Is it just us, or is everyone playing Pokémon Go? Even if you’re somehow one of the few that isn’t, you’ve likely seen it all over you social media feeds, in the headlines, and maybe even mentioned on the nightly news. In short, the game is an absolute phenomenon. The recently-launched title takes the iconic Pokémon franchise maxim “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” and turns it into a real-world, augmented reality (AR) game for your smartphone, one in which you must skirt your city and neighborhood in an effort to catch as many virtual pocket monsters as possible.
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Surprisingly, Pokémon Go has a lot going on despite how simple the game is on the surface. Whether you have yet to begin amassing your collection, or you are well on your way to filling out your Pokédex, this article will breakdown all the game’s nuances and various ways to play. We’ll cover everything, from how to find, catch, and train your Pokémon, to how to best use your items and maximize your strengths in battle.
How to pick the best starter Pokémon
Like in the classic handheld video game series, you begin your adventure by picking a starter. At first, you will be surrounded with the three classic starter Pokémon: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Choosing a starter isn’t too important as you’ll likely find a higher level Pokémon sooner or later in the game. It is not uncommon to find Bulbasaurs and Squirtles wandering around, but Charmanders don’t seem as prevalent. However, there is a hidden fourth starter: Pikachu. You have to follow some simple, specific, steps in order to get the electric mouse to appear — thankfully, we’ve got a detailed guide on how to do so.Tips to find the best wild Pokémon
Pokémon Go wants you to get up on your feet and venture into the real world. The only way to find Pokémon is by wandering around outside. Using your phone’s GPS signal, the game tracks where you are, and will spawn Pokémon for you to capture based on your location. In town, grass- and normal-type Pokémon will often appear. If you go near water or out at night, however, you’re likely to encounter water-based and psychic Pokémon, respectively. That said, people have run into water Pokémon in locations without water nearby, so it’s not entirely based on your geographical location.Here are some tips for finding Pokémon:
Tip #1: In the lower-right corner of the screen, a small tab will display nearby Pokémon. Tapping this tab will open a window that shows the approximate distance you are from all possible Pokémon in the area. The distance is represented by foot steps; 3Just ma means it’s far, 2 is moderate, and 1 is close. This does not indicate direction, however, so you’ll have to pay attention to the changes in footsteps under each Pokémon’s icon.
Tip #2: Clicking on one of the nearby Pokémon icons will show you the distance to that specific Pokémon. If you move your smartphone around in different directions, a green light will eventually flash around the white rectangle — that indicates the correct direction to head to find it. This can be a little tricky seeing as the GPS isn’t always reliable. The pulsing rings around your trainer will change as you get closer to the Pokémon in question, and the footsteps will begin to decrease from 3, to 2, to 1, and to zero. Once they disappear, it means the Pokémon is right where you are. Tap on screen and the creature should appear within about 10 seconds.
Tip #3: Whenever a Pokémon appears, as long as it’s on screen, you can tap it to begin the catching process — no matter how far away it is from you.
Tip #4: If a Pokémon happens to flee while you’re attempting to catch it, it’s possible it will still be present on the map for you to try again.
Tip #5: Use Incense and Lure modules! Incense is a usable item you purchase in the Pokémon Go shop, or nab by leveling up. It attracts Pokémon to you and thus increases the odds of catching a rare Pokémon. It also lowers the probability of them fleeing.
Tip #6: Lure modules work in a similar way, but apply to the Pokéstop in which you use them. The lures attract Pokémon to that location for 30 minutes, and in doing so, benefit all players in the area. So, if you see a spot on your map with pink confetti-like animation, go there for a better chance at finding Pokémon. Add some incense, and you’re likely to be swarmed by the little monsters.
How to reliably catch Pokémon
The entire point of Pokémon Go is to catch Pokémon — and you’ll find tons of the critters while out and about. When one appears, your phone will vibrate, and you’ll see them on the map. Tap them to begin the capture sequence, which will require you to flick Pokeballs (or greatballs and ultraballs) at the Pokémon on your screen. Below are some tips on how to successfully capture them.
Tip #1: A colored ring will appear around the Pokémon you’re trying to catch. Different colors denote the likelihood of catching the Pokémon, with green being the easiest and red the most difficult.
Tip #2: As you hold down the Pokéball, the colored ring will go from large to small. You want your Pokéball to land on the Pokémon inside that circle — the smaller the circle the more experience points you get for hitting it on target. You can also toss a curveball by holding down on the pokéball and moving it left and right before you throw it. It’s a lot more harder to catch a Pokémon this way, but you’ll get more points.
Tip #3: You can feed Razz Berries to a Pokémon to make it easier to catch. Berries are a random drop from Pokéstops, and a reward for increasing your trainer level. Use them by tapping on the backpack icon when attempting to catch a Pokémon.
Tip #4: Pokémon will sometimes move to avoid Pokéballs, or even use an attack to deflect them. Pay attention to their movements so you don’t waste too many Pokéballs trying to catch them.
Tip #5: There’s a rumor going around that if you miss, you can tap on the Pokéball while it’s rolling on the ground to reclaim it. This has not been proven, and many people have said that this does not work. Don’t waste your time trying to reclaim these balls.
Tip #6: Finally, if you’re having trouble catching the Pokémon due to it’s position on your screen, or you simply don’t want to be pointing your phone at random angles to find them, turn off the AR mode. This can help make catching Pokémon easier especially while walking as they will stay centered on the screen amid a forest environment. This does sacrifice some of the game’s charm, but it pays to have stability when you’re trying capture that coveted Dragonite.
How to train and evolve your Pokémon
You’d be forgiven if you thought that once you’ve caught one copy of a Pokémon, you’re all set. But in Pokémon Go, the point is to catch as many of each as you can and every Pokémon possible — for good reason. The only way to power up and evolve your Pokémon is by feeding them candies and stardust, which are collected by catching Pokémon, hatching Pokémon, and by transferring them to Professor Willow. Be careful, though. Transferring them is not reversible; you won’t be able to get transferred Pokémon back. Only deposit the weaker extras of the same Pokémon, and hold on to the strongest one.
Evolving your Pokémon with candies: Evolving your Pokémon is one of the main goals of the game, but it takes effort. In order to evolve, say, an Eevee, you will need 50 Eevee candies. Every Eevee you catch nets you three candies, and transferring them grants you another per transferred Pokémon. So, for each extra Eevee you catch and transfer, you get four candies, meaning you’ll need to catch about 13 Eevees in total to evolve just one.
Different Pokémon evolutions require different amounts of candies. Evolving a Ghastly to Haunter, for example, only requires 25 Ghastly candies, whereas evolving a Haunter to a Gengar will require another 100 Ghastly candies. Candies only come in basic Pokémon varieties, and are rewarded for catching any Pokémon in a particular evolutionary chain. If you want to evolve a Magikarp to a Gyarados, you’ll need a whopping 400 Magikarp candies. While catching so many copies of the same Pokémon may sound tedious at first, it becomes addictive, especially when you consider that evolving your Pokémon greatly increases their CP and HP, or Hit Points, making them more effective in battle.
Powering up a Pokémon with stardust: Powering up a Pokémon requires fewer candies — typically just one or two — but also requires stardust, which you can earn by catching Pokémon and by claiming Gyms. The higher you increase a Pokémon ‘s power, the more stardust each upgrade will require. Like evolving, powering up increases the HP and CP of your Pokémon, but at a slower rate. The half-circle meter that rests above your Pokémon shows how far along it is to reaching its full potential, but it is relative to your current level. As a general rule of thumb, try to hold off on powering up your Pokémon too much before they’re fully-evolved, as evolving is a better use of your candies. You’re also more likely to find higher CP Pokémon the higher your level, and the more you play. So powering them up doesn’t add too much value in the early stages of the game.
Lucky Eggs: Lucky Eggs are in-game items that you receive after hitting level 9, or you can purchase them in the shop. They double the amount of experience points you collect in a span of 30 minutes. One trick you can use to level up quicker is to hold onto every type of Pokémon you catch. Then, activate a Lucky Egg and begin evolving your common Pokémon. While doing this, you should also try to activate a Lure Module or Incense to catch as many Pokémon as you can — that also doubles the amount of experience points you get. Fighting a friendly or enemy gym helps, too. Doing all this will maximize the amount of points you can get, and it’s all doubled thanks to the Lucky Egg.
How to manage and hatch Pokémon Eggs
Until game developers introduce trading, the only other way to collect Pokémon besides catching and evolving them is by hatching Pokémon eggs. You collect Pokémon eggs as rewards for leveling up, and randomly at Pokéstops. Eggs do require a couple things in order to hatch, however.
First, you’ll need an incubator. Trainers will be rewarded with an incubator with unlimited uses early on for leveling up, and you can collect limited-use incubators at Pokéstops. These are usually good for about three uses. Once you’ve got your egg in an incubator, you’ll need to walk. Each egg will have its own distance requirement, ranging from 2km, 5km, and 10km. Once you’ve walked the required distance, the egg will hatch. The longer the distance requirement, the more likely it will be a rarer or stronger Pokémon. However, don’t neglect hatching smaller eggs. They still yield more experience and candies than if you were to catch the Pokémon.
Keep in mind you can only hold nine eggs at a time, and any excess eggs you get from Pokestops will be discarded. Such being the case, keep your eggs incubated and hatch them as quickly and often as you can so not to miss out on any rare Pokémon.
How to use Pokéstops and items
Pokéstops are helpful in that they award you with plenty of items like Pokéballs, and a small chunk of experience points that will aid you on your adventure. They appear in the game as small blue beacons that animate as you get close to them, usually at important real-world locations and landmarks. You’ll want to hit up plenty of them to keep your reserves well stocked and ready for whatever Pokémon you encounter.
Accessing Pokéstops is usually a quick and simple activity — just tap on the stop once you’re nearby, spin the picture, and collect your items. However, there are some small ways you can maximize your Pokéstop use.
First, instead of tapping on each item spawned by the Pokéstop, just spin the picture and close it. The items will automatically be added to your inventory. This is especially handy if you’re commuting and quickly passing multiple stops, or if you need to move quickly to find a Pokémon.
What to do if your bag is full
At some point, however, your bag is going to be completely full. When that happens, don’t stop accessing the Pokéstops. Keep tapping and spinning — you might not be getting items, but your trainer will be getting experience for every Pokéstop you access. And since Pokéstops reset every five minutes or so, you can access them again and again for items and experience.On top of the items you get from Pokéstops and leveling your trainer, there is also a store in the game where you can spend real-world money on Pokécoins. A cool $1 equates to 100 coins, which you can use to buy items via in-app purchases. These include rarer items like incense, lucky eggs, and lure modules, along with large quantities of Pokéballs and expanded item or Pokémon storage.
How to win gym battles and form teams
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Picking a team
At level 5, you’ll be able to join one of Pokémon Go‘s three teams: Instinct (yellow), Mystic (blue), or Valor (red). Although picking a team is a binding decision, which one you go with doesn’t matter all that much. All it does is determine what gyms you are allied with or rivaled against, despite what some on the internet may have you believe.Gym battles and how to control gyms
In your travels, you will come across gyms. These are currently the only way to challenge your might against other trainers’ Pokémon. To challenge a gym, you’ll need to be close enough to the real-world location to begin a battle. Once you’re in proximity to it, you’ll be able to assemble a team of up to six Pokémon to battle against that gym’s team if it is held by a rival team.
Unlike the handheld games, where battles play out in turn-based RPG fashion, Pokémon Go‘s battles are real-time, action-based affairs. To attack, you tap your Pokémon, or hold down on the screen to use a special attack. Swiping left or right will also allow you to dodge the enemy’s attacks. Dodging can be a bit finicky depending on your connection, and even laggy at times.
To ensure victory, even in the face of a spotty connection, here are some tips:
Tip #1: A Pokémon’s strength is measured by its CP, and Pokémon with higher CP will almost always outmatch a Pokémon with lower CP. That said, you can always evolve or power up a Pokémon with candies and stardust to increase its CP. However, even if your Pokémon are weaker than the enemy’s, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll lose because…
Tip #2: Pokémon have certain weaknesses and resistances. Pay attention to the types of Pokémon you’re going up against, and the attacks your Pokémon know. Each Pokémon knows two attacks — a basic attack and a special attack — that have a type associated with them. Peck is a flying-type attack, for example, while water gun is a water-based attack. If you’re going up against fire, take a Pokémon with water type attacks, because they’ll do more damage. Other examples: water is susceptible to electric, grass is susceptible to fire, etc. There are several elemental types in the game, and each has its own weaknesses. Check out the handy chart below to maximize your Pokémon’s effectiveness in battle.
Tip #4: As you attack, tiny blue bars under your Pokémon’s health gauge will fill up. Once they’re full, you can unleash special moves by pressing and holding down on your Pokémon. Special attacks do more damage than regular attacks.
Tip #5: If your Pokémon faint or become injured during battle, revive and heal them with revives and potion (both found at Pokéstops) before attempting another battle.
Tip #6: To ensure that an allied gym doesn’t fall into enemy hands, you can increase its level to add more Pokémon. A level 2 gym, for example, can hold two Pokémon. Each player can only assign one Pokémon per gym. If a friendly gym is only at level 1, you can raise its prestige by defeating the defending Pokémon with only one of your choosing. Defeating them will increase the gym’s prestige and once it reaches the next level, you or another player, will be able to add a Pokémon. The higher the gym level means more Pokémon will be defending it — that also means it will be tougher for the enemy team to claim it.
Tip #7: Join forces with other trainers. You can fight against enemy gyms alongside other players, and that makes taking down a rival gym much easier.
Tip #8: For every Pokémon you defeat at a rival gym, you’ll knock down the gym’s prestige level, and your Pokémon will gain experience. So, even if you fail to beat every Pokémon at a gym, you can still whittle down the gym’s prestige, and make it easier for other trainers on your team to take it over. Again, teamwork pays off!
How to defend your gym
If you manage to beat all the Pokémon at a given gym and lower its prestige to zero, you’ll can take over it. You’ll have to assign a Pokémon to defend the gym, and if multiple trainers in your team add Pokémon (depending on the gym level), the one with the highest CP becomes the gym leader. You may even come across an unclaimed gym while wandering around. If you do, post up one of your stronger Pokémon to defend it on behalf of your team. Be aware that putting a Pokémon in a gym means it will be unavailable until it is defeated and returned to you.Unfortunately, maintaining control of a gym does not impart any bonuses or benefits to your Pokémon; it simply increases the prestige of the gym, and a higher prestige means more trainers can add Pokémon to defend it. So, maybe don’t leave you’re highest level Pokémon behind — they could be gone for a long time. However, that shouldn’t stop you from trying to power up your team and take on as many gyms as possible, as every day you maintain control of a gym nets you daily bonus items, including stardust and Pokécoins. You can only collect these bonus items every 20 hours.
