In Pokémon UNITE, experience is a vital aspect of competitive gameplay. Falling behind in levels severely limits your impact in the game, whereas being ahead allows for riskier plays to become rudimentary. Managing your experience while simultaneously having an impact on the map can be a difficult scale to balance, but fortunately UNITE provides Drednaw, the perfect objective for both sides!
In Pokémon UNITE, experience is a vital aspect of competitive gameplay. Falling behind in levels severely limits your impact in the game, whereas being ahead allows for riskier plays to become rudimentary. Managing your experience while simultaneously having an impact on the map can be a difficult scale to balance, but fortunately UNITE provides Drednaw, the perfect objective for both sides!
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Taking a look at the wild Pokémon in UNITE’s ranked play, the big three of strategic objectives are clearly Rotom, Drednaw, and Zapdos. Examining these three, however, Rotom and Zapdos have direct impacts on your scoring capabilities, rendering enemy goals vulnerable and allowing your team to score on them freely and with breakneck pace. Drednaw, however, is far more subtle; securing the final hit on it grants your entire team a temporary shield and a burst of experience as well. While these effects aren’t as outlandish as weakening enemy goal zones, they’re more than significant enough to grant some momentum, and depending on when you secure Drednaw they can allow you to take a noticeable advantage in the early stages of the game.
Upon securing the last hit on Drednaw, a player is awarded twenty Aeos Energy for scoring. More importantly, however, all five members of their team are rewarded with two boons: a shield and a burst of experience, both of which occur immediately, and both of which scale based upon your current level. The experience is a simple, one-time permanent buff that grants you approximately one level’s worth of experience. This is extremely powerful—especially early on—as many Pokémon require certain levels to be reached to evolve into their stronger forms, and all Pokémon require levels to learn and upgrade their better movesets. Taking Drednaw early and often is a fantastic way to start an early snowball or to dig your team out of an early deficit, and for this reason the first Drednaw of the game is often considered the most important objective of the game outside of Zapdos.
Drednaw’s experience boost is certainly its best reward, but the shield is nothing to scoff at either. Upon taking down Drednaw, all members on your team will be granted a shield worth roughly fifteen percent of their maximum health total. This shield lasts for sixty seconds but does not get replenished if you take damage before that time period is up. This is a rather small period of effectiveness, but it’s more than enough to swing a single teamfight, either as a result of a contested Drednaw or at some other proceeding objective. Whereas the aforementioned experience boost is often more momentous earlier on in the game, the shield scales with your max health pool, and therefore can become quite hefty later on in the match. Regardless of when you secure the big blue turtle, however, both of its benefits will surely aid your cause in the minutes to come.
Drednaw’s Spawning
While multiple Drednaw can spawn in a given ranked game, the first one will always arrive at the seven-minute mark of the match. Every time Drednaw spawns, it will do so in the beach area beneath the bottom lane, and a small message will appear on the mini-map alerting all players to this fact. The map will also display a small countdown leading up to Drednaw’s spawning, letting you know thirty seconds in advance to make your way down to the beach if you wish to secure it. Once Drednaw has been defeated by either team, it will remain off of the map for exactly two minutes, respawning in the same location precisely afterwards and remaining until slain again.
Once the match reaches the two-minute mark, signaling the final stretch and spawning of Zapdos in the center of the arena, Drednaw will immediately despawn, even if it is in combat at the time. All of this together means that a maximum of three Drednaw may spawn in a single ranked game, provided that the teams make an effort to secure them early and often. Every Drednaw provides the same benefits upon being defeated, and one team may secure more than one, so stacking up their experience boosts is a common strategy for teams seeking to build momentum throughout the game. It is highly recommended that you keep track of the time throughout the match and take a mental note of when the next Drednaw will spawn, so that you and your team can adequately prepare to secure this valuable objective.
Thirty seconds before Drednaw spawns (whether the first one or one following), all eyes should be focused on the bottom lane, regardless of where everyone actually is on the map. The number of members you should send to Drednaw’s area can vary depending on the actions of your opponents, however. Usually, having one person remain in the top lane is enough to thwart any passive scores from any opponents seeking to destroy your goal zone up there. Any more than one may jeopardize your capability to ward off enemies while securing Drednaw, so only leave two or more in the top lane if you can see your opponents attempting to take Rotom instead. In that case, two or three people can attempt to contest or at least prevent the taking of Rotom while the remaining members take Drednaw for free. However, under normal circumstances both teams will divert a sizable amount of attention to Drednaw, so preparing for this scenario is often ideal.
Getting into position first is very important; there are brushes above Drednaw’s spawn area that are perfect for setting up ambushes as well as for zoning away the opposing team’s members. Not all members of your team need to be attacking Drednaw once it spawns. In fact, it’s often preferable that low-damage members such as Defenders and Supporters seek to establish a front line beyond Drednaw’s spawn area, warding off intruders as the high-damage members work behind them to secure the objective unabated. This way, Drednaw is defeated with minimal risk of being stolen away, and minimal casualties can befall your team. Simply be careful that your front line does not stray too far away so as to get defeated quickly and be aware that it is possible for sneakier enemies to flank around behind you while you are busy attacking Drednaw.
If the enemy team manages to establish themselves in the area first, do not panic. They will likely send out members to stop you from approaching. If you have the time, try to take these members down as quickly as possible, so that you can create a numbers advantage to contest the objective itself. Fortunately, Drednaw’s health bar is always visible even when you are not near it, so long as you hold the L Button and pan your camera over to its area. If you do not have time to whittle down the enemies guarding the front line, then try to flank around them, utilizing the tall grass above Drednaw’s area to hide yourself while the opponents focus on the objective. If you feel you can take down the members attacking it, then ambush them from there. Otherwise, try to save your highest-damage Move available, and unleash it as soon as Drednaw is about to fall.
With a bit of luck, you’ll be able to steal the objective right from under their noses, and maybe even defeat or escape from the enemies afterwards as well. Whichever team secures the first Drednaw cleanly will have a clear chance to destroy the bottom lane’s goal zone, so make sure you’re in position early to give your team the best shot at an opening lead!
As a side note, previously in the game’s recent history there was an unfortunate side-effect of taking Drednaw. Prior to patch 1.2.1.7, released on October 13th, 2021, testers discovered that securing the last hit on Drednaw actually afflicted your team with a substantial de-buff for ninety seconds, during which period it would lower your damage dealt to Zapdos by a whopping fifty percent! While this at the time would cause for players to avoid taking Drednaw right before Zapdos spawns at the two-minute mark, testers were happy to confirm that following the Patch 1.2.1.7 update, this unfortunate side-effect thankfully no longer occurs, so as of this article’s writing rest assured that the bug no longer persists.
All in all, Drednaw is an often subtle, yet staggeringly powerful objective that can be taken up to three times throughout a ranked game. While it’s twenty points and scaling damage shield are certainly boons in their own right, the biggest benefit of Drednaw is the level advantage accrued by the team who secures it. Taking Drednaw as early as possible—provided you can do so safely—is a fantastic way to both cement an opening lead for strong teammates as well as make up for any early deficits suffered by your weaker members early on. Taking Drednaw safely can be tricky due to its high priority in ranked play, so make sure that you take advantage of the tall grass above its area and prevent any enemies from encroaching on its territory. Learning to take Drednaw consistently with limited casualties, as well as avoiding the potential for any pesky enemy steals, is a perfect way to level up your game.
