Pokemon GO Power Up Guide: When to Power Up & How to Save Stardust

Contents hide

1 How Power Ups Work

2 Stardust Costs by Level

3 When to Power Up for Raids

4 When to Power Up for PvP

5 When to Power Up for Gyms

6 Lucky Pokemon: Always Prioritise

7 Purified and Shadow Pokemon

8 IV Requirements Before Powering Up

9 XL Candy: Is Level 50 Worth It?

10 Stardust Conservation Tips

11 Common Power-Up Mistakes

12 Conclusion

13 References

Stardust is Pokemon GO’s most precious resource — and powering up Pokemon is the fastest way to burn through it. Every trainer eventually faces the same dilemma: you’ve caught something great, but you’re not sure if it’s worth investing hundreds of thousands of stardust into. Power up too freely and you’ll be broke for months. Never power up and your team stays weak. This guide explains exactly when to power up, how the stardust costs work, and how to make every single piece of stardust count.

Before powering up anything, you need to understand your stardust income. Our stardust farming guide covers the fastest ways to earn stardust so you always have fuel for your best investments.

How Power Ups Work

Powering up a Pokemon increases its Level and, as a result, its CP (Combat Power). Each power-up costs Stardust and Candy — both the species-specific candy and, above Level 40, XL Candy. [1]

CP is a compressed stat that combines Level with the Pokemon’s individual IVs (Attack, Defense, and HP). Two Pokemon of the same species at the same Level can have different CP if their IVs differ. Higher IVs mean higher max CP at the same Level. This is why checking IVs before investing is essential — you want to power up the highest-IV version you have for the intended purpose.

The Level scale runs from 1 to 50. As a trainer, your Trainer Level caps the maximum Level your Pokemon can reach — typically your Trainer Level + 1.5 (up to the hard cap). The two major milestones are:

Level 40 — the standard power cap, reachable with regular Candy and Stardust.
Level 50 — the extended cap introduced with the Level 50 trainer system, requiring XL Candy.

Stardust Costs by Level

This is where most players get blindsided. Stardust costs per power-up are not flat — they escalate steeply as you push a Pokemon higher. [1]

Level Range	Stardust per Power-Up	Candy per Power-Up
1–10	200–600	1
11–20	1,000–2,500	2–3
21–30	3,000–5,000	4–6
31–40	6,000–8,000	8–10
41–50 (XL)	10,000–30,000+	12–20 XL Candy

The full cost to power a Pokemon from Level 1 to Level 40 is approximately 250,000 Stardust. From Level 40 to Level 50 costs an additional ~296,000 Stardust — more than the entire Level 1–40 journey — plus 296 XL Candy. [2]

The takeaway: be deliberate. Every Pokemon you push to Level 40 consumes a quarter million stardust. Every Pokemon you push to Level 50 costs half a million total.

When to Power Up for Raids

Raids are the activity where high Pokemon Level pays off most directly. Raid battles are time-limited — the more damage you deal per second, the more likely you clear the boss and the more Premier Balls you earn. [1]

For general raiding:

Level 30–35 — comfortable for most 3-star raids and tier-4 content. Enough to contribute meaningfully in groups.
Level 40 — the target for serious legendary raiding. At Level 40, your top attackers deal around 10% more damage than at Level 35.
Level 50 — recommended only for your top 3–6 meta raid attackers. The jump from Level 40 to Level 50 adds roughly another 10–12% damage output, which can mean the difference between time-out and completion in difficult duo and trio scenarios.

The practical advice: push your best 3–4 raid attackers per type to Level 40, then reassess whether Level 50 is worth the XL Candy investment. For most players, a Level 40 team of top-tier species beats a Level 50 team of mediocre ones.

When to Power Up for PvP

PvP (GO Battle League) is where power-up strategy gets counterintuitive. Unlike raids, you don’t want the highest CP — you want the highest CP that doesn’t exceed the League cap. [3]

Great League cap: 1,500 CP
Ultra League cap: 2,500 CP
Master League: no cap — max CP always wins here

For Great and Ultra League, you power up Pokemon to the cap, not past it. Exceeding the cap is impossible (the game prevents it), but going under is a real concern — a Pokemon 50–100 CP below the cap loses a meaningful stat advantage.

The ideal PvP investment is a Pokemon that reaches as close to the CP cap as possible at a lower Level, since lower Levels mean more HP relative to Attack. This is why IV requirements for PvP are different from raids — a 0/15/15 IV spread often outperforms a 15/15/15 in Great League. Check our IV guide before powering up anything for PvP.

Stardust budgeting for PvP: Great League investments typically reach their CP cap at Level 20–30, which costs 30,000–80,000 Stardust — much cheaper than a full raid investment. Ultra League investments reach cap at Level 35–40 depending on species and IVs.

When to Power Up for Gyms

Gyms are the lowest-priority use of stardust. A high-CP Pokemon in a gym decays over time regardless of how powerful it is, and the daily coin cap (50 coins) means there’s no reward for having an unkillable gym defender.

That said, high-CP defenders like Slaking, Metagross, or Blissey do take longer to knock out, which earns you slightly more coins before they’re removed. If you already have a Level 40 Pokemon of a good defender species, gyms are a reasonable secondary use. Don’t power anything up specifically for gym defense — it’s not worth the stardust.

Lucky Pokemon: Always Prioritise

Lucky Pokemon are a special case that changes the math entirely. A Lucky Pokemon costs 50% less Stardust to power up. [4]

What that means in practice:

Level 1 to 40: ~125,000 Stardust instead of ~250,000
Level 40 to 50: ~148,000 Stardust instead of ~296,000

If you have a Lucky Pokemon of a species you were already planning to max out, always power up the Lucky version. The 50% discount makes even marginal species worth investing in. Lucky Pokemon are obtained by trading — the longer a Pokemon has been in storage before the trade, the higher the chance of it turning Lucky.

Purified and Shadow Pokemon

Two other forms affect the stardust equation:

Purified Pokemon receive a 10% Stardust discount on power-ups, plus a 2 IV boost across all stats when purified (guaranteeing at least 2/2/2 IVs). Purified Pokemon are good investments when the species is useful and you caught a high-IV Shadow version — the purification cost is usually low, the IV boost can push a good Shadow to excellent, and the 10% stardust savings stack up over 40 levels. [5]

Shadow Pokemon deal 20% more damage than their standard counterparts but take 20% more damage. For raids, Shadow attackers are among the highest DPS options in the game. The trade-off: they cost the same Stardust as a standard Pokemon (no discount), and you should never purify a Shadow you intend to use as a raider — you lose the 20% attack bonus. Max out top Shadow raiders if you have the resources; they outperform Level 50 standard Pokemon in raw damage. [5]

IV Requirements Before Powering Up

This is the step most players skip and later regret. Before investing any Stardust, check the Pokemon’s IVs and confirm they’re good enough for the intended use.

For raids: aim for 90%+ IVs (combined score of 13/13/13 or higher). A 15/15/15 (100%) versus a 13/13/13 (~87%) is less than 3% difference in performance — not worth waiting forever for perfect. But a 10/10/10 (~67%) is noticeably weaker and probably not worth maxing.

For PvP: IVs matter differently. Use a PvP IV checker (Pokegenie, Calcy IV, or the in-game Appraisal system with a calculator) to confirm the spread works for your target League. Our IV guide explains how to evaluate PvP IVs correctly.

The rule: never power up a Pokemon you haven’t appraised. It takes five seconds and saves you from wasting 250,000 Stardust on the wrong individual.

XL Candy: Is Level 50 Worth It?

XL Candy is the resource that gates the Level 40-to-50 journey. You need 296 XL Candy to push a Pokemon from Level 40 to Level 50. Here’s how to get it: [6]

Catching Pokemon — small chance of XL Candy from any catch; higher chance for higher-level wild Pokemon
Transferring Pokemon — small chance of XL Candy per transfer
Trading — can yield XL Candy for both traders
Hatching eggs — guaranteed XL Candy from eggs hatched when you’re at Trainer Level 31+
Walking a Buddy — your buddy can occasionally find XL Candy
Raid catches — catching raid bosses gives a chance of XL Candy

The time investment to accumulate 296 XL Candy for a single Pokemon is significant. Is it worth it?

Yes — for your 2–3 absolute best raid attackers in top meta types (Dragon, Fighting, Ghost, etc.), or for Master League PvP where every CP point counts.
No — for gym defenders, budget raid fillers, or species that will likely be power-crept by future releases. The stardust and XL Candy cost is too high to justify for anything but your core team.

Stardust Conservation Tips

The most important habits for stretching your stardust:

Prioritise, don’t spread — identify your 4–6 most-used Pokemon and invest in those. Spreading stardust across 20 Pokemon means none of them are competitive.
Use Star Pieces strategically — pop a Star Piece during Community Days, mass egg hatching, and weather-boosted catching sessions. The 50% bonus compounds quickly.
Don’t power up Pokemon you’ll replace — if you’re actively hunting a better version of a species, hold off on powering up the current best until you’ve confirmed it’s the one you’re keeping.
Lucky trades before investing — if you’re planning to max a species, try to get a Lucky version through trading first. The 50% stardust discount is a huge saving.
Buddy candy for rare species — set your target Pokemon as your Buddy to passively earn candy. For rare species with limited candy, this reduces the candy bottleneck so you can power up when you have the stardust.

Common Power-Up Mistakes

These are the errors that cost trainers the most stardust over time:

Powering up without checking IVs — the most expensive mistake. Always appraise before investing.
Over-investing in weak species — a Level 50 Pidgeot is still a weak raider. Species matters more than Level.
Maxing out gym defenders — gym defense doesn’t scale with your investment. The coin cap makes it low-priority.
Purifying Shadow Pokemon you intend to raid with — you lose the 20% Shadow attack bonus permanently.
Ignoring the XL Candy cost — players sometimes start Level 40-to-50 without realising it costs more stardust and 296 XL Candy. Budget both before starting.
Not using Lucky trades for high-cost species — for legendaries you want to max, always attempt a Lucky trade first. The 50% discount is too significant to skip.

Conclusion

Powering up Pokemon in Pokemon GO is a long-term investment decision, not an impulsive tap. The stardust costs are enormous — especially above Level 40 — so every investment needs a clear purpose. Power up your raid attackers to Level 40, check IVs before every investment, always Lucky-trade before maxing legendaries, and keep your stardust reserves healthy by actively farming stardust during Community Days and weather-boosted sessions. Spend smart and your team will be competitive without constant stardust drought.