Things I Have Learnt in My First Week of Playing Pokémon Go

[nanila]

Things I Have Learnt in My First Week of Playing Pokémon Go:

• Popping a Lucky Egg, deploying incense and hanging out by a Pokéstop that's got a lure going is an orgy of Pokémon collecting joy.
  
• Likewise, saving up evolvable Pokémon until you've popped a Lucky Egg is an XP explosion of levelling-up delight.
  
• The game is not well suited to rural environments. We have a single Pokéstop within a 1 mile radius, and we have to leave the house to get to it. I know, I know the point of the game is to go out walking, but it's quite difficult to do when you have small children that you can't leave alone/asleep in the house and they don't understand this sudden continual urge to amble up and down the canal towpath that their parents have developed.
  
• If you can't regularly hit up a Pokéstop for a supply, Pokéballs are a precious resource not to be wasted on annoying, relatively low CP Pokémon that keep jumping out of your Pokéballs. I have a hard limit of 3 Pokéballs per Pokémon.
  
• OTOH, living next to a canal means you get a lot of water-based Pokémon. I have caught a lot of Magicarp, which are apparently hard to find in other places. This is good because for some reason it takes 400 Magicarp candy to evolve one of the bloody things, whereas most other low- and mid-level Pokémon only need either 12 or 50. I'm up to 125 [ed: transposed the numbers. It was 152. Now 160] Magicarp candies.
  
• I don't know what a Magicarp evolves into, but it'd better be pretty fantastic.
  
• Wow, it's a battery-killer. I get a max of one hour of play out of a fully charged battery with the screen brightness turned all the way down and no other applications running. My phone's getting a bit tetchy (it's almost two years old), so that doesn't help, but even the bloke's relatively new phone doesn't last much longer.
  
• Hatching an egg is a great way to make yourself get a lot of low-key exercise. The GPS tracking is calibrated so you can't fool it by driving (unless you're going under 10 mph), cycling or even running. You must walk, although I have managed to find a single exception...
  
• ...Riding a London bus during commuter hours. Because the buses are travelling pretty slowly and they stop frequently, you can enter the minigame to catch Pokémon and not lose them. You also rack up the mileage (kilometerage?) on your incubating eggs, again because you are traveling slowly.
  
• The Tube is not good for playing the game. Despite the stops, even if you're above ground you often lose 4G/3G signal and thus attempts to catch Pokémon end in wasted Pokéballs, which is always a bad thing.
  
• I have hatched, evolved or collected 50 out of the currently available 147 Pokémon. If there's an update with more soon I may have to start putting (even more limits) on myself on when I'm allowed to play.
  
• Three-year-olds are pretty good at throwing Pokéballs.
  
• A good 3/4 of the people I've had passing conversations with in the past week happened explicitly because both the other person and myself were visibly playing the game.
  
• I'm level 13+ 14 [ed: after today's lunchtime Pokéwalk] and I still haven't joined a team or visited a gym. You can tell which aspects of the game I like best, no?
  
• I haven't had this much fun or been this hooked on a game since...well, since Neko Atsume. :P
  

Comments

[kaberett]

I CAN EXPLAIN ABOUT THE MAGIKARP IF YOU LIKE (but equally I am v happy to not Spoilers :-p)

[nanila]

I think in this instance I'd like to remain unspoiled, thank you! I'm usually up for knowing everything in advance and not caring, but just this once I shall hold out until I actually have 400 candies - or hatch an evolved Magikarp. :D

[alexseanchai]

P sure hatchlings are only the lowest evolutionary stage by design? But yeah, you are gonna love what that Magikarp becomes.

[recessional]

I think this is the case, but some of the hatchlings have INSANELY high CP even to start with, especially as you get into higher levels.

[alexseanchai]

Huh. Cool.

[recessional]

I was flicking through advice posts trying to find an answer to a specific question the other day and one of the things one of the Very Serious Players (like the kind of person who plays other games professionally) gave was don't bother to spend stardust on powering up low-CP pokemon that you find to start with, because regardless of what it is, if you keep playing you will probably hatch a much higher CP version of that pokemon later, and won't want to have wasted the stardust (or, depending on how hard they are to find, candies - with candies he sort of divided between, don't use them to power up, only use them to evolve and either follow the same advice OR use the evolves to jack your levels with a lucky egg).

Obvs he was playing with a very particular focus, but it was still an interesting thing. It's been borne out in that the Pikachu I hatched at level 12 was waaaaaay higher CP than the one I'd caught at level 8, or even the two I caught subsequently.

[alexseanchai]

I shall have to keep that in mind should I upgrade my phone. Dratted thing runs Android 4.0, and apparently PokeGo requires a minimum of 4.4.

(I mean, it's a POS phone anyway? But I don't exactly have money for a new one, nor do I want to go through the hassle of switching my number and all to the new device.)

[recessional]

(How irritating! Especially that it is a hassle to do that.)

[alexseanchai]

(yep)

[untonuggan]

i just upgraded phone from flip phone to smrt phone so i could pokemons (largely). just fyi, the memory issue is also A Thing. like i had gotten a shittier/cheaper phone and it just would not run at all even though it technically met all the other system specs. anyway, it's running on a motorola moto g 3rd gen which is not a Fancy Phone but was definitely more than the other motorola one we had to return.

maramcreates knows more about these eldricht requirements because Niantic's documentation is shit.

if you want to play Ingress tho it ran on the other phone and might even run on my tablet soooooo...just saying.

[nanila]

I noticed that. Even the "useless" ones like Pidgeys and Poliwags that hatch from eggs have had CPs of 100+.

[rmc28]

I have given myself a whole new yak to shave, because C wants to play and I haven't got a device that is both a) currently compatible b) something I'm willing to let be carried by a wandering 9yo.

I have done enough googling to discover that it is possible to update my cheap spare phone to be compatible, now I just need to set aside enough time to actually do so. And no doubt solve any new exciting technical issues that arise.

But eventually there will be glorious success, and I shall wander around with C in companiable wossname.

[nanila]

Heh. I've been wondering if I should install it on Humuhumu's tablet, too, but it doesn't do 3G, only wifi (it's old).

I cheer you on to glorious success with enabling C's Pokémon gameplay!

[rmc28]

The hudl2 tablet I gave him last year does have GPS ... but only on the admin user account (i.e. mine). But that gives me another yak to shave if the sparephone doesn't work.

[rmc28]

Oh, and I meant to say that I am very very deliberately not playing myself, because it is clearly a game made of Rachel-bait and I have enough things already to eat my time. But walking around with C while he plays counts as family time, not my time :-)

[fred_mouse]

Middlest reports that two of zer school mates have managed to do quite well with the handful of spaces that they can get free wifi (near libraries, at school, and in shopping centres).

[cxcvi]

I don't know what a Magicarp evolves into, but it'd better be pretty fantastic.

One word: Yes.

Wait... this is your first Pokemon game, then?

[clanwilliam]

It's mine too, and I shamelessly spoiled myself. But I suspected as soon as I saw the requirements to evolve it!

[nanila]

Yep! I remember the old games, and the famous slogan, and Pikachu and MewTwo, but I never actually played. :)

[lurkingcat]

Bus journeys are very good for my Pokémon experience and very bad for my phone battery :) I am determined to collect enough Makgikarp to evolve one. So far I've got 62 Magikarp candies, which is not bad for a play-by-bus-trip-through-the-city style of play. I think I need to go on more walks by the river. Walking through town this weekend was like walking into a Pokémon festival, there were small children showing grandparents how to play, roving groups of teenagers intent on taking over gyms, couples on Pokémon dates... and all of them were smiling and talking with people that they'd spotted playing too. It was lovely in a crowded sort of way.

[nanila]

Yes, it's fantastically communal, isn't it? I like seeing people coming down the towpath with their phones out going "Ooh! A Goldeen!" :D

Last week on my bus ride in to work, I got up at my stop and turned around, and the green-haired girl in the seat behind me smiled beatifically and held up her phone so I could see she'd been playing the whole way too. And then when the bus went past and I was on the pavement, she waved at me and I waved back. We didn't say anything but it left me feeling buoyant for the rest of my commute.

[recessional]

Those are actually my favourite? Not so much the actual "hello I am communing directly" but the little flashes of recognition.

[untonuggan]

YUP.

i also had a good connection with the frazzled check out person at the Trader Joe's. we traded tips on where to find Pokestops basically and i hope it made his saturday rush a little less craptastic.

[omnipotent]

Was gonna comment on the Magikarp thing but all I will say is ..... Yes.

[nanila]

*anticipates eagerly*

[silveradept]

Those are all excellent tips for the game. And yes, it is worth the extra effort for the Magikarp evolution. It was similarly difficult in the original Pokémon games.

[nanila]

Thanks! I look forward to it. Now up to 160 candies. I foresee a lot more lunchtime walks in my future. :D

[clanwilliam]

You're doing really well on that. I'm level 22 and am still in double digits on the Magikarp candies.

[cxcvi]

Actually, now I think about it, yes it is. That just makes it even funnier.

[redsixwing]

Magikarp. <3

I can't wait for the trade feature - there's a zillion Eevee here (I released seven middling ones yesterday, for candy) but I live in a desert. No water types for me. :<

I'm delighted that you're playing and enjoying this.

[nanila]

There's going to be a trade feature?! I will trade you zillions of Magikarp for zillions of Eevee, for sure!

[redsixwing]

It's at least announced, but there's no word as to when it'll drop.

But yes! Eevees for everyone!

[recessional]

I promise you the magikarp of evolve is worth the 400.


And it is SERIOUSLY a battery killer: one of the best signs around here of whether or not someone's playing the game vs doing everything else that we do on our phones (because Vancouver is a stereotypical Plugged In City) is whether or not they're also carrying an external battery/have a power-cord going into their pocket or purse. XD My worn out iPhone 5 sometimes decides it doesn't HAVE a battery unless it's plugged in, so I'm carrying an external almost perpetually these days.

Buses here are awesome for grabbing pokestops, because of the frequent stopping, but kinda crappy for fooling the eggs (not that I mind) because while they stop and start they often get up quite a speed in between.

I don't recall joining a team being optional - it sort of just showed up and was like OK PICK ONE. I hit up gyms near me if there's a pokemon in them I can defeat just for the XP although I totally by accident owned a gym for like twenty minutes last night. XD

I am one Evee short of an evolution. :| Of course I have not been able to find an Evee near my house for two days. VEXED. Also none of my damn eggs are hatching into Charmanders. *GRUMP*

[nanila]

Oh! I hadn't thought of the XP benefit of gyms. That would come in useful at higher levels when it gets harder to acquire XP just by catching low-level Pokémon. I shall begin to consider joining a team. I expect this process to take about a week. :P

I may also be considering carrying an external battery so I can go for longer walks.

The Evee are delightful! I hadn't realised they could evolve into different forms until I evolved a Flareon and then hatched a Jolteon.

I had an egg that hatched into Chansey, which might be one of the cutest things I've seen, apart from a Jigglypuff.

[thirdbird]

We are loving it around here and I have done all the walking EVER for the past 2 weeks. What I really really want, though, is for there to be a Neko Atsume version of this game. Teeny cats everywhere on my commute please!!!

[nanila]

That...that is a fantastic idea. Although I'm not sure I would be able to allow myself to play Neko Atsume Go apart from when I was on holiday because I wouldn't want to do anything else during waking hours.

[untonuggan]

ALL OF THE ABOVE