Even the most addicted "Pokémon GO" players crave tips and tricks to help them cheat and level up.
And no, we don't mean the creative kind of cheating, like strapping your phone to your dog or a drone until the eggs you've collected hatch.
The problem is, there's a ton of misinformation out there that might be stearing you off course as you desperately try to reach level 30.
No, your friend's friend didn't catch a Legendary Pokémon. And no,
there is no mathematical calculation to determine what those
footprints mean in your Nearby menu. Sorry! We wish there was just as
much as you do.
The
game does, however, have a plethora of secrets hiding just beneath the
surface. We've gathered the best cheats and hidden features and put them
right here! Happy hunting.
Start with Pikachu!
There's a simple trick to getting Pikachu right at the start of the game: disobience! As my colleague Tim Mulkerin wrote,
"You have to initially rebel against Professor Willow and refuse to
pick a Pokémon when he asks you to. Instead of picking one of the three
Pokémon he offers, keep walking until Charmander, Squirtle, and
Bulbasaur disappear from the map.
The trio of Pokémon will pop up again on your map when you get far
enough away from them, and you have to continue to ignore them four
times.
The fifth time they respawn on your map, they'll have Pikachu with
them! Pick Pikachu instead of one of the original trio, and voila! He's
yours." BOOM!
Keep getting the same Pokémon? Keep them! Evolve them! Level up your Trainer!
The most important thing you can do in "Pokémon GO" is level up your
Trainer. The higher the level you are, the better Pokémon you'll find.
They'll have
higher CP and HP, and thus they'll be more capable of going to gyms and winning in battle without you having to power them up.
So, how do you get there quickly? Be recycling your duplicates.
Pokémon like Rattata and Pidgey and Weedle — Pokémon that you run into
frequently, that cost very few candy to evolve. Evolving Pokémon gives
you a fat payout of 500 XP. You see where I'm going with this?
Every time you collect a Pidgey or a Weedle or whatever else, you get
a few candy. When you evolve them, you can then transfer them to
Professor Willow for a bonus candy, thus enabling further evolution.
Maximize on your Lucky Eggs and Incense to help with Trainer leveling!
Consider this: If you get 500 XP for evolving Pokémon, and Lucky Eggs
double your XP for 30 minutes, you'll get 1000 XP for every Pokémon you
evolve in that time period.
So maybe save those oft-found Pokémon for a special 30 minutes of
evolution frenzy? If you're feeling up to it, perhaps add an Incense use
to your Lucky Egg time. For every new Pokémon found that you've never
found before, you get 500 XP (which then gets doubled). You can see how
this could turn into an XP windfall very quickly.
In general, using Lucky Eggs and Incense together is a pretty solid idea to maximize on the use of both.
Drag the Pokéball and swirl it around to throw a curve ball!
You see that curveball bonus
sometimes, right? You must have seen that at least once or twice after
scooping a Pokémon. That's no accident, although your initial
introduction may have been.
When you're capturing a Pokémon, you can tap the Pokéball at the
bottom of the screen, drag it forward, and swirl it around in a circle.
It'll start spraying sparks and that's when you should toss it
diagonally towards the Pokémon in question. With any luck (and some
practice), you'll start nailing curveball bonuses every capture.
Throw it into the smallest possible yellow/orange/red circle to maximize throw bonus (more XP!)
Wondering what that yellow/orange/red circle is all about when you're
trying to capture Pokémon? It's not just there to psyche you out, but
to introduce an element of careful timing.
The closer you get to hitting in the center of that circle, and the
smaller that circle is, the more of a throw bonus you will get when —
nay,
if — you capture the Pokémon. And as we already know, the
more XP you get, the higher level your Trainer becomes, thus securing
better Pokémon to capture. It's a glorious cycle.
What to do with your eggs: incubate! Constantly! Target longer walks for better Pokemon
You may have noticed Eggs popping up as an item you'll get from Pokéstops. Those are full of (sometimes rare and wonderful) Pokémon!
You can find them under the main menu if you click on the Pokémon
submenu, then swipe to the left. Tapping on any of them will allow you
to select "Incubate," which then starts a counter that's connected to
how far you walk while the game is open on your phone (and the screen is
on, unfortunately — you have to be actively playing for it to be
measured).
When you've walked the distance there, your Pokémon will hatch and much rejoicing will be had.
Go out to places where people are congregating to play, as there will be lures and you'll find amazing Pokémon!
The map above is of the lower east corner of Central Park in Manhattan, where a variety of Pokéstops
are all grouped together around Grand Army Plaza. I've been there
twice, and there's never been a time that any Pokéstop didn't have a
lure on it for longer than a minute or two.
There is a constant barrage of Pokémon showing up, and huge crowds of people
are coming together and sharing space while capturing Pokémon. You may
not live in NYC — our condolonces to you and yours — but you're likely
near some form of major congregation point. There are crowds of hundreds
in downtown Bellevue, Washington, so this certainly isn't a
NYC-exclusive activity.
Select which Eevee you want to evolve into with this easter egg!
One Pokémon in "Pokémon GO" can evolve into three different Pokémon,
seemingly at random: Eevee. But there's an easter egg buried in the game
for the most devoted Pokémon fans. Redditor "smithnigel" figured it out — here's their explanation:
"The Eevee Brothers from the original anime were named Rainer, Pyro,
Sparky and they owned a Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon respectively. If
you nickname your Eevee either Rainer, Pyro or Sparky, your Eevee will
evolve into that desired Eeveelution!"
Heads up that this will only work on your first Eevee, reportedly, so choose carefully.
A simple method of dodge and attack will help you tackle enemies of
nearly any level. It's all about looking for the yellow "flash" of your
opponent, and immediately dodging their impending attack. As Reddit user "zmedi" points out,
at the start of each battle, your opponent will immediately attack. So,
ya know, dodge immediately! After dodging (by swiping left or right),
quickly hit your opponent (by tapping on your Pokémon, not theirs).
Remember that rhythm! Flash: dodge! Attack! Repeat.
NOTE: If you encounter a lot of network server issues in "Pokémon GO," this may not work out so well for you. But then again, battling in general is a mess when there are network issues.
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