In your travels, you will come across gyms. These are currently the only way to challenge your might against other trainers’ Pokémon. To challenge a gym, you’ll need to be close enough to the real-world location to begin a battle. Once you’re in proximity to it, you’ll be able to assemble a team of up to six Pokémon to battle against that gym’s team if it is held by a rival team.

Unlike the handheld games, where battles play out in turn-based RPG fashion, Pokémon Go‘s battles are real-time, action-based affairs. To attack, you tap your Pokémon, or hold down on the screen to use a special attack. Swiping left or right will also allow you to dodge the enemy’s attacks. Dodging can be a bit finicky depending on your connection, and even laggy at times.

To ensure victory, even in the face of a spotty connection, here are some tips:

Tip #1: A Pokémon’s strength is measured by its CP, and Pokémon with higher CP will almost always outmatch a Pokémon with lower CP. That said, you can always evolve or power up a Pokémon with candies and stardust to increase its CP. However, even if your Pokémon are weaker than the enemy’s, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose because…

Tip #2: Pokémon have certain weaknesses and resistances. Pay attention to the types of Pokémon you’re going up against, and the attacks your Pokémon know. Each Pokémon knows two attacks — a basic attack and a special attack — that have a type associated with them. Peck is a flying-type attack, for example, while water gun is a water-based attack. If you’re going up against fire, take a Pokémon with water type attacks, because they’ll do more damage. Other examples: water is susceptible to electric, grass is susceptible to fire, etc. There are several elemental types in the game, and each has its own weaknesses. Check out the handy chart below to maximize your Pokémon’s effectiveness in battle.

Tip #3: Two Pokémon of the same species will not always know the exact same attacks. You may have a Pidgey with peck, and another with tackle. Keep that in mind when building your team.

Tip #4: As you attack, tiny blue bars under your Pokémon’s health gauge will fill up. Once they’re full, you can unleash special moves by pressing and holding down on your Pokémon. Special attacks do more damage than regular attacks.

Tip #5: If your Pokémon faint or become injured during battle, revive and heal them with revives and potion (both found at Pokéstops) before attempting another battle.

Tip #6: To ensure that an allied gym doesn’t fall into enemy hands, you can increase its level to add more Pokémon. A level 2 gym, for example, can hold two Pokémon. Each player can only assign one Pokémon per gym. If a friendly gym is only at level 1, you can raise its prestige by defeating the defending Pokémon with only one of your choosing. Defeating them will increase the gym’s prestige and once it reaches the next level, you or another player, will be able to add a Pokémon. The higher the gym level means more Pokémon will be defending it — that also means it will be tougher for the enemy team to claim it.

Tip #7: Join forces with other trainers. You can fight against enemy gyms alongside other players, and that makes taking down a rival gym much easier.

Tip #8: For every Pokémon you defeat at a rival gym, you’ll knock down the gym’s prestige level, and your Pokémon will gain experience. So, even if you fail to beat every Pokémon at a gym, you can still whittle down the gym’s prestige, and make it easier for other trainers on your team to take it over. Again, teamwork pays off!

How to defend your gym

If you manage to beat all the Pokémon at a given gym and lower its prestige to zero, you’ll can take over it. You’ll have to assign a Pokémon to defend the gym, and if multiple trainers in your team add Pokémon (depending on the gym level), the one with the highest CP becomes the gym leader. You may even come across an unclaimed gym while wandering around. If you do, post up one of your stronger Pokémon to defend it on behalf of your team. Be aware that putting a Pokémon in a gym means it will be unavailable until it is defeated and returned to you.

Unfortunately, maintaining control of a gym does not impart any bonuses or benefits to your Pokémon; it simply increases the prestige of the gym, and a higher prestige means more trainers can add Pokémon to defend it. So, maybe don’t leave you’re highest level Pokémon behind — they could be gone for a long time. However, that shouldn’t stop you from trying to power up your team and take on as many gyms as possible, as every day you maintain control of a gym nets you daily bonus items, including stardust and Pokécoins. You can only collect these bonus items every 20 hours.