Pokemon GO Charged Move timing guide

Charged Move timing is extremely crucial in Pokemon GO PvP battles. This aspect can mean the difference between victory and defeat in close situations. You must acquire this skill to progress to the highest echelons of the game's rank ladder.

While several numbers are involved, you need not worry; the mechanic is quite straightforward. Once you understand it, all you need is some practice, and you are sure to have a substantial edge over your opponents when you play Pokemon GO Battle League.

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All Fast Moves in Pokemon GO

Fast Move timings in Pokemon GO (Image via PvPoke)

Before we get into the question of when you throw your Charged Attacks, you should know that Fast Moves in Pokemon GO can be of five kinds, based on the number of turns taken to execute them. All the Fast Moves currently available in the game are listed below:

One-turn Fast Moves

• Bite
• Bug Bite
• Cut
• Dragon Breath
• Fury Cutter
• Lick
• Lock-On
• Scratch
• Tackle
• Water Gun

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Two-turn Fast Moves

• Acid
• Bullet Punch
• Counter
• Ember
• Fairy Wind
• Feint Attack
• Fire Fang
• Frost Breath
• Ice Fang
• Karate Chop
• Leafage
• Low Kick
• Metal Claw
• Mud Shot
• Peck
• Poison Jab
• Poison Sting
• Pound
• Powder Snow
• Psycho Cut
• Quick Attack
• Razor Leaf
• Rock Throw
• Shadow Claw
• Spark
• Steel Wing
• Sucker Punch
• Thunder Fang
• Thunder Shock
• Vine Whip
• Wing Attack

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Three-turn Fast Moves

• Air Slash
• Astonish
• Bubble
• Bullet Seed
• Charge Beam
• Charm
• Double Kick
• Dragon Tail
• Extrasensory
• Fire Spin
• Geomancy
• Hex
• Hidden Power
• Ice Shard
• Infestation
• Iron Tail
• Magical Leaf
• Mud-Slap
• Present
• Rock Smash
• Rollout
• Smack Down
• Snarl
• Struggle Bug
• Take Down
• Transform
• Water Shuriken
• Waterfall
• Zen Headbutt

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Four-turn Fast Moves

• Confusion
• Gust
• Splash
• Volt Switch
• Yawn

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Five-turn Fast Moves

• Incinerate

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Every time you trigger a Fast Move, it takes one turn to register. For one-turn attacks, the animation happens simultaneously, and the damage dealt and energy generated register within the single turn. Every turn lasts 0.5 seconds.

However, for two-turn moves, it takes an additional turn for the damage and energy to register and the animation to play out. Similarly, three-, four-, and five-turn attacks take two, three, and four turns, respectively, for the move to complete execution.

Fast Move use vs Fast Move registration (Image via PvPoke)

Hence, when a Water Gun (one-turn) user like Lanturn is going up against a Charm (three-turn) user like Sylveon, the former can get three Water Guns off in the time it takes for a single Charm to register.

While no inherent difference in quality makes lower-turn Fast Attacks better than higher-turn ones, understanding it is critical for learning the best time to use your Charged Move.

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What is optimal Pokemon GO Charged Move timing?

Before getting into the optimal timing, you should know how Charged Moves work in Pokemon GO. Once a Pocket Monster collects enough energy to use one of its Charged Moves, and you trigger it, all functions that are incomplete at the moment are interrupted and completed.

For example, let's take a battle between Water Gun Lanturn and Charm Sylveon. The former takes 14 turns to reach its first Surf, while the latter takes 24 turns to reach the first Psyshock. At the end of the 14th turn, 14 Water Guns and four Charms have registered completely.

If Lanturn were to throw the Surf on the 16th turn, the Charm sequence that started on that turn would come to an end, and the damage and energy that would have been generated by the end would immediately register.

Once the Surf has been completely executed, Sylveon would throw another Charm, effectively getting off two charms in four turns, where it would usually take six. This lets the Charm-user deal 14 damage and generate six energy.

The goal for the Lanturn would be to throw its Charged Move Surf at such a point where one sequence of Charm is about to end. That way, it won't give away damage and energy for free. In this case, if Lanturn threw Surf immediately as it got it, that is, on the 14th turn, Sylveon would not have received an extra Charm for free.

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When should you throw energy in Pokemon GO PvP battles?

If you're using a Pocket Monster that uses a one-turn Fast Attack, throw your energy on the (n-1)th turn, where n is the number of turns it takes for the opponent's Fast Attack to be registered.

Things get more complex when you're running a two-, three-, four-, or five-turn Fast Attack yourself. When going up against a single-turn move user, giving up one free turn is inevitable, which is not the worst thing.

The following table will help you understand when to throw your Fast Attacks depending on what moves you and your opponent are running in Pokemon GO Battle League encounters:

Fast Move Duration	One-turn move	Two-turn move	Three-turn move	Four-turn move	Five-turn move
One-turn move	x	1	2	3	4
Two-turn move	x	x	1, 4, 7, 10, 13 ...	1, 3, 5, 7 ...	2, 7
Three-turn move	x	1, 3, 5, 7 ...	x	1, 5	3, 8
Four-turn move	x	x	2, 5	x	1, 6
Five-turn move	x	1, 3, 5, 7 ...	1, 5	3	x

Each corresponding box states the number of Fast Attacks you must wait out before you throw your energy. For example, when Bubble Azumarill is going up against Mud Shot Clodsire in Pokemon GO's Great League, the former should throw Ice Beam on the 15th turn or any odd-numbered turn after that.

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Additional tips and tricks to optimize your Pokemon GO Charged Move timing

Swap cooldown has now been changed to 30 seconds from 60 in PvP and Rocket Battles byu/Vissarionn inTheSilphRoad

Apart from not throwing on alignment and giving your opponent free energy, be aware that they can switch Pocket Monsters out in the middle of a turn to catch your Charged Attack.

For example, in a bout between Azumarill and Greninja in the Great League, the latter can switch out into a Skarmory, expecting to be hit by a Play Rough. This is done to make sure that the damage taken is minimized.

To prevent opponents from catching Charged Attacks and wasting your energy, you can consider two things:

• Baiting: This is where you throw the lower energy move, expecting the opponent to use their Protective Shield or switch into something that has a favorable matchup against you.
• Delaying the Charged Attack by one turn than when it is expected: This is a more advanced tactic that involves anticipating your opponent switching out. Therefore, you delay your Charged attack by one turn to see what they send out. After this, you can throw energy if you have a solid matchup or switch and save energy if the opponent is a shield to your energy.

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Practicing all these things will help you become better at Pokemon GO's PvP scene and allow you to climb the ranks faster.

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