After many months of anticipation (and years of waiting, really), this week marked the release of the newest addition to the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon Go. If you’ve noticed a surprisingly large number of people wandering the streets, making awkward abrupt turns, and keeping their eyes glued to their iPhones, chances are this is the reason. For those unfamiliar with the game, Pokemon Go allows users to wander their own neighborhood to catch Pokemon on their smartphone. Everywhere I go, people are stopping each other to ask the common question, “Are you playing Pokemon, too?”
More than likely, the answer is yes. With the game taking the world by storm, there is some serious competition if you really want to be the best there ever was. Before you can catch them all, there are some important things you must consider.
Charge your phone.
Just like mom would say, you can’t leave home on an empty stomach. Making sure your phone is fully charged and ready to go before embarking on your journey is just like eating breakfast (which you should also probably do). If you really want to be a master, considering bringing a snack, also known as a portable phone charger, to help keep you going strong till the Elite Four!
Prepare for the journey.
Becoming a Pokemon Master is going to take a lot of walking, and chances are, the majority of your journey is going to be outside. Make sure that you’re dressed for the weather, and have good shoes and plenty of water! This way, you’ll be prepared for however long it takes to find the next PokeCenter.
Be safe!
It is only a matter of time before someone gets hit by a car trying to catch a Pikachu or falls in a lake for that Starmie. Don’t be that guy! You can’t be a Pokemon Master if you’re dead.
Now that we have the basics down, there are other important things to remember if you want to be the best! While this is not everything you will need to know in order to complete your journey, hopefully it will help give you a start (or a laugh) and teach you a few things you might not know! It is time to travel across the land to search far and wide, because you gotta catch ‘em all!
Find Poke Stops to help level up.
On the first days of your journey, PokeStops will be your best friend. This is the easiest way to get experience, plus, you’ll get Poke Balls, Pokemon eggs, and other items to help you along the way. These can be benches, churches, parks, almost anything! In order to collect the items at the Poke Stop, you must “spin” the stop’s photo and collect them by tapping each bubble. Poke Stops refresh frequently, so you can collect items from the same location over and over again!
Catch a lot of Pokemon.
Have you seen a hundred Pidgeys and avoided catching them all because you already caught one? Don’t do that! In order to level up your Pokemon, you need their species’ candy, which can be obtained by catching many of the same type of Pokemon! Not only do you get candy from just catching the Pokemon, but you can transfer them to the Professor and he will give you candy in return. Keep your strongest Pokemon and give them all of that candy to help them evolve and become the next champion!
But how do I find Pokemon?
That’s an excellent question! Although sometimes Pokemon will just appear, the lower right-hand corner of the map will show you what Pokemon are nearby. A Pokemon with three footprints underneath it is further away, where as one with only one footprint will be closer. If you don’t see any footprints, that means the Pokemon is super close! Get ready, and make sure you have plenty of PokeBalls. Tap on the Pokemon once it appears on the map to start the battle.
Note: Unless you have seen the Pokemon before, only its silhouette will appear on the tracker. Study up, and get to know your Pokedex well if you want to get ahead of the game. Your rival will have no idea what just hit them!
Hatch your eggs.
In your Items bag, you have an incubator. This can be used to hatch eggs that you find at Poke Stops. Each egg has a certain distance you must travel before it will hatch, and only one egg can be in the incubator at a time. Make sure that the app is running while you travel towards the next town, or else your steps won’t count towards hatching your egg. Can’t wait to find out what baby Pokemon you have? Get out there and keep training!
Battle at the gym.
In order to be a true Pokemon Master, you’ve got to start earning gym badges to show for your accomplishments. Once you reach level five, you can start battling! Battles on your new journey may be different than those you’ve experienced before, meaning they are not turn based. When you have a team, battling at a gym with your team’s color (or winning at another team’s gym and take over) will allow you to defend the gym, meaning that you can store Pokemon to battle at the gym. This is a great way to get PokeCoins and Stardust!
Be patient.
It takes time to become the best, which means you must be patient, even when you’re faced with a broken server. Take time to heal up your Pokemon, take a nap, and don’t forget to call your mom!
