8-21 (part 3)

18. Match up Pokémon with their opposing types before a battle

You might be woefully undermatched against an opposing Gym, but you can still do well and damage their Gym's Prestige if you know one simple trick: How to match up an opposing Pokémon's type and element. Each creature has a primary type, which usually matches up to some sort of element. And, as in the real world, some elements are more successful than others.

• How to beat high-level Pokémon at gyms

Here's a quick list of each element type, and what opposing types of Pokémon are best-suited to take them down:

• Normal: Fighting
• Fire: Water, Ground, Rock
• Water: Electric, Grass
• Electric: Ground
• Grass: Fire, Ice, Poison, Flying, Bug
• Ice: Fire, Fighting, Rock, Steel
• Fighting: Flying, Psychic, Fairy
• Poison: Ground, Psychic
• Ground: Water, Grass, Ice
• Flying: Electric, Ice, Rock
• Psychic: Bug, Ghost
• Bug: Fire, Flying, Rock
• Rock: Water, Grass, Fighting, Ground, Steel
• Ghost: Ghost
• Dragon: Ice, Dragon, Fairy
• Steel: Fire, Fighting, Ground
• Fairy: Poison, Steel

GamePress's Pokémon Go page also has a roster of the most powerful Pokémon you can currently evolve for each type.

19. Dodge at the start of each battle

I picked up this tip from our Android Central pal Russell Holly, and it's a good one: If you swipe left or right to dodge at the beginning of a battle, you'll often give yourself an extra attack or two before your opponent can catch up. This is especially true for smaller, quicker types like Eevees, whose quick burst attacks and dodges can take down a big creature before they can react.

20. Snipe a neutral gym

If you can't personally fight a gym battle, or you're traveling with a friend who's exhausting all their powerful Pokémon to beat an opposing gym, you can wait until the gym gets taken over; once it's a neutral white, anyone can drop their Pokémon in.

If you're fast enough, you can re-capture a gym of yours that an opponent has been trying to take down, or you can add your most powerful Pokémon to the neutral gym after your buddy has fatigued all their high-level creatures in defeating the gym. And once you've taken it for your team, your buddy has time to heal their high-level Pokémon and can put in one of their own.

21. Add Pokémon of different types to a friendly gym

Adding a Pokémon to an already-friendly gym? Make sure you vary up which type of Pokémon you're adding — an all-Fire gym of Flareons and Vulpixes might look cool, but it's incredibly vulnerable to a trainer with Water and Ground-type Pokémon.

Your tips and tricks?

Any I've missed that you find invaluable to playing? Let us know below!