Having recently reached level 25, it seems it's time I shared some of the so-called "strategies" I've developed along the way, while also airing some concerns and ideas for some of the games often beleaguered mechanics. While the current best means of leveling both one's character and consequently one's Pokemon is largely relative to the amount of time, effort and real-world money one is able to pour into the game, one can still dance around this money-based ceiling with some extra work.
First and foremost one should never underestimate the power of eggs in this game, as eggs of all shapes and sizes offer more base stardust and species-specific candy than simply "catching 'em all" when it comes to filling out one's Pokedex, more often than not, the solution is instead to "hatch 'em all." Not only can hatching eggs grant you those extra candies required to evolve and power up your Poke pals, it also makes for much stronger Pokemon than one might find in the wild. Having said that there's no guarantee that after walking significantly more than 10 kilometers to hatch a 10k egg (because the game's distance detection is about as broken as the tracking system) you're going to end up with new Pokemon with epic stats, CP and perhaps even the move set that you're looking for. I was lucky enough to hatch a 1660 Lapras around level 20–22, equipped with Blizzard and more hit points than most of my top of the line Flareons combined, but that doesn't mean I haven't hatched my fair share of Pidgeys, Zubats, Weedles, Caterpies and Eevees along the way. For the record, Eevee being among the potential Pokemon to be hatched from 10k eggs is pretty insulting towards players everywhere, just as having to walk five kilometers/three miles (or more) only to hatch yet another Nidoran, Paras, Venonat or Drowzee can be excruciatingly painful. There's a great deal of luck associated with this part of the game, and it all revolves around your willingness to walk, walk and walk some more. In fact I have yet to see a single Ponyta in the wild, yet have hatched enough to evolve my very first Rapidash this week; however it ended up with the ground-based Drill Run power attack instead of even Flamethrower if not Fire Blast; rendering it all but useless.
When it comes to one's character level the most surefire means of advancement comes from power-evolving Pokemon regardless of CP, while hopefully having a lucky egg active. As of right now you'll receive just as much XP for evolving any 10 CP Pidgey, Weedle and Caterpie into Pidgeotto, Kakuna and Metapod respectively, as you would for evolving an 800 CP Nidorino into Nidoking, etc. Despite the fact that Pidgey, Weedle and Caterpie's evolutions cost 12 species-specific candy, whereas some of the other evolutions can cost anywhere from 25 to 100 all the way to 400 candies, which, by the way, is a bit much, considering I've harvested as many Magikarp as possible since my first day of playing, and I'm barely at 190 candies, and that's taken a long time as is. Similarly, when it comes to transferring Pokemon, there is currently no difference in reward for transferring a 1500 CP Charizard or a 10 CP Charmander, both will grant you a single candy in return for your beloved or not-so-beloved Pokemon; it's a bit grotesque to be mass grinding one's Poke pals into toffee, but Niantic seems to be into that sort of thing. I can appreciate that Niantic is taking the time to permanently ban cheating players, but working towards fixing the game's many weak points could naturally combat cheating just as much as these banning crusades (i.e. If there was a remotely viable tracking system, people wouldn't have turned to sites like Pokevision).
No matter whom you talk to, among trainers' biggest gripes about "Pokemon Go" is the borderline pointless Accolade/Achievement system. Sure it's nice to see that you've evolved 200 Pokemon or that you've caught three to 50 Big Magikarps, but there's neither an XP or Stardust reward associated with any tier of these accolades. Milestones are an important part of life, both within and outside the realm of Pokemon, however milestones are usually accompanied by experience and/or useful items — hint hint.
Some of the most potentially powerful items in the game are granted in extremely limited numbers by leveling up, but as of right now, the only viable way to ascertain items like Lures, Incubators, Incense and Lucky Eggs is by pouring real world money into the game; hooray for capitalism. It's not enough that people can buy their way to the top in real life, or even to the presidency *cough cough*, but now you can purchase/exercise your privilege to ascertain Poke-stardom, much like Gary Oak from the original "Pokemon" television series. Perhaps someday the game's PVP elements will offer these items as rewards or perhaps even grant regional bonuses to members of a dominating Team, i.e. 20 percent bonus XP for having your team control most or all of a city's gyms.
Finally if you're struggling to compete with local players when it comes to taking and holding gyms, Vaporeon is the GOAT, with more than twice the HP of similarly leveled Flareons and the highest CP of the three Eevee-lutions. As can be seen in the cover photo, four out of my six highest CP Pokemon are Vaporeons, and seven out of my top 12 are Eevee-lutions, although it's worth mentioning that my 1284 CP Wigglytuff somehow has just as many hitpoints as my 1910 Lapras, so CP doesn't account for everything in "Pokemon Go." Having spent the week near to Lexington, Va., I've gone into town at least every other day and have been doing my best to hold onto the five gyms nearby for as long as possible. Between Exeggutor's Solar Beam, Lapras' Blizzard, Vaporeon's Hydro Pump, and some occasional input from my many Flareons or my two lovely Nidoqueens, there's little I can't at least partially counter. While none of my top-tier CP Pokemon currently rate beyond 85 percent IVs, I was lucky enough to catch a 753 Growlithe with 93–95 percent perfect IVs; the promise of what will someday be a tremendous Arcanine admittedly has me a bit giddy.
P.S. While there's many YouTube Channelsnow being dedicated towards "Pokemon Go," there's two channels which have been enormously helpful in my Poke journey, shout out to the following:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MoreAliA (Love your videos; hate your clickbait)
