Pokemon Unite is a new free-to-play game from developers TiMi Studio Group and The Pokemon Company. This game takes the world of Pokemon and fuses it with various MOBA elements from games like DOTA 2 or Heroes of the Storm. Players pick from a roster of Pokemon, which serve as the game’s champions, and battle it out to score points for their team. Whichever team earns the most points or destroys all the enemy team’s point receptacles wins the match. Of all the Pokemon available to play, my absolute favorite is Gengar. A Speedster character, Gengar excels at quickly dealing burst damage to opponents or using its crowd control abilities to single out others. If you’re looking to take this spooky specter into the arena, here are some tips and what items you’ll want to use.
Best Gengar Items
- Wise Glasses
- Shell Bell
- Leftovers or Float Stone
- Eject Button (Battle Item)
When it comes to Gengar’s Held Items, the two essentials are Wise Glasses and Shell Bell. Gengar is all about landing its Special Attack moves, resetting their cooldowns, and launching them again. Because of this, pumping up our damage numbers with Wise Glasses makes Gengar terrifying in the mid to late game. Additionally, Shell Bell gives us some needed sustain, allowing players to appear, secure a kill, and run away before they’re attacked. Gengar is very squishy, making him a prime target for high damage dealing Pokemon like Cinderace or Zeraora.
For our third slot, you can customize this a bit more depending on your playstyle. Since Gengar is made to roam in the center, I prefer Leftovers since we won’t be going to goals to heal as often as our laners. This gives us another source of healing either before or aftern we engage someone. If you aren’t worried about your health then the Float Stone is a solid option since it increases our movement speed out of fights. You’ll be rotating between lanes a lot and then can be a nice boost to help you quickly join your allies.
Finally, our Battle Item is going to be the Eject Button. Again, Gengar has no escape outside of its Unite move, so the Escape Button serves as a nice way to get out of a sticky situation. If you don’t have this item unlocked then either the Potion or X Speed are solid alternatives.
Best Gengar Tips
Pick the Right Abilities
For Gengar, the two abilities you want to use are Shadow Ball (Level 5) and Dream Eater (Level 7). While you can use Sludge Bomb and Hex, I found these two attacks to be the most consistent in all types of battles. Not only does Shadow Ball have a great range, but it also slows the Pokemon hit and decreases their Special Defense. This makes them even more suseptiable to Gengar’s combo attack. Plus, Shadow Ball has a short cooldown, making it perfect for harhassing or just poking enemies.
As for Dream Eater, this skill puts any enemy Pokemon you hit to sleep. If a Pokemon is asleep, just tap the Right Trigger again to teleport behind the Pokemon, which will give you some health and dramatically lower the cooldown of Shadow Ball. Because of this, we can use Dream Eater to launch two Shadow Ball attacks in quick succession which will normally take out at least half a Pokemon’s health. Dream Eater can also be used to put key Pokemon like Snorlax asleep for a few seconds during a battle. You don’t always need to use the combo, sometimes just temporarily removing an opponent during a team fight is enough. This move is also terrific for helping escape from any Pokemon chasing you!
The Early Game
In the early game, you should focus on laning with your team. Outside of Eject Button, you won’t have any escape options so there’s no reason to just stay in the center. Instead, help whoever is in the lane with you kill wild Pokemon. Ghastly’s Lick is extremely deadly, as it lets you pull a Pokemon trying to escape back. Players often overextend themselves when the match begins and Lick is perfect for punishing them. Also don’t underestimate Will-O-Wisp as it does a surprising amount of early game damage and is great for just harassing enemies thanks to the Burn effect. I often like to roam the lane with another damage character, as Ghastly is terrific for helping secure kills or quickly kill NPC Pokemon. Just remember, your only escape will be Eject Button so be a bit more selective when you go in for the kill.
The Mid Game/Late Game
Once you evolve into Haunter, you will gain access to Shadow Ball. This allows you to deal more damage and poke enemies from a distance in your lane. During this time, you should still focus on supporting your teammate during battles. Using Lick and Shadow Ball gives you some nice ways to deny your enemy from ever escaping a fight. You should also help deal with any Rotoms or Drednaws that spawn. However, once you hit Level 7 and unlock Dream Eater you can move to the center area. You will now be able to use Gengar’s three move combo to not only devistate players, but instantly kill a lot of the NPC Pokemon.
This combo is, hit a Pokemon with Shadow Ball, then Dream Eater, teleport behind the Pokemon via Dream Eater, and use Shadow Ball again. During the mid game you will be focus on killing NPC Pokemon in the center and helping your team in whatever lane is being attacked. A good Gengar player is able to keep track of everything happening on the battlefield via their map and general game sense. Since you’re a Speedster, you can rotate from the center to other lanes faster than most. This makes Gengar quite dangerous as it canm always appear during a team fight to single out a key Pokemon like Eldegoss and kill them.
Finally, when you get to the late game your job is solely to support your team in fights and kill NPC Pokemon in the center so you can score. Gengar is terrific for killing squishier Pokemon hiding in the backline during battles. Since it can put them to sleep and slow their movement speed, Gengar makes escape pretty difficult without help. You should focus on supporting your team in every big fight, since the long respawn timers can turn the tide of an entire match. Gengar isn’t great against Defender class Pokemon like Snorlax, so go after the squishier, more vulnerable characters whenever you can.
[Disclaimer: Fanbyte is owned by Tencent, which also co-developed Pokemon Unite. Though the company has no editorial oversight with Fanbyte Media. Nor have any of its representatives had direct contact with this writer.]
