Pokémon Go – Tips 1.1

Catching Pokémon

In addition to the previous ways to gain experience, there is also a curveball bonus available when catching Pokémon. When you get to the capture screen, you can spin your Pokéball to make it sparkle and if you land the catch, you get the bonus (every little bit helps right?).

Curveball bonus: + 10XP

Another thing  that seems to hold true is that if the red glow on the Pokéball button fades before 3 shakes, the Pokémon will escape and, as we mentioned in the previous article, as you gain levels this likelihood increases. I have taken to using a Razz Berry in combination with a Great Ball for anything with a red ring when you go to catch it; which seems to be working quite well (it also helps that there are a plethora of Pokéstops to recover these items regularly).

Upgrading Pokémon

If you’re wondering about whether it’s worth upgrading Pokémon before OR after evolving them, allow me to provide some advice. As you level up, the base CP of Pokémon you encounter does increase significantly. I’m at level 14 at the moment, and encountering 300+ CP Pokémon is pretty standard at this point. My suggestion to you is that you hold on to that precious stardust for the Pokémon you intend to either:

• Challenge gyms with on a regular basis or
• Leave at gyms

Evolution provides a hefty increase to CP and evolved Pokémon are nearly always stronger than their wild equivalents (which is nice as it holds true to the main games). Pick a champion from among the common types you encounter and upgrade it with all the candy you collect from it’s duplicates. You gain 4 candy per Pokémon if you transfer a freshly caught one immediately, so these can rack up very easily.

Eggs

It has been established that the longer it takes to hatch an egg, the rarer the Pokémon resulting will be (except for the starters, which seem to be in the 2.0km range). This handy image was constructed and can be found here for reference.

NB: be prepared for the eventuality where a 10km egg doesn’t give you an overpowered Pokémon, just in case. My first one only hatched a 400CP Electabuzz…

Item progression

Here are what we know to be the confirmed level checkpoints for the following items:

Level 5: Potions
Level 5: Revives
Level 10: Super Potions
Level 12: Great Balls
Level 15: Hyper Potions
Level 20: Ultra Balls

Incense, Lure Modules, Razz Berries and Egg Incubators are also awarded at certain milestones. The complete list and number can be found here.

Power Saving Tip

In addition to lowering the brightness of my phone, using the power saving option in the app itself and turning off WiFi while wandering around, another suggestion was posted online that has also increased my battery life. First suggested by two Reddit users, the tip is to download the map of the area you are going to be searching ahead of time and have it available offline so that your phone is not constantly having to pull that information while you are Poké-hunting. The steps to do so are as follows:

• Open Google Maps on your smartphone
• Tap the hamburger menu button
• Navigate to the Settings menu
• Tap on “Offline areas”
• Tap on the recommended “Home” region or use the “+” button in the bottom right-hand corner to select a specific area of the map.

It is absolutely incredible to see both the virtual and physical Pokémon GO communities growing at such an exponential rate. For me it is a serious dream come true, being (at least in a sense) able to catch Pokémon in the real world, plus the exercise and social elements are fun too. With some awesome updates looming in the not so distant future, what have been the milestones in your Pokémon journey thus far?