The Complete Guide, Tips & Tricks to Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is a drug. Pure and simple. You know it is killing your battery and productivity but you continue to play. The servers crashing left and right but you just keep logging on. Nintendo’s first mobile-based Pokémon title is an official worldwide even in its broken form. This is also the first VR/AR hit. Pokémon Go shows the power of VR/AR if done right. People are walking around cities and towns looking their phones disregarding hazards in the quest to catch them all. Catching them all is not going to be easy but here’s our complete guide.

“The point of Pokémon Go is to travel around, exploring different geographic areas to find appropriate Pokémon. In a small town, expect to find a lot of normal- and grass-types. Going near water will attract water Pokémon. Playing at night brings out more nocturnal creatures, like Clefairy and Gastly.”

There are plenty of Pokémon if live in urban areas. You can find Pidgeys, Nidorans, Meowths, and Eevees, however if you want to catch a wider variety of Pokémon, good luck. Make friends and expect to do some traveling. Don’t be surprised if you start looking for rustling grass in real life only to disappointed that these patches actually contain no wild Pokémon.

No Pokémon popping up?

• Tap the lower right hand bar on the main screen for a “nearby” menu of what Pokémon are in your area.
• Footprints beneath each Pokémon meaning tell you how close they are to you.
• No footprints? Don’t move, it’s right there!
• One footprint means it’s a few steps from you.
•  Two or more footprints means forget about it. The Pokémon is not even close.

How to catch them?

1. Once you see a Pokémon tap on it
2. Your phone should also vibrate. There are no push notifications for the app yet.
3.  Swipe up with your finger to “throw” the Pokéball at it. It requires a little skill.
4. Pay attention to the white ring around the Pokémon. See it?
5. Now tap and hold on a Pokéball until it turns green.
6. Throw the Pokéball now, this will maximize your chance of a successful catch.
7. PRO TIP 1: Once you get to a higher level you can pick up berries at Pokestops. Feed the Berries to wild Pokemon to increase your chances of capturing them.
8. PRO TIP 2: Drag and rapidly spin the Poké Ball in a circular motion before you release it. This will give you a “curveball bonus.”
9. PRO TIP 3: Picking your Evee is simple. Just edit its name to Jolteon for Sparky, Flareon type Pyro and for Vaporeon type Rainer.

Next Pokéstop please

• Pokéstops, which are tied to real life landmarks like statues, subway stations or public art installations.
• The more well known the landmark is, the greater the loot will be.
• Average  Pokéstops give two or three Pokéballs.
• Large and famous Pokéstops handout way more items. On top of that they are more powerful items in a single visit.

What’s in the box?

• Incense: Incense attracts wild Pokémon to your location.
• Lure Module: Attracts wild Pokémon to a PokéStop for a limited time.
• Razz Berry: Feed this item to a wild Pokémon to make it easier to catch.

They Grow up so fast.

• Power up your Pokémon is through Stardust and Candy.
• Stardust is acquired by catching Pokémon, hatching eggs and earning the Defender bonus
• Candy are specific to Pokémon.
• You get more candy by transferring extra Pokémon Professor Willow. (There is no point to hold on to more than one of the same Pokémon.)
• Powering up Pokémon increases its  “command points” (CP)
• CP their health and strength of their attacks.
• You can evolve Pokémon into more powerful forms using species-specific candies.
• Evolving Pokémon is a the best but hardest way to get more powerful and more rare Pokémon.

To battle Pokémon at rival Gyms:

• Walk up to a Gym controlled by a rival team.
• Touch the Gym to enter it.
• Select up to six Pokémon to use in battle. There are two ways of making your selections.
• Touch the icon of an individual Pokémon to swap it out for a different Pokémon.
• Touch the Shuffle to get a completely different set of six Pokémon to use in battle.
• To start the battle, touch the Glove
• Once in the battle, you can perform one of three different actions:

Attacks

• Fast Attack: Tap your Pokémon to perform a fast attack
• Fast attacks: charge your special attack meter.
• Dodge attacks: Swipe left or right to dodge attacks.
• Special Attack: Once your Special Attack meter is charged, long-press your Pokémon to perform a special attack.