So you wanna be the very best...
These are the questions I've seen recurring in this thread and across the interwebs the most, with as much detailed information as I am able to confirm directly myself. If you see any information that is missing or that you know to be inaccurate,
please PM me and I will correct it!
I should mention up front even though I actually haven't seen anyone ask it: I think this game is totally worth playing even if you don't spend any money at all (I haven't), though it is very, very tempting to do so.
Table of Contents
- Where can I download the game if it isn't officially out in my country? Will I get banned for this?
[*]Why no original battle system (or other mechanics)? Is there any chance they will add this with a future update?
[*]Is there trading/PvP?
[*]Do I need to have the app open to-
[*]But can I turn the screen off to-
[*]How's the data/battery usage?
[*]How do I catch Pokémon?
[*]How does the "Nearby" screen work? What happens if I select a Pokémon from the list?
[*]What's up with rustling grass?
[*]How do I level up?
[*]How do Pokéstops work? What do the pink leaves mean?
[*]How do I make my Pokémon more powerful and/or evolve them?
[*]Should I power my Pokémon up or evolve them first?
[*]What's more improtant, Trainer Level or Combat Power (CP)?
[*]How do eggs work? Why isn't my egg distance increasing after doing X?
[*]How do Gyms work?
[*]How do I fight/use my special attack in battle?
[*]How does the Daily Bonus for defending Gyms work?
[*]Where can I find [insert Pokémon]?
[*]Why is the enemy Pokémon I'm fighting stuck at 1hp?
[*]My rural area lacks any Pokestops/gyms/Pokemon. What gives?
[*]Safety Tips for all trainers
[*]Safety Tips for all trainers on bikes
[*]Safety Tips for daytime hunters
[*]Safety Tips for nighttime hunters
1
Where can I download the game if it isn't officially out in my country? Will I get banned for this?
On Android, the process is quite simple. Download and install this APK (you will have to check "Unknown Sources" in your Android application settings):
http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/nianti...lease/pokemon-go-0-29-0-android-apk-download/
This apk is simply the actual file downloaded to your phone when you install it via the Play store. Bannings for users who simply installed an application by APK versus a store download are almost entirely unheard of, and I'd consider doing so a very minute risk.
On iOS, the only way at present is to sign out of your Apple ID and change your Region settings to sign in as though you were in a different region (i.e. U.S. or Australia/New Zealand) to trick the App Store into allowing you to download it. I have personally got no idea what the safety implications of this are or if there's any risk or possible ill effects for your account.
2
Why no original battle system (or other mechanics)? Is there any chance they will add this with a future update?
Despite the conceptual similarities of PoGo and the main Pokemon RPGs, they are completely distinct genres of game and have little in common mechanically. Pokemon Go is, at least as designed, intended to push you in many ways to get out into your surrounding environment, go places you ordinarily might not, be physically active to some degree, and interact in person with other trainers in your area. Almost every actual interaction with the software can be completed in a minute or two, if not seconds. As a result, all of the "gameplay" mechanics in traditional gaming terms are very thin in comparison to the RPGs.
The design philosophies are so divergent that simply adding in the RPG interface and mechanics of the main games wouldn't necessarily improve the game, and might work against its success in the genre it actually belongs to.
3
Is there trading/PvP?
At this moment, no.
Trading is one of the few features Niantic have confirmed to be coming to the game for sure in the future. Direct PvP has been hinted at as well, but not confirmed. Indirect team/faction-based PvP is in, taking the form of Gym battles you can read more about below.
4
Do I need to have the app open to-
Yep. Absolutely 100% of everything you can possibly do in this game requires you to have the app open/active on your phone. Sucks, sure.
5
But can I turn the screen off to-
No. There are no push notifications or OS-level interactions at all and distance progress does not count unless it's running on top. This may be an intentional limitation to make the upcoming Go Plus accessory a more valuable-seeming proposition to buy.
6
How's the data/battery usage?
Data usage is quite modest. While GPS is active constantly, there isn't all that much data transmission and most people report minimal impact against their caps.
As far as battery usage, PoGo is the most draining application the world has ever seen. It's nothing but constant screen and GPS. It will devour your phone. There's a battery saver option that, when (via accelerometer) you turn your phone upside down the screen will dim, but in my experience this actually doesn't work well.
If you want to spend extended periods playing, I highly recommend a backpack and one of these high-capacity Anker battery packs:
26800 mAh ($50)
20000 mAh ($40)
13000 mAh ($26)
Also, if you have one of the few modern phones that still allow for removable/replaceable batteries (I use an LG V10), keeping a spare or two with you, enabling you to go from 0 to 100% charge instantly, is pretty awesome.
7
How do I catch Pokémon?
When you tap on a Pokémon in the overworld you'll enter Capture mode. You can either have AR on, where you'll have to locate the Pokémon around you using your camera, or off- m
any users state that the capturing process is easier with AR off.
Tap and hold on your Pokeball, and you'll see a shrinking ring-
green, yellow, or red indicating easiest to hardest to catch- and throwing the ball when the ring is as small as possible increases your chances of making the catch. Swipe with your finger toward the Pokémon to toss the ball in an arc. This is generally easiest with your index finger, though many players try to become accustomed to doing it with your thumb for convenience. There are XP bonuses (such as "Great!") for being extremely accurate, as well as for a curve (spinning the ball until it sparkles and then hitting the Pokémon with it) that no one really seems to be able to do consistently.
Pokemon can run away if you take too long or attempt capture too many times. Razz Berries are a consumable item that can make Pokémon more susceptible to your next capture attempt (not throw- the next time you hit them with a ball).
There is a known bug where the Pokeball will land and the game will freeze. If you close the application, most times you will indeed have caught the mon when you log back in.
8
How does the "Nearby" screen work? What happens if I select a Pokémon from the list?
The Nearby screen is a tracker to help you find individual Pokémon. A Pokémon can be showing with 0-3 footprints, from closest to furthest away. Selecting a Pokémon simply keeps it on your screen so you don't have to keep pulling up the Nearby window while tracking it.
This is a great method for triangulating the exact position of a mon (courtesy /u/TheColorlessPill on reddit):
If you keep the full nearby tracker open (rather than selecting just one), you can use a Pokémon's change in position on the list to track them.
Pokémon at the bottom right are farthest away, and those in the top left are closest.
Of course, that all-important and elusive first step from 3 prints to 2 is the trickiest part of hunting any Pokémon.
Also, note that
Pokémon can get away. If you see something you absolutely must have, don't be leisurely chasing it down- haul ass until you find it.
9
What's up with rustling grass?
Rustling grass on the map is best understood as a
potential spawn point for a random Pokémon. You may immediately get a mon popping up if you go to one, you may get nothing. You may go past it and then come back and get a fight. All in all- they aren't worth seeking out in particular. Best use the other tools at your disposal to hunt, and if you encounter some random spawns so be it.
I think what they were going for here is that in the games, when you walked through a patch of grass you weren't necessarily guaranteed an encounter, it was random, and you would often walk back and forth through them to trigger a fight and hopefully find the Pokémon you were looking for. It's presented pretty vaguely, though.
10
How do I level up? What is the trainer level cap?
In the simplest terms, the more you do, the more XP you get, raising your Trainer Level and conferring benefits including higher potential max CP, higher CP for caught/evolved/hatched Pokémon, better items from Pokestops, and possibly more.
Here's an incomplete breakdown of XP sources:
- Accessing a Pokestop - 50XP
- Catching a Pokemon - 100XP
- Catching a NEW Pokemon - 500XP
- Accuracy/Curve throw bonuses - 10-100XP
- Evolving a Pokemon - 500XP (if the evolved form is new to your Pokedex, another 500XP)
- Hatching an Egg - 500XP
- Victory in Gym Battles - Various XP
The value of hatching eggs and evolving mons can't be overstated- you're probably going to be saturated with Pidgeys, Weedles and Rattatas- don't hesitate to evolve these just for the XP, and no matter what your egg turns into, 500XP is never bad.
I should also mention that Lucky Eggs are one of the cash shop items and will double your XP for 30 minutes. You can also get them from leveling up. A great time to use one is if you'll be catching a good number of new Pokemon, such as early in the game or if you travel, and when especially evolving a bunch at once.
At the moment, the trainer level cap is unknown. IGN reported that during the beta, it was 50.
11
How do Pokéstops work? What do pink leaves around one mean?
Pokestops are actual visible landmarks, signs, art installations, town features, etc. in real life (unless they've been removed/destroyed since being added to the database) that you can interact with to claim items- most notably Pokeballs.
When you reach a Pokéstop, spin the circular icon to get the items. (The UI really doesn't indicate this well). You don't actually have to tap on all the items; simply tapping the X will autocollect them. The stop then will turn from blue to purple and be inaccessible for 5 minutes, at which point you can hit it again.
The places that have become Pokestops are taken from the aggregated map data submitted during Niantic's previous game, Ingress. Not all, but a large number of worldwide points from Ingress exist now as stops and Gyms in this game.
Anecdotally, Pokémon are generally more common around Pokestops as well.
Pink leaves around a Pokéstop means a
Lure Module has been placed on the stop. Lure Modules are cash shop items (also acquired by leveling up) that dramatically increase the number of Pokémon encounters in the area for 30 minutes, for everyone (not just the player who dropped it).
However, in addiction to attracting Pokémon, Lure Modules also have the effect of attracting fellow PoGo trainers to the location.
If you see the pink leaves on a stop on your map, it means that a human being placed that Lure at some point within the last 30 minutes, and if you go there you are likely to find them.
To place a Lure Module on a stop, access the stop, then press the small oval-shaped button above the round image and select the Lure. (This interface, to me, implies that future items to be applied to Pokestops may be revealed.)
12
How do I make my Pokémon more powerful and/or evolve them?
Every Pokémon you hire has a Combat Point (CP) rating. To make them more powerful, you can click "Power Up" on their stat screen and spend Stardust (the basic currency you get for activities) and ____ Candy (fill in the name of the Pokémon). Evolving just consumes candy (a much higher amount, depending on the Evolution). You get 3 candy for any Pokemon caught, and another 1 for Transferring the Pokemon to Professor Willow (at the bottom of its stat screen). So basically, any duplicate Pokemon is worth 4 candy. Hatching a Pokémon from an egg, though random, will give you a bunch of Candy toward that Pokémon.
All candy uses the first tier Pokemon name. So Pidgeotto just needs Pidgey Candy to become Pidgeot.
13
Should I power up my Pokémon or evolve them first?
The basic consensus is that it doesn't really matter.
Max CP is tied to your trainer level. The strength of any Pokémon is based on its relative position on the curved bar on its stat screen. When evolved, a Pokémon will get a CP boost since its higher potential max CP is higher, while the position of this bar will stay the same. For more info, see
Pendas' awesome post!
14
What's more improtant, Trainer Level or Combat Power (CP)?
It depends a little bit on how you're playing, but
for the most part, Trainer Level. Combat Power only comes into play when you are fighting at a Gym. If you are in an immediate need to win a Gym battle or place a defender, by all means, power up the right Pokémon for the job and go for it. But otherwise, higher individual Pokémon CP doesn't help you when it comes to leveling up further, catching Pokémon, getting your mons to higher max CP, getting items, etc- while Trainer Level does.
Trainer Level determines what CP Pokémon you can encounter and catch, and unlocks potential item drops from Pokestops, such as Super Potions, Razz Beries, and the better Pokeballs.
15
How do eggs work? Why isn't my egg distance increasing after doing X?
Eggs, which you can get from Pokestops, hatch into Pokémon of course
Any egg you want to hatch must be placed in an incubator. You start with one infinite-use incubator, and additional incubators are cash shop items or leveling rewards. To place an egg in an incubator, go to the Pokemon screen, click the Eggs tab in the upper right, and click the particular one you want to hatch plus the incubator to put it in. Then it's time to start moving.
Eggs come in 2.0km, 5.0km, and 10.0km varieties (even in the United States). 10km eggs tend to have very desirable and high-CP Pokemon within them.
The potential CP of the Pokémon inside is determined by the trainer level you were when you got the egg, not when you hatch it. Hatch em as you get em!
To cover this distance, you:
1) Must actually move through physical space, as it's all GPS-tracked. No treadmills, exercise bikes, or running in place.
2) Be going below a certain speed limit, to make driving-distance speeds incapable of hatching eggs.
In practice, it is possible to exceed the speed limit without driving. I have not seen concrete information on this limit yet, but I have tested different thresholds with my bike computer and found that
speeds up to 11mph definitely count toward step progression. 16mph does not. The most compelling guess as to what the limit could be that I've seen is 20km/h, which is 12.4mph and would line up with my findings.
Remember, you must have the app open and running to accrue any distance at all.
Eggs are very valuable- remember they also provide XP and Candy in addition to the Pokémon, so don't get too discouraged by that Weedle. Okay, you can get a little discouraged.
Here are the potential mons you can get by type of egg:
16
How do Gyms work?
When you reach level 5 and touch your first Gym, you'll be introduced to and asked to choose a team: Valor (Red), Instinct (Yellow), or Mystic (Blue).
Enemy Gyms (either other color from your own team)
The enemy Gym, depending on its level, will have a certain number of Pokémon (as many as its level) defending it and you can review them all beforehand by swiping. To battle them, you select
a team of 6 Pokémon . They will pop out in the order of top left first, all the way to bottom right last (that's where you want to put your "ringers," your strongest or type-advantageous Pokémon ).
If you begin attacking at the same time as another player, you will attack together and their Pokémon will appear on your screen attacking the same target. Additional teams of 2 can attack together as well. This does mean that, despite some claims to the contrary, a form of traditional co-operative multiplayer does appear in this game... although granted you need to be standing next to the other play.
If you defeat the Gym you will lower its prestige. Depending on how fortified it was this may or may not have cleared it out. If not, you'll battle again, though if its level went down there will be fewer Pokémon inside. When it is completely demolished, the gym is white and you can install whatever Pokémon you like, become Leader, and get the Daily Bonus (go to the shop and click the shield in the top right).
Friendly Gyms (your color)
If a friendly gym is already owned, you'll get options to either train at it or, if there's an open slot, add a Pokémon . The number of slots for Pokemon is determined by the Gym's level. To train, you select
one Pokémon . And attempt to fight through all defenders. The defenders won't actually be harmed, and your Pokemon won't faint if you lose (though it will take damage). For this, you want to choose a Pokemon you can win with (you and the gym get nothing if you lose), but the closer in CP to the highest Pokémon in the Gym, the better- especially if you can win with lower. An ideal Pokémon for this task is one of the super effective type of the strongest Pokémon in the gym,
slightly below that Pokémon in CP.
If you defeat the Gym, you'll gain XP and the Gym gets Prestige. There's no cooldown on training. With enough Prestige it will level up, thus unlocking a new slot and you can then choose to add a new Pokémon to defend it, and gain access to the Daily Bonus (go to the shop and click the shield in the top right). If the Pokémon you add now has the highest CP of the Gym you become its leader (and the last to be fought when attacked)
--
There's a little bit of a meta in your roster for attacking/defending. When you conquer a gym and place a Pokémon inside, it's really tempting to choose your best in an effort to make it hard to retake. But, when you contribute the Pokémon you lose access to it until the Gym is beaten, so you won't have it to attack other Gyms with. If you are coordinating a Gym setup with other players on your team, try to include a mix of monster types and decide in advance who should be the Gym Leader because they'll be fought last, i.e. the "Final Boss" for challengers (automatically goes to the Pokémon with highest CP).
17
How do I fight/use my special attack in battle?
Your basic attack (listed on top in your Pokémon's stats) is done just by tapping. This also charges a "super meter" at the top of the screen. Hold down on the screen to execute your Special attack (listed second) once charged. Each of these attacks may be different types, and those types may differ from the Pokémon's own type.
Your Special charge maintains between rounds, so do not waste it on an enemy mon that's about to die unless it's the last one, save it for the new one that pops out. Some Special attacks offer multiple charges, such as 1, 2, 4 or 5 bars- you can use these one at a time as they fill in. However, you are somewhat vulnerable while executing a Special attack, so relying on them too frequently isn't a good idea either. Generally, the 2-charge or very powerful 1-charge attacks are desirable.
You can also dodge left or right by swiping- this isn't particularly effective except for timing it when you see a special attack about to happen- that can save your life, but it's pretty tricky.
CP is the most important factor in combat, but the old Super/Not Very Effective rules still apply. Knowledge of type bonuses and weakness can enable you to easily take down enemy Pokémon that are 100 or more CP higher.
18
When should I grab my Daily Bonus from gyms and how does it work?
If you have an Pokemon defending one or more gyms, you can collect a daily bonus of Stardust and Pokécoins (the cash shop currency) from the Shop page by clicking the shield in the upper right. This will begin a 21-hour timer.
You can only click this button once per day, but you can do so at any time "cashing out" your Daily Bonus from all gyms you currently have defended. This means that you want to press the button at whatever time you feel you have the most gyms you will have for that day. If you have 0 to start with, and hit 1 or 2 gyms and don't expect to conquer any more that day, immediately hit the button and get your bonus in case they are retaken from you before you get the chance.
19
Where can I find [insert Pokémon]?
At this time, there's no enough data to describe the distribution of Pokemon throughout the real-world map. User-submitted data from the beta test indicates that all Pokemon that are able to spawn at all do have at least a 5% chance of spawning anywhere.
The Legendary Birds, patron avians of the teams Valor (Moltres), Instinct (Zapdos) and Mystic (Articuno), as well as Mewtwo and Mew, have definitively never been sighted by any player, and gaining access to them is a mystery. The original live-action trailer for the game depicted a sort of timed multi-user official battle event against Mewtwo in Times Square, in which thousands of players were able to capture him simultaneously.
Shinies are unconfirmed.
20
Why is the enemy Pokémon I'm fighting stuck at 1hp?
This is a known bug with no solution for the moment.
You have no choice but to lick your wounds and come back later.
