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Pokemon Go: Tips and Tricks - The Basics

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Pokemon Go: Tips and Tricks – The Basics

Getting Started

How do I find Pokemon?

Pokemon appear around you, and certain places have a higher chance to spawn certain ones. I have found specific beaches and parks usually have specific Pokemon that spawn a lot there, for example there’s a park/beach in the town south of me that is filled with Charmanders.

pokemon-go-squirtle-screen

Get up and walk! This game is all about moving. Moving means hitting more Pokestops, encountering more wild Pokemon, hatching eggs, and actually increases the rate at which incense spawns appear.

How do I catch ’em all?

pokemon-go-pidgey

Once you’ve found a Pokemon and started the catch encounter, you have to throw the Pokeball at them.

The Pokeball must land inside the WHITE circle for it to hit and start the catch sequence (where the Pokemon tries to break free from the Pokeball). However, you want to time your throw for when the COLORED circle is as SMALL as possible. The smaller the circle, the higher the catch chance.

The color of the circle represents the difficulty in catching it – green is the easiest, red is the hardest. Harder difficulties have an increased chance to break out of the Pokeball.

If you land the Pokeball inside the COLORED circle, you will also get some bonus XP! This requires gauging the distance and arcing your throw accurately. The XP bonus depends on the size of the colored circle and grants different bonuses:

“Nice!” – colored circle is 75-100% of the white circle – 10 XP
“Great!” – 25-75% – 50 XP
“Excellent!” – <25% - 100 XP Getting these throw bonuses DOES affect catch chance (confirmed from data-mined game files).

Basic Tips

1. Pikachu appears as a starter option if you ignore the first three choices four times by walking away.

pokemon-go-pikachu-starter

2. Spinning the ball before throwing will provide some extra experience. To throw a curveball, tap and hold the ball and spin it around in circles before throwing – you will see sparkles flying off the ball as it’s spinning.

pokemon-go-ratatta-curveball

Curveballs grant 10 XP, but this does NOT stack with Nice/Great/Excellent, meaning if you throw a curveball and get Great, you will only get higher of the two bonuses (Great, which is 50 XP). Hopefully this is changed in the next patch, because if one lands an “Excellent” curveball, why shouldn’t they get all the XP from that?

3. Landing the ball inside the narrowing circle will provide some extra experience based on how small the circle has narrowed.

4. Pokémon type frequent the terrain appropriate to them.

5. Freshly caught Pokémon have a light blue glow behind them for several hours.

6. It is better to level quicker at the start than it is to focus on which Pokémon is better.

7. Pokéstops replenish about every 5 minutes.

CP, HP, Candy and Stardust

1. CP, combat power, is a general gauge of a Pokémon’s prowess.

pokemon-cp

2. HP – Hit Points, duh.

3. Stardust is given when you capture a Pokémon, and hatching one gives more.

4. You also get Candy the same way.

pokemon-go-stardust-candy

5. It takes Candy and Stardust to power up Pokémon. Every power up increases CP and HP.

6. DON’T WASTE YOUR STARDUST UNTIL AT LEAST YOUR EARLY 20s.
Stardust is the most important resource you have. It is your bottleneck to becoming the very best, like no one ever was. Stardust is gained by catching Pokemon, so catch everything ever, always. Many of you may still be investing stardust and candies into pokemon that you’ve had for some time now. You need to save those stardusts/candies for new pokemon. As you level, your pokemon will be outclassed and will become fodder for your new pokemon. Unless the pokemon is special to you, it would be more beneficial for you to transfer them and use the candies to upgrade the newer, stronger pokemon.

Gym Battles

1. ALL Gyms may be battled for XP.

2. Battle your own gym to raise its level and carry more Pokémon.

pokemon-go-gym-battle

3. Battle your enemies to lower theirs.

4. You can Dodge in battles by swiping, attack by tapping, and special by holding.

5. Focus on a team that has type-attack advantage against theirs in gym battles; Highest CP =/= Best. If you haven’t played since the old school days and need a refresher course on the type-attack advantages, refer to this list:

type-chart

6. Anyone can place a Pokémon in a newly caught gym from the same team. First in gets a spot.

snorlax-hold-the-door
Sorry Rumz1337, you’re the only one who’ll appreciate this Game of Thrones reference.

7. Pokémon with custom names are not seen by other players; every gym shows the generic name.

Lures, Incense and XP

1. Everyone benefits from lures, but only you see the incense.

2. Moving around increases wild appearance while using incense.

pokemon-go-incense

3. Current research shows about 1 Pokémon a min if you are moving about 7 mph while using incense. It registers distance traveled about every min for this, and distance from the last position is all that matters. Don’t go in circles; go on an adventure.

4. Everyone can see the same lured Pokémon, though you may still have some wild appearances.

5. You can just be in the vicinity of an active lure to benefit.

6. Lucky eggs will also give experience bonuses to evolutions, so it save them for one big evolution party.

Stats, IVs and Evolution

1. IVs (Individual Values) are hidden stats which vary your Pokémon’s ATT, DEF, & STA

2. IV numbers are whole numbers between 0-15.

3. Height and Weight are purely cosmetic and do NOT influence IVs.

4. Lured/Hatched have a higher chance for better IV scores.

5. Certain Pokémon have preferential IV scores; trending toward more ATT, DEF or STA.

6. Evolved Pokémon retain their IVs.

7. IVs are what give variation to CP gained per level. See charts here for min/max/avg CP per level.

arcanine-cp

8. There is no difference between evolving or powering up first.

9. Evolved Pokémon Randomize Movesets.

10. Eevees can be named before evolving to force a specific evolution.

Name Evolution
Sparky Jolteon
Rainer Vaporeon
Pyro Flareon

11. Eevee naming works 100% the first time; it is random after the first use of that name.


Special thanks to Reddit users RichiePantsBeGone and phozee.

Jump to Part 2 of AiPT!’s Pokemon Go: Tips and Tricks — Fast Leveling and efficient Gym Battling.

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