No one is a Pokémon Go master just yet, these tips might help though.
Pokémon Go is pretty great but it can be a pain in the butt to figure out just where and what everything does. It’s not the Pokémon game you’re used to playing that’s for sure! Ingress fans might know how to play it, but everyone else? Well, it’s a little tougher.
This guide should set you on your way, teach you something you didn’t know and perhaps you might even teach us a thing or two.
Go outside! While your starter Pokémon will appear wherever you start the game you’ll actually need to go outside and look for Pokémon. Wild Pokémon will appear as a ‘rustle’ of grass on the map, they’re not actually in the rustle – but they are around! If there’s none around you right now it doesn’t mean you’ll never get any and you can always use the incense item to attract more.
Take Pokémon Go wherever you… go. Work, school, on the train – you never know what you’ll find.
While it might seem an age away, Level 5 isn’t that far away. It’s possible to get to it within the first day, but you have to be prepared to travel. Without getting to Level 5 you can’t unlock the gyms and many other more advanced features of the game.
Our tip is to move to one area, collect as many new Pokémon as possible and then move onto another area. Grinding and only getting 100XP per repeat Pokémon will take forever. Stopping at PokeStops will also net you 50XP, but nothing is as good as collecting a Pokémon for the first time.
Woah hold on there, that’s two questions!
What’s a gym?
The only battling you’ll be doing in Pokémon Go is in gyms. These battles aren’t anything like the traditional Pokémon games but some of the same rules still do apply (Pokémon types, water vs ground etc). Gyms are all over the world and can be held by players and when held, light up in the colour of the team they have selected. The more gyms that are in that teams control, the better.
Battling is done with taps to attack and swipes to dodge. You tap your own Pokémon for it to attack and swipe left and right for it to dodge. It’s pretty simple and as long as you pay attention and have more Combat Power (CP) than your rival well then you’re probably safe.
If someone nearby on your team has already claimed your gym, it’s a good thing! You can help level up that gym and make it more secure against the other teams by leaving Pokémon there to defend it.
There can be up to ten Pokémon left at any one gym, but you can only leave one yourself. It’s a good idea to spread around what type you leave there; someone with a strong electric Pokémon could smash through gym filled with Goldeen.
Gyms also serve another purpose, you can boost the level of gym by training your Pokémon there. Even though it’s your our team member you’re fighting against the battles still hurt your Pokémon. You’ll need to make sure your Pokémon can take down the entire team at the gym or they’ll probably pass out (or you can run away.
If you’ve come across a powerful gym and you really want it, take it down with your friends at the same time. The defending Pokémon can only attack one of you at the same time.
There’s no point trying to take potshots at random gyms around the place. You’re better off finding a local gym that you visit frequently to try and hold with some friends. You’ll reap the benefits of holding the gym. At the end of every 20 or so hours you can go into the shop, click the shield icon in the top right and get the ‘pay’ for successfully defending a gym.
Stop, PokeStop Time
PokeStops appear on the map more often than gyms and for good reason! You’re going to need them a lot.
Stops appear at in-real-life locations as moderated by the team at Niantic, when you approach these stops – tap the icon and then spin the disc to get the items. You’ll probably end up with a bunch of Pokeballs but there’s also Pokémon Eggs, Incense, Potions and Revives to collect as well. In fact some items can’t be bought (even if you wanted to pay money) and the stops are the only way to get them.
If you’re in a car or on a train, Pokéstops are hardest to hit as you need to ‘stop’ when you get there. If you move away from the stop it’ll become inaccessible until you move back. If you hit the X on the screen to close off the stop, you’ll grab all the items automatically. No need to tap each one.
Catching Pokémon is different, once you trigger the battle you can move on and continue the battle until its completion.
You can battle Gym Leaders currently, but there’s no way to meet an in-game or real life trainer on the street and have a stoush. Maybe in the future, but for now not.
There’s trading in the game currently, but it’s not the same trading we’re used to in traditional Pokémon games. All ‘trading’ does he is return the Pokémon to the amazing Professor Willow which is the same as releasing them.
It all comes down to hitting the Pokémon with the ball, as dumb as that sounds – that’s it. Some Pokémon, like Zubat dance around a little more and others dodge as well. So what about the ring around the Pokémon? Well if you get the Pokeball in the smaller green ring you have a better chance (and get more XP) if you hit that. It’ll say ‘Nice’ or ‘Great’ or even ‘Excellent’ if you’re successful.
The harder the Pokémon is to catch, the more ‘red’ the ring (ha) around the Pokémon will be. As you level up Pokémon become harder and harder to catch, don’t worry at Level 8 you’ll unlock Rezz Berry which can help in your chances of a successful get.
Unlike normal Pokémon games there’s actually a point to collecting more than one of the same Pokémon, in fact it’s essential! Every time you catch another Pidgey you’ll get more Stardust and more of that Pokémon’s candy. The Stardust in conjunction with their candy can be used to up the power (CP) of your Pokémon or if you have enough eventually evolve them.
You can also get more Stardust from holding gyms at the end of each day.
Unlike the normal Pokémon games you can find rare Pokémon more than once. While traditional Pokémon games will only give out one Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Charmander (or equivalent) once it is possible to find these rarer Pokémon in the wild. It just means it will take a lot of wild squirtle for you to eventually evolve to Wartortle and then Blastoise.
Pokémon Go only contains Pokémon from the first generation of games, excluding legendaries. So you’re not going to find anything that wasn’t in Pokémon Red, Blue or Yellow. More Pokémon are promised to be added later, but for now you’re going to have to rock it ‘old school’. Kids still say that right?
So you’ve found an Egg at a PokeStop and you want to hatch, you just went for a 5km walk and nothing! Robbed, what’s the point of ever exercising.
You’ll need to keep Pokémon Go open in order to rack up the distance, this also means sadly you battery is going to suffer. Our tip: Enable Battery Saver in the games options and when walking keep your phone upside down (top down) it’ll turn off the screen but keep the game running. It’s still going to drain your battery but not as much.
When you pick up a PokeEgg and you’re out and about – shove it in the incubator as soon as possible. If you’re not incubating and egg all the time, then what’s point of even walking?
There are two types of incubators available near the start. One of the unlimited one you get with you and then you can purchase limited use ones to boost your egg roasting skills. You can also get them when you level up, but that’s decided at random.
Best practise with the incubators is to put the eggs that require the most amount of kilometres walked into the limited use ones. If you put three, 5km eggs into an incubator you’re just not getting value – stick the 10km or larger ones in there. Sure they’ll take longer but you’re saving that Pokecoin.
Unlike the normal Pokémon games where you catch just one of a certain Pokémon, treat it well and love – Pokémon Go treats Pokémon more like a commodity. Boo-hoo move on. So when the 50th Pidgey you’ve caught has died don’t feel enamoured to revive unless it has any use. You already got it’s Stardust and the candy from it. We’re not saying every dead or fainted Pokémon is useless, you can revive a Pokémon back to full health if you can evolve it and that’s worth keeping, but anything else? Probably not.
To get rid of the Pokémon, Transfer them back to the Professor. We’re not sure what he does with them – but you trade in your games your Nanna bought you for Christmas at EB Games (and your get peanuts) – so why is this any different.
The Pokémon Go Plus band is sure to change the way we all play Pokémon Go, It basically allows you to play the game in the background and not have to run the app 24/7. It connects to your phone low energy Bluetooth and notifies of PokeStops, wild Pokémon and gyms with an LED and vibration.
The band is not currently on sale but will be by the end of month, we’ve asked Nintendo Australia to let us know as soon as details on how to get it become available. It should set you back around $40 or so, but we don’t know yet for sure.
So far the only way we’re aware to get PokeCoins for free is hold a gym long enough. A day or so will net you 10 coins. There is the option to buy coins with real money, but at this early stage in the game we wouldn’t recommend it. Nothing is that far out of reach.
We’ve just told you don’t NEED to buy anything – but if you really want to why not help us out on Patreon put it to good use.
We recommend you get the $7.99AU Pokecoin bundle. This gives you enough coins to buy some stuff that will make the game easier and also some consumables to use in the game to rank up quicker and catch more Pokémon.
With the 550 coins the first thing you should buy a ton of Incense and then also either Lucky Egg or Lures. If you’re on your own and don’t have a gym nearby then buy the Lucky Eggs. You’ll get double XP for a limited time, but only use it when you’re going out for some hardcore exploring. If you’re in a group, or playing with people at work – perhaps a Lure might be better because it will benefit your entire team. The Incense works the same no matter if its a Lure or Lucky Egg you buy and will attract 5-6 Pokémon over the course of a half hour.
You sure can, just remember to obey all local laws in regards to using mobiles while driving.
Play as a passenger, play on bus or train – but don’t Go and drive. PokeStops and Gyms also have to be ‘stopped’ at to play, so trying to get one from a moving vehicle probably isn’t wise.
But if you’re in a car, get them to drive under 10km/h – you know to hatch your eggs.
“It’s only a game!” is something people say usually to games when they don’t understand gaming. However since Pokémon Go takes place out there, in the real world, there are real world considerations to take on.
If you’re playing Pokémon Go, be smart! Don’t trespass! The locations in the games for Pokémon Stops and Gyms were chosen by a machine, use your human head to decide whether or not its safe or not to get go into a location. That hard to catch Pokémon will be somewhere else in the world, don’t worry if you can’t get it and don’t walk on the freeway to get it either.
If you’re out on your own as well remember Pokémon Go chews an insane amount of battery at the moment. So if you’re out and about and your phone dies – never walk as far as your phone battery will allow.
There’s no Pokémon Center for people.
Mercs, Vectorman and ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron.
It's Black, Back Again.
Makes sense to us.
