Tips & Tricks For Playing Pokémon Go!
If you’re not aware of the current craze which has swept over the world then you must have been living under a rock for the last few weeks. Pokémon Go has taken the world by storm after a huge absence by Nintendo on the smartphone front.
Now the game is fun, a lot of fun. And it helps you get exercise too which is always good, but nobody who plays Pokémon just wants to be good. They want to be the best. So read on below to find out some handy tips & tricks to become the ultimate Pokémon master!
Getting Started
Now first things first. You can’t become the Pokémon master if you don’t know how to play the game. I won’t explain every single aspect of it as you’ll pick it up as you play but the basics are…
- Download the game either from Google Play or from us here at AndroidOut (Kind of an obvious point but you never know)
- Sign in with your Google Account or create and account with the Pokémon Trainer Club.
- Create your avatar (the design options are fairly limited but you can change your outfit and gender).
- Choose your starting Pokémon. You can choose from the classic three. Bulbasaur, Squirtle or Charmander.
- Get ready for the adventure to begin! At this point, you’ll learn how to catch your Pokémon.
So there’re the basic steps you’ll need to go through to get yourself ready to play. Once you’ve run around your street a little and got used to the map system you’ll be ready for our first handy tip…
Finding Pokémon Quickly!
You don’t want to spend 10 hours running around your neighborhood just to catch a simple Pidgey. You’re aiming for the big league and you want to catch as many as you can. As you navigate the world you’ll be able to see what, if any, Pokémon are nearby you from the box on the bottom right-hand side of the screen. If you tap it you’ll see who is available (or it will be a silhouette if you’ve never seen it before) and you’ll see between 1 and 3 footprints underneath them.
One footprint indicates that you are very close to the Pokémon whereas three means you’re going to need to explore a lot. Now tap one of them, whichever one it is you want to catch. Once you’ve selected it you’ll see a little green rectangle flash as you walk and move around. This means you’re heading in the right direction.
Then all you have to do is find it and catch it. Simple.
Battery Advice
There is no denying that Pokémon Go absolutely eats up your battery. It uses your camera, your GPS, an Internet connection and the screen will be on the entire time you play. While you can’t do much to help, there is a setting which you can activate which will enable battery saver mode. Simply tap the Poké Ball and press settings. You can also reduce your brightness and if you want you can disable the vibration feature, although where’s the fun in that.
Optimize Your Commute
Obviously, if you drive yourself to work or school then don’t whip your Android out and start playing, however, if you take a bus or other means of transport then this will work wonders. While you can’t catch Pokémon when you’re travelling, you can cash in on all of the Poké Stops that are along your route. These may vary and you might have loads or hardly any. Either way, you can make the most of them as you journey passed them.
Take Advantage of Other People’s Lures
If you’re thinking ‘What’s a lure?’ then you need to play the game a bit more and then come back and read this part. All users can set up a lure which attracts Pokémon to them. These aren’t specific to the user that set them up so you can easily find them and catch away.
Be warned, though, and this is very important. There have been reports of people setting up lures in less…desirable locations which have led to people being robbed. Make sure you don’t blindly follow your Android into a dark alleyway because there is a lure there. Stick to the open. The game isn’t won’t mind if you avoid the dodgy places.
Catch Every Pokémon You Find!
It doesn’t matter if you already have it, catch it anyway. You’ll receive evolution candy regardless of whether you have it already. (Evolution Candy is what you need to evolve your Pokémon…it’s worth having). Another benefit is that you can trade your duplicates with Professor Willow for even more Evolution Candy. Win-win situation.
Don’t Waste Your Poké Balls
Trying to catch a Pokémon which is way out of your league is just a waste of your stock. How do you know if you’ll be able to catch it I hear you ask…well that’s easy. When you encounter a Pokémon you’ll see a white circle around it. Within that circle will be a slightly smaller one. This will either be green, orange or red. Green means you’ll catch it easily, orange is adequately difficult and red is incredibly hard. It doesn’t matter how badly you want to catch the Pokémon in front of you. If the circle is red then you’re just wasting Poké Balls.
Have Pikachu as Your Starting Pokémon!
Yeah, you heard that right. I know he isn’t presented as an option but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have him. When you are given the choice to select your first Pokémon out of the three, simply ignore them. Start running around and eventually they will appear again. Keep doing this and low and behold, a Pikachu will appear instead. Catch it and he will be your starting Pokémon.
Earn Bonus XP
You might not figure this out unless you already know it, and if you do figure it out then you’ve done it by accident. Before you throw your Poké Ball, tap, hold and begin doing a circular motion on it. You’ll start to see some sparks flying off it. This means it’s ready to catch and there is a chance you’ll gain bonus experience points for your efforts.
So there you have some handy tips & tricks. Know some more than really help you catch ’em all? Let us know in the comments so we can all become a Pokémon master. Remember to stay safe, be aware of your surroundings and stay away from moving cars…they can hurt.
