Stamina is Broken in Pokemon Go

First, let’s start by defining a few terms. Base Stamina is calculated from the main series games (based on Generation 6 stats) it is the same for each Pokemon irrespective of level and IVs. HP is what you see on a specific Pokemon’s health bar; it is based on the Pokemon’s level, IVs and Base Stamina.

Base Stamina in Pokemon Go takes the Main Series games’ HP stat and doubles it. This in effect makes walls/tanks much, much more difficult to KO than intended (Blissey), but it also makes “glass canons” relatively more delicate (Gengar, Espeon, Alakazam, etc). I know that a lot of you are saying to yourselves, “But we finally get a good defender with Blissey!” Well honestly, I hate fighting Blissey, and not because I might timeout either. Rather, fighting Blissey, you just pick your highest DPS Pokemon (usually Dragonite, Tyranitar or Exeggutor) and tap away. It’s pretty boring to fight Blissey, but I digress.

That said, let’s move on to the fix. Here’s a look at the Pokemon with the Highest and Lowest Base Stamina (I ignored unevolved mons)

• Blissey: 510
• Shuckle: 40
• Dugtrio: 70

Now the massive disparity between (we’re not going to fuckle with Shuckle) Dugtrio and Blissey shouldn’t be as large as it is. While there should indeed be a large difference between them, Blissey’s Base Stamina is over 600% higher than Dugtrio.

The fix is simple. Add a number to Base Stamina that corresponds to a Pokemon’s level (ie a lvl 20 Pichu & lvl 20 Tyranitar would have the same number added to their Base Stamina).

The issue is with how Base Stamina is calculated. Instead of doubling the HP stat from the main series, which doubles the difference between Pokemon, a number for a specific level should be added to it. (Pkmn’s lvl+5)*2 The reason for the +5 is because I wanted Pokemon with a current Base Stamina of 180 to be the datum, which effectively means that Pokemon with a current Base Stamina below 180 will see a buff, and Pokemon with a Base Stamina above 180 will see a nerf. Here’s the new Base Stamina for Blissey and Dugtrio.

• Blissey: 345
• Dugtrio: 125

Percent Difference=176%

Here’s what the Top Pokemon (Tyranitar #1 – Blissey #32) would look like if this was implemented.

	Pokemon	New Base Stamina	Old Base Stamina	New CP	Old CP
	Tyranitar	190	200	3583	3670
	Dragonite	181	182	3572	3581
	Alakazam	145	110	3266	2887
	Espeon	155	130	3249	3000
	Gyarados	185	190	3240	3281
	Rhydon	195	210	3188	3300
	Flareon	155	130	3145	2904
	Kingler	145	110	3048	2694
	Donphan	180	180	3022	3022
	Heracross	170	160	3021	2938
	Pinsir	155	130	2999	2770
	Golem	170	160	2998	2916
	Snorlax	250	320	2984	3355
	Scizor	160	140	2976	2801
	Jolteon	155	130	2956	2730
	Vaporeon	220	260	2918	3157
	Gengar	150	120	2895	2619
	Machamp	180	180	2889	2889
	Exeggutor	185	190	2881	2916
	Cloyster	140	100	2873	2475
	Omastar	160	140	2853	2685
	Arcanine	180	180	2839	2839
	Hitmonlee	140	100	2793	2406
	Kabutops	150	120	2783	2517
	Charizard	168	156	2779	2686
	Typhlosion	168	156	2779	2686
	Ursaring	180	180	2760	2760
	Feraligatr	175	170	2757	2721
	Jynx	155	130	2720	2512
	Ampharos	180	180	2695	2695
	Aerodactyl	170	160	2682	2608
	Blissey	345	510	2665	3219

Wut? Alakazam is beastly? and KINGLER!? What the Flareon is going on here!

Hold on to your Horseas Travelers, REMEMBER the CP formula?

CP=(ATK+IV)*(DEF+IV)^0.5*(STA+IV)^0.5*(CPM)^2/10

Both Stamina and Defense are raise to the 0.5 (square rooted), so Pokemon with a high Attack stat will have a higher CP, generally speaking, than Pokemon with high Defense (Steelix) and Pokemon with high Stamina (Blissey). This is actually how Niantic designed it. One side effect of this is Pokemon that are more defensively oriented (ie have a high Defense or Stamina stat and low Attack stat) are not placed into gyms, despite them usually being a better defender than other Pokemon with high CP. Hopefully Niantic is working to mitigate this issue.