How to Become Gym Leader in Pokemon Go

Today we continue our series of guides for Pokemon Go with a question that many people have for us: how do I become a Gym leader in Pokemon Go?

Even though the Gym mechanic itself is not fully implemented – or at least not to the degree some of the fans of the franchise would love it to be – they are here and right now that’s the only place where we can have real time battles with our Pokemon. Taking over a gym has been covered already in our tutorial here, but now we’ll get a bit more in depth and share with you how to become a gym leader in Pokemon Go.

Being extremely powerful – or having the strongest Pokemon in your team is usually enough in order to become the gym leader. Here is how it works:

After completely kicking out a team from a Gym, you will get the chance to claim it for your team. If you are the one who does that, you will be automatically proclaimed Gym Leader when you place your Pokemon in that particular Gym. This also allows other members from your team to leave Pokemon there to defend it. However, if the Pokemon that they assign to the gym has more CP than the one you left, even if it is you who captured the Gym, that particular Pokemon will “take over” and make their owner the gym leader.

The reverse works just as well. In other words, if you find a Gym owned by your team already, you can assign a Pokemon to defend it. If the Pokemon you assign has the most CP in the Gym, you become its leader.

But have in mind that, at least at the moment of writing this guide, being a Gym leader doesn’t give you any advantages. The only thing that you get is that your Pokemon will be the last one to fight against incoming attacks. You get a daily bonus based on the number of gyms you have guarded by your Pokemon, but you don’t have to be a Gym Leader to get that bonus.

However, if you want no matter what to just be the leader of a gym in Pokemon Go, you know now how to do it – and if you think your friends would find the information useful, don’t hesitate to share this article!

If you want more guides to help you get better at playing the game, we’ve got you covered, so make sure you check out our tips and tricks, guide to finding more Pokemon as well as a complete list of Pokemon in the game. And check back often here because we’ll have more guides ready for you soon!