By now you’ve probably heard about Pokémon Go the new app that’s taking the world by storm. For me it’s a trip down memory lane to when my daughter was tiny and loved the anime. It’s incredible how quickly and easily the names of the Pokémon are coming back to me. What’s also amazing is the imperative to ‘catch them all’. It’s been fun. The whole family is in on it and it’s gotten us out of the house almost every evening on our quest to capture newer and more elusive species.
Over the past week I’ve learned a few things:
- People are jerks. The amount of people driving like idiots just to capture a Pokémon when all you have to do is park and run over is staggering. There are also the people who have learned how to use the app as a means of targeting people and mugging them which is horrible, but it was bound to happen. Be careful!
- People are awesome. People are coming together to play the game and it’s great to see so many out and about where foot traffic was so sparse. There are a few Pokéstops in town that are now hubs of activity where people hang out with music and food and just chilling.
- You get out and see things you might not have noticed before. I know I’ve taken more time to look around at places instead of rushing by.
- Also everyone can catch the same Pokémon as other people so ‘stealing’ is not a thing. As long as you get there before it times out and it doesn’t run away on you, you can capture it. The CP of what you catch seems to be random, however.
- The app is broken. If it was any other app I would have deleted it almost as soon as I downloaded it. But being what it is I can’t help but struggle on to catch the little creatures even when the app freezes or crashes and I lose a Lickatung (yes I’m still bitter). Or lose eggs when they’re supposed to hatch which is beyond aggravating. I’ve also heard that people have spent real money and lost it randomly as well. The ‘Nearby’ feature that’s supposed to help you zero in on close Pokémon doesn’t work so people have been resorting to third parties like PokéVision.com. Which isn’t perfect, but it works a hell of a lot better than the app when it comes to finding Pokémon. It also gives you the location as well as the time left before it disappears.
There are quite a few things I would add to it like the ability to add friends so you can trade and compare Pokémon and items. The ability to battle other trainers outside of a gym would be great too. The way the app chews through data is a drag as well. Changing the distance travelled to hatch and egg to step counts would help. Also if the app worked while the screen is locked would be amazing rather than having the game open and active all the time. If your phone could be set to vibrate when a Pokémon was near with your phone locked and in your pocket would be awesome.
But here are some tips if you want to be the very best like no one ever was:
- Unless you are going to take an epic screenshot, turn off AR when catching. The Pokémon will stay focused and you’ll save battery life.
- Speaking of batteries. If you’re planning on a long excursion, get a battery pack or a backup phone because this app is going to destroy your battery life.
- When catching, keep your finger on the ball until the Pokémon does its attack animation and let loose immediately after it’s done to have a good chance of catching.
- Be mindful of where the app leads you. Remember you know the area better than it does. Don’t blindly wander into a bad neighbourhood just because it tells you to.
- Don’t be in a rush to level up your Pokémon. You’ll encounter higher and higher level Pokémon in the wild so don’t waste your stardust or candy until you’re higher levelled (say 20ish).
- By far the best advice I can give is locate Pokéstops, figure out a route between them and then run the circuit. This will allow you to catch more Pokémon along the way and hit the stops as they refresh. You can do this in a car as well. just make sure that the driver either doesn’t care about the game or is a focused driver. We’ve been going out with my husband driving since it’s been so hot here while I’ve minded his phone and mine. We have collected all kinds of Pokémon and items from the stops as well as hatched eggs as we travel.
- Another sneaky tip is since the game is built on the same data as Ingress (Niantic made both games) you can install that game and use it to find rare and exotic Pokémon by going where the exotic matter or XM is.
Anyway, that’s enough babbling from me. Hope I’ve passed on some info that will help in your hunt!
Here’s the game trailer in case you’re interested.