How to Power Up Pokemon in Pokemon GO

I’m not a game designer, so I can’t pretend to know why Pokemon GO utilizes its CP system in lieu of the traditional leveling system from the main games. Whatever the reason, though, the CP system is a bit more involved than regular leveling, which gives you a greater degree of control over your Pokemon’s development. Of course, the first step to utilizing that control is knowing how to enhance your Pokemon. Here’s how to Power Up Pokemon in Pokemon GO.

The Power Up system is the means through which you make your Pokemon stronger, independent of things like Evolution. When you Power Up a Pokemon, you raise its HP and CP, which represents the cumulative total of all of the Pokemon’s stats. 

How to Power Up Pokemon in Pokemon GO

Actually performing a Power Up is very simple:

1. Go to a Pokemon’s details page
2. Tap the green Power Up button
3. If you have the required materials, your Pokemon will be Powered Up.

To facilitate this process, you’re going to need two important resources: Candy and Stardust. Both Candy and Stardust are obtained every time you catch a Pokemon or hatch one from an Egg. Candy is tailored to individual Pokemon, while Stardust is universal.

If you check your Pokemon’s stats page, you should see what the requirements for a Power Up are next to the green Power Up button. For example, if you had a baseline Rattata you wanted to Power Up, it would cost you 600 Stardust and 1 Rattata Candy. Keep in mind that these costs will ramp up as your Pokemon gets stronger.

One other thing to note: when a Pokemon gets sufficiently strong, normal Candy won’t be enough to Power Up anymore. At this point, you’ll need to start using XL Candy.

XL Candy is necessary once your Pokemon crosses certain CP thresholds, though you won’t even be able to start collecting it until you’re at least level 40. At that point, XL Candy may start dropping instead of regular Candy when you catch, hatch, trade, etc., and you can also trade large sums of regular Candy for it.