Tips and tricks to make you the very best Pokemon Go trainer

Pokemon Go is the newest craze sweeping the world. If you’ve been under a rock and don’t know what Pokemon Go is, well, it’s an augmented reality based Pokemon game where trainers must travel around in the real world to catch and train their Pocket Monsters. The real world is littered not just with wild Pokemon but Pokestops, gyms, and surprises around every corner.

Here at AndroidGuys, we’re obsessed just like everyone else. I spent my entire weekend playing and have personally watched the masses walking around looking at their phones in town. Here are some tips to make you the best, like no-one ever was.

General

• Pokemon types (electric, ground, grass) don’t seem to matter in combat like they do in other Pokemon games
• You can level up your Pokemon using Stardust, which is acquired by catching more Pokemon
• You can level up and evolve your Pokemon using candies which are acquired by catching Pokemon and transferring Pokemon to Professor Willow
• To heal your Pokemon you must use a potion, power it up or evolve it
• To revive your Pokemon you must use a revive (yellow potion) or evolve them
• The higher the level of the player, the stronger the Pokemon that will spawn in the wild
• The higher the level of the player, the rewards from Pokestops become better and more varied

Capturing Wild Pokemon

• If see you an animation of grass moving, it’s more likely that a wild Pokemon will appear in this area
• To catch a wild Pokemon tap on their picture to bring up a screen where you throw Pokeballs at it
• When throwing a Pokeball, try to hit the Pokemon with it. If it bounces or misses you may have to try again
• A green circle means the Pokemon will be easy to capture, a red circle means it will be harder
• Pokemon may break out of a Pokeball, if they stick around just throw another
• You can turn off the augmented reality portion of catching a Pokemon by tapping the “AR” button in the capture screen
• The Nearby Pokemon tab will let you know how close wild Pokemon are
• 0 footsteps means that there is a Pokemon inside your circle, 1 footstep means a Pokemon is within one circle of you, 2 footsteps means the Pokemon is within 2-3 circles of you, 3 footsteps means the Pokemon is 3-3+ circles away
• Berries will make it easier to catch a Pokemon for one throw
• As you level up you get stronger Pokeballs
• For every wild Pokemon you capture you get 3 candy of its type and Stardust

Gyms and Pokestops

• You must be level 5 in order to go into a gym or choose a faction
• Your faction decides what color your gyms are. All of your gyms will be this color
• Rival gyms will be another color
• Unclaimed gyms are gray
• If a rival faction wins enough at your gym you run out of Prestige points and will be evicted
• Only one Pokemon per person can be placed at a gym
• Pokemon you leave at a gym are unavailable to help you challenge other gyms
• You can choose your 6 best Pokemon at an enemy gym
• If you are evicted from your gym, your Pokemon returns to you
• When you click on a gym, swiping left or right will show you the Pokemon stationed there and their combat power
• The Pokemon with the highest combat power is the leader
• Pokestops recharge every five minutes
• You can gain rewards of 10 Pokecoins and 500 Stardust per Pokemon at a gym
• To get your rewards click Shop  then click on the number in a circle on the top right
• You can only cash out once every 21 hours
• You can cash in on 10 total gyms at once for a max of 100 Pokecoins and 5000 Stardust
• When you’re at a Pokestop, swipe the picture in the cirlce to reveal your rewards

Battle

• In battle you can do four things
  • Attack by rapidly tapping
  • Use your super by tap and holding
  • Dodge by swiping to the left or right
  • Change Pokemon
• Fighting at a friendly gym is just training your Pokemon. They cannot faint and will reward you with XP if you win
• Training will result in damage that needs to be healed with potions
• Losing at a rival gym will cause your Pokemon to faint and they can only be revived by items
• You must be within range of the gym to fight at it
• Battle is not turn based, it’s real time so tapping as quickly as you can gives you the best chance to win
• Every time you tap the screen in battle you build your blue bar, once the bar reaches 100% you can use your special attack
• You cast your special by tapping and holding the screen for a second

Evolving

• Evolving a Pokemon requires between 6 and 400 candy
• Evolving a Pokemon typically takes around 50 candy to evolve to their final form
• Combat Power will raise after a Pokemon evolves
• Pokemon’s skills can change when they evolve, but don’t always

Eggs

• You can access the egg menu by swiping from your Pokemon menu
• You have one permanent egg incubator slot, but you can obtain more temporary slots to hatch more than one egg at a time
• You must walk to hatch eggs, driving will not work
• Hatching an egg will reward you with not only the Pokemon but also trainer XP and candies
• The further you walk with an egg in an incubator, the higher the chance of a good Pokemon
• You must keep the Pokemon Go app open to get credit for your footsteps
• There is a battery saver function in the app that will black your screen but keep the app running
• You can still capture wild Pokemon while walking to incubate an egg
• You can hold 9 eggs at one time, but no more eggs will drop from Pokestops until one hatches

Pokeballs and other items

• To throw a curveball shake the ball in a circular motion until it sparkles
• You can get Pokeballs, potions, eggs, and other goodies at Pokestops
• You must be above level 5 to get potions from Pokestops
• If you no longer want a Pokemon, transfer them to the Professor for a candy of that type
• Stardust is used to power up your Pokemon
• Using a Lure on a Pokestop will cause Pokemon to spawn there
• The Pokemon that spawn because of a Lure may be Pokemon that don’t normally inhabit the area
• Lure’s last for 30 minutes and work for all players in the area

Do you have any Pokemon Go tips? We’re addicted so please leave what you know down in the comments so we can add it to the list!