5 Ways To Be Better At Pokemon Go
If you haven't already, you'll soon start to see people more glued to their phones than usual, perhaps taking bizarre, nonsensical routes down the streets, flicking their screens rapidly in a car park, or gathering around police stations, all the while endlessly muttering "gotta catch 'em all.” Pokémon Go, the new, extremely popular augmented reality game by Niantic Labs, is set for release in more countries in the very near future, right after the company has fixed its exploding servers
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Given the game’s immense popularity, competition to become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time—like no one ever was—has never been tougher, and there are some key things you should know before setting off on your journey.
Given the game’s immense popularity, competition to become the greatest Pokémon Master of all time—like no one ever was—has never been tougher, and there are some key things you should know before setting off on your journey.
1 - Learn How To Throw Poke Balls Properly
If you want the highest chance of catching a Pokémon, you need to wait until the ring inside the circle is at it’s smallest. That’s the advice straight from the developers. You can get away with throwing the Poke Ball whenever you like at the easiest difficulties. But when you start seeing orange and red rings, you’ll want to maximise your chances of success as much as you can — especially once you start trying to capture Pokémon with Great and Master Balls.
Once you get to a higher level you can also start to pick up berries at Pokestops. Berries can be fed to wild Pokémon to increase your chances of capturing them.
2 - It Doesn’t Matter What Starter Pokémon You Choose
Choosing a starter Pokémon in the handheld games is a big deal. In Pokémon GO, that’s not the case at all because you’ll need to catch 20, 30, 40, 50 or more Pokémon to evolve it into something good.
Take Magikarp, for instance. Everyone struggles with Magikarp so they can get the dragon fury that is Gyarados. But you only get three Magikarp candy every time you catch one — and you need 400 candies before you can evolve a single Magikarp into a Gyarados.
Even if you just want to power up your Pokémon, you still need candies to do it — and you only get those from catching Pokémon. So don’t worry about what starter Pokémon you pick, because unless there’s 40 or 50 of them hiding in the suburb you live in, chances are you’ll be spending your time levelling up everything else.
If you’re looking to level or evolve Pokémon as fast as possible, the best way to do it apart from catching Pokémon en masse is to transfer them back to the Professor. You’ll get a single candy from that Pokémon every time you do so, which is immensely helpful given the amount of Pokémon you’ll need to catch to evolve anything valuable (like a Gyarados).
3 - Pay Attention To Your Special Attack Meter
Given that most people’s Pokémon are fairly weak, gym battles don’t tend to last long enough for a special attack to charge up. Once the meter is filled enough — and you can see on the stats for each individual Pokémon how much charge is required — you simply press and hold (or long press) your Pokémon to unleash a special.
4 - Get Used To Transferring Pokémon
If you’re looking to level or evolve Pokémon as fast as possible, the best way to do it apart from catching Pokémon en masse is to transfer them back to the Professor. You’ll get a single candy from that Pokémon every time you do so, which is immensely helpful given the amount of Pokémon you’ll need to catch to evolve anything valuable (like a Gyarados).
5 - Don’t Just Claim New Gyms, Defend Your Team’s
If you walk past a gym that’s already claimed by your team, it might be tempting just to leave it and continue on to claim new gyms. However if a gym is claimed by your team, you can leave another Pokémon there to defend it. Try to leave a Pokémon of a different type to the ones that are there already, to create more of a challenge for anyone who wants to claim it from you.
If you rock up to one of your team’s gyms and the icon to leave a Pokémon doesn’t appear, that means that gym will have to be leveled up before you can defend it. To level it up, just ‘train’ at the gym by pressing the boxing glove icon — though you’ll have to defeat the gym in order to level it up. Gyms can host up to 10 Pokémon if they’re at maximum level.
