Pokemon GO: What ‘New Attack’ Does and How it Works

If you just updated Pokemon GO on your phone you might have noticed a brand new button on the Pokemon menu. “New Attack” sits there, taunting you with all of the possibilities it opens up. But if you haven’t been following all the latest Pokemon GO developments, you might not know what those are. Hell, you might not even know how the whole thing works. Here’s our guide on what New Attack does and how it works in Pokemon GO.

The basics of the New Attack button is that it adds a second Charge Attack to whatever Pokemon you use it on. By paying the Stardust and Candy cost, you will add a second slot for Charge Attack on that particular character. It will be randomly assigned, just as if you were evolving or catching the Pokemon, giving it a Charge Attack from the pool of moves available, though it will not duplicate the attack it already has. Using this, you can give a Pokemon two powerful attacks to use either in gyms, raids, or PvP.

So that’s what it does, but how does it work specifically, and why would you want to use it? Charge Attacks are your characters’ best moves, dealing the most damage. However, they are still based on type and this is where the second attack can be a huge help. Let’s say you are using Tyranitar and want to deal Rock damage using Stone Edge, but then your opponent throws out something that’s weak to Dark moves. If you have added Tyranitat’s second Charge Attack and made sure it ends up with Crunch you can quickly and easily start dealing the maximum amount of damage possible with his Charge moves.

Which Pokemon will this help you most with? That’s what players are figuring out right now, but the real answer is that it depends on the team you’ve got. Your most powerful Pokemon can surely benefit from second Charge Attack, though how much is questionable. The Stardust and Candy cost can be very high, so sometimes it might be better to just evolve and power up another of the same species. You’ll have to look at what you have available and the resource cost to decide when to use New Attack.

That’s what New Attack does and how it works in Pokemon GO. If you have any questions or specific help you need, let us know in the comments below.