Simple Starter Tips

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By Paulo Pacheco on July 16, 2016

There are already a number of guides and articles that provide help and tips for newcomers to Pokémon Go. The game is a bit more complex than you might imagine at first. There’s a lot that’s left unexplained for the user to figure it out. Here, we will list the main tips to help all the new trainers around the world.

Pikachu as a starter

A lot of people were surprised when they found out that they could get Pikachu as a starter. After you start the game, when Professor Willow gives you the option to capture a Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle, avoid them. Physically walk away. As you do, the starters will reappear. Repeat the same process until a Pikachu shows up. It will not take long. In the end, the Pokémon with which you start the game is not of major importance, but it’s a cool trick to use if you want to have by your side the iconic Pokémon as soon as you begin your career as a new trainer [1; 2].

There are different Pokémon types

If you are completely new to the game you may want to have a look at all of the different types of Pokémon that exist. In total, there are 18 different types of Pokémon. Each one of them has strengths and weaknesses against other types. As an example, a Water type is effective against Fire. Grass, on the contrary, is resistant to Water. It’s a system that, with all the possible permutations can get a bit complex, so it is advised that you have a look at them in order to be prepared for battle [3, 4].

Finding Pokémon

Now to you have your Pokémon starter and that you understand the various types of Pokémon out in the wild, it’s time to move around and find new creatures for your collection. Populated areas like cities provide a lot of opportunities to find different kinds of Pokémon and also PokéStops. Suburban and rural areas, not so much when compared to major populated areas. A good advice is to go to places such as parks, or with some kind of landmarks. Parks are excellent starting points for the catching of Pokémon. Different terrain will allow you to find different types of Pokémon: if the park that you visit as a body of water, try going there and see what you can find. Also, don’t forget that the weather and time of day can affect what types of Pokémon spawn and the rate at which you encounter them [1; 4;.5].

You can find more about Pokémon tracking in our article (to insert title and link).

Catching Pokémon and getting bonuses for a good hunt

The time has come to start capturing the creatures and filling your Pokédex. Do not refrain yourself from catching duplicates of Pokémon you already have. Keep the franchise’s tagline in mind and “Catch ‘em all.” Doing this will provide you with additional candy. Also, by transferring Pokémon that you don’t currently want to the professor, you will receive more candy. If you don’t know it yet, candy is used to evolve Pokémon.

The capture system of Pokémon GO might appear simplistic when compared to the turn-based battles of its portable console predecessors, but there are some tips to keep in mind in order to maximize your chances of getting that hard-to-catch Pokémon and improving the bonuses you receive. When you are about to capture one of the digital creatures, press and hold the Pokéball to start the ring cycle. It will start shrinking, and at its smallest circumference, throw the Pokéball. They will be easier to catch that way. Also, the color of the ring informs you of the difficulty of the catch. A green one signifies that the Pokémon is easy to catch. Orange, medium difficulty, and as you can imagine, a red one means that it will be a tougher catch. Try to get the ball inside the inner ring, independently of its circumference size. To get and “Excellent” 100XP bonus you need to hit the center of the circle when at its smallest [2; 4; 5; 6]. For an additional XP bonus, throw a curve ball. While touching the ball on the screen, move your finger in small circles an toss it towards the Pokémon [4].

The last two suggestions regarding the capturing of Pokémon are to save Master Balls and to turn off AR mode. Do not waste Master Balls with common Pokémon. These are the most powerful Pokeballs in the game and they should be kept to catch rare and strong Pokémon later on. Turning off the Augmented Reality mode makes it easier to capture them, by centering the Pokémon on screen and allowing you to better judge the distance of the throw of the Pokéball [1; 3].

Evolving your Pocket Monsters

When evolving Pokémon, a bit of patience is recommended. A common advice is not to start spending your candy and stardust to evolve and boost your first Pokémon. You will find stronger ones with a bigger initial combat power (CP) when you go out and explore your surroundings. Remember that the higher the starting CP of a Pokémon, the stronger its evolution will be. The CP is represented by a ring around their portrait [5; 6].

You can also evolve duplicates purely for XP. By capturing a lot of common Pokémon and giving them to the professor, you will be rewarded with candy. You can then use this candy to evolve non-primary common duplicates, for the XP. You’ll get 500 XP for each evolution. You can even use a lucky egg to boost the amount of XP that you earn [2].

Encountering gyms

After reaching level 5, you will be introduced to gyms. When you encounter a Pokémon Gym it will either be unclaimed, owned by your team or by a rival one. Use the gyms owned by your team to train you Pokémon for XP, or store them in order to receive Poké Coins and Stardust every 21 hours. When you encounter an opposing team’s gym you will have to battle with the Pokémon that are stored there. Defeat all of them, but remember that you’ll need to bring down the amount of Prestige Points of the gym in order to claim it for your team [1].

Final Advice

You may have seen some people trying to trick the game in order to hatch the eggs without walking the required distance. The game tracks your movement utilizing the GPS on your phone but there’s a speed limit that will not allow you to drive around, for example, to decrease the time and ease with which they hatch. Also, the game is known for quickly draining the phone’s battery. Buy a battery pack and turn on the app’s Battery Save mode [1; 2].

References

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