Defending any Gym is equally important as capturing Pokemon in Nintendo's new augmented-reality game - Pokemon GO. Any player with level 5 Trainer (or above) can now join one of the three Red, Blue or Yellow team in their quest to defend or capture a new Gym.
After capturing any Gym with your best attack Pokemon, it is imperative to defend the Gym from rival Pokemon using the best defense Pokemon in the game.
Assigning your strongest Pokemon to defend your Gym can earn you extra PokeCoins as well as improve the Gym Prestige.
As the Prestige of your Gym goes higher, you can assign more Pokemons to defend it. Consequently, it will become harder for rival teams to take down your Gym.
Here is the list of top five defensive Pokemon in the game:
Flying and Dragon Type: Dragonite (Max CP 3500)
It is the strongest and rarest Pokemon in the game with the highest Combat Power (CP) among all the Pokemons. You need to acquire at least 100 Dratini Candies in the water area before you can evolve Dragonite as it is so rare that it cannot be hatched even from a 10k egg.
Normal Type: Snorlax (Max CP – 3112)
Snorlax is known to be the best Pokemon for Gym defence as suggested by the veterans of the community who acquired him while using the 10k egg. Its maximum Combat Power or CP is 3112 points.
Water or Ice Type: Lapras (Max CP – 2980)
Lapras is a dual-type Water/Ice Pokemon which can either be captured in your area through sheer luck or by hatching the 10k egg. You will need at least Trainer level 25 and Power Up skill to be maxed out before you could find a Lapras with high CP.
Vaporeon (Max CP – 2816)
Vaporeon can be forcibly evolved via Eevee using a small trick that allows you to choose between Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon. Varopeons are the best defensive Pokemon with the highest CP among the three Eevee-based Pokemon.
Gyarados (Max CP – 2688)
Gyarados can be evolved using at least 400 Magikarp candies, which makes it the rarest Pokemon in the game. Other Pokemons usually cost around 12, 25, 50 or 100 candies to evolve.