Pokemon-go – Pokémon GO – Pokémon max level & cost of stardust and candy

Like Samthere said, you can delay indefinitely, however id recommend keeping one Pokemon high to take gyms with. Don't power it up more than you have to but keep it high enough to get at least a few gyms. The extra star dust and coins you get should be worth the candies and stardust you spend to keep just one Pokemon high. I usually get rid of anything with a CP meter under 90%. It's probably good to set a goal like level 25, otherwise you probably will delay it indefinitely. Lastly, go ahead and evolve any Ratatas and Spearows (or other really common ones in your area) you can for the experience. Their evolved forms max out pretty low so they aren't really viable later, otherwise leveling will get really slow unless you are hatching eggs left and right.

You are eligible to claim the "Defender Bonus":

• Once every 21 hours
• If you have at least 1 Pokémon in a gym at the time.

One you have claimed your bonus, you will need to wait 21 hours before claiming it again.

You can gain additional bonuses if you have 1 Pokémon in other gyms as well (you can assign 1 Pokémon to multiple gyms, but you can't have multiple Pokémon in the same gym), which will increase your reward. However, this still is only available once every 21 hours, from the time you last collected your "Defender Bonus".

• Adding Pokémon to new gyms does not reset the clock
• Losing a Gym does not reset the clock
• Changing the time on your phone does not reset the clock^{[citation needed]}, as all user information is stored on the servers.

Therefore, the only "strategy" I can suggest is to

1. Maintain your gym, so you can maintain your defender bonus
2. After the countdown ends, add Pokémon to as many gyms as you can, then claim your bonus, before you lose the gym.

This has changed, as of June 22, 2017

The Old Defender bonus was replaced with an automatic reward system, granting a player 1 coin/10 minutes a Pokémon was active in a gym (raids will place a gym "on hold", and Pokémon will not claim coins in this period, or lose health over time); to a maximum of 50 coins per day, that resets at midnight, and is automatically claimed when Pokémon are kicked out a gym.

This means that if you have 1 Pokémon in a gym for 8 hours and 20 minutes (500 minutes) you will gain the max 50 coins. Any other Pokémon that are in gyms in the same 24-hr period that you claimed this reward will no longer reward you with coins.