A quick guide to cycle resetting in Pokemon GO PvP

NOTE: There will be several charts with a black background. Here is the key for all the symbols used.

Individual fast moves will also be highlighted.

Introduction

Cycle resetting is the use of delayed optimal charge moves to interrupt the optimal move timing of an opposing Pokemon.

In some games, optimally throwing your own moves is not enough to win.

Cycle resetting is an additional technique you can employ to make your opponent throw sub-optimally.

For example, here is a matchup between Alolan Marowak and Hypno where the Hypno has a two Confusion lead. Both players are throwing “perfect” (zero-turn-loss) charge moves, but Alolan Marowak misses out on the win by one turn!

In this sequence, Hypno has just farmed down my Beedrill — giving it a 2 confusion head start into my weakened Alolan Marowak. My Swablu can’t handle the Hypno, so I need to win this matchup no matter the cost. Both of us are throwing at perfect timings, but the Hypno seems to have the edge.

Throwing too early gives the opportunity for your opponent to throw a charged move with optimal timing.

Introducing cycle resets!

In this matchup, you can delay your charged moves to win! Knowing that it takes Hypno two Confusions from alignment to reach a zero-turn-loss charged move against Alolan Marowak, you can prevent this situation by throwing a charge move one Confusion before it gets to the final optimal charged move.

In the same situation, I overfarm a ton on Marowak so that I can mess up the Hypno’s timing right when it matters most. I cycle reset the Hypno and save my Swablu!

By throwing your charge moves later, you can force your opponent to lose one extra turn, letting you win the matchup via CMP.

Note the difference between good resets and bad resets. Both are optimal, but the top image gives Hypno no room to throw an optimal charge move.

With this specific timing of charged moves, Hypno cannot reach the two Confusions needed to throw off a zero-turn-loss charged move before it is KO’d by Alolan Marowak’s final move. The best Hypno can do is throw a move with one turn lost, netting you the matchup win via CMP.

Along with charge move optimization, you can use cycle resetting in some matchups to make it as hard as possible (or even impossible) for your opponent to save turns.

How can I use this?

You can cycle reset during the following matchups:

• 3-turn vs 4-turn
• 4-turn vs 5-turn
• 5-turn vs 3-turn
• 3-turn vs 5-turn
  NOTE: A 5-turn move reaches optimal timing against a 3-turn move after a single move, so make sure to cycle reset earlier rather than later (i.e. do the opposite).
• 2-turn vs 3-turn
  NOTE: A 3-turn move reaches optimal timing against a 2-turn move after a single move, so make sure to cycle reset earlier rather than later (i.e. do the opposite).
• 2-turn vs 5-turn
  NOTE: A 5-turn move reaches optimal timing against a 2-turn move after a single move. Unlike 2-turn vs 3-turn, however, it may still be a good idea to cycle reset the turn right before the 5-turn Pokemon reaches its charge move (if optimal). This is because 5-turn Pokemon may not be able to risk over farming due to how lengthy 5-turn moves are.

Keep in mind matchups where cycle resetting benefits the opposing Pokemon. Otherwise, it is usually best go for cycle resets on the last optimal timing before the opposing Pokemon reaches its last move. Cycle resetting may not always change the result of a matchup, but it can make it harder for your opponent to complete the already difficult task of throwing optimally.

Our team only did research on a few instances of impactful cycle resets, but there are a lot of Pokemon move sets… we recommend researching matchups using PvPoke and playing them out either in-game or through PoGO Frontier. Cycle resetting is very situational, but maybe you can discover a new way to improve old matchups.

Closing Remarks

In the closest of games, hopefully cycle resetting can help you pull off clutch wins!

Thank you for reading. The PoGO Frontier team would like to shoutout PolymersUp, DijonTheDjinn, Kneelarmstrang, Easleydone27, and Caleb Peng for helping us research and revise this article. Additionally we thank the contributors of PvPoke for maintaining the best tool to learn about Pokemon GO PvP and everyone on Twitter who highlighted issues with our first version.