Gyarados that are 2000 CP higher than my Pokemon, haha. At college, the gyms change every five minutes basically.

 

[ichiDad]

New record for me, I've got 15 pokemon in gyms! There isn't any benefit to having more than 10, but what the heck!

It will be 14 soon, I am sure. The gym nearest me now has a bulbasaur + my ivysaur, sitting ducks. Very cute while they last. We need a venusaur!

 

[TheDeathryder]

I can't even get gyms in the first place... everybody has Dragonites and Gyarados that are 2000 CP higher than my Pokemon, haha. At college, the gyms change every five minutes basically.

DPS tends to be more important in my experience, I have a 1800 Wigglytuff and 1800 Clefable that can handle Dragonites and Gyarados twice their CP and higher. I actually have yet to find something that can drop them without type advantage. Wigglytuff is running pound/hyper beam and Clefable pound/moonblast. Clefable is a straight up dragon slayer.

 

[Neltharion83]

Its getting better now that less people are playing, especially when you know to focus on certain suburbs.

Some gyms change color frequently while others do not. It is getting increasingly possible to stay in gyms for long periods of time.

I learned that your best chances to stay for 2 weeks is to pick a gym in a less frequented suburb that is already on your side and somewhere around level 6-9, power it up, and add a good defender that adds variety to the good defenders that are already there. Taking down highly frequented gyms to add your one pokemon only gets you 10 gold.

I think the metagame is shifting in that direction. You see more high-level gyms with a decent defense squad inside, in the suburbs, the rapidly changing gyms are in the more frequented places in the city, and especially in places where you have lots of people, some of them bored, like at train stations or shopping malls or tourist attractions.

 

[ichiDad]

I had a pokemon stay in a gym for a little over a month! It was just removed tonight, and I was almost relieved to finally have my vaporeon back. According to my records it was placed in the gym on 9/13. Over the past month, I would check on the gym, and it varied between level 7 and level 10. The bottom pokemon got knocked out every once in a while, but someone else would build it back up.

The gym is in a church parking lot, which seems a particularly lonely place. I'm curious to go there tomorrow and see who has taken over. I don't think I will recapture the gym, some other team needs to own it for a while.