Pokémon Go for beginners

Wasup gamers!

Can't believe I'm writing a separate article about Pokémon Go again. Seems like this game has got me hooked now. Anyway if you wanna know how Pokémon"ruined" our lives you can click here. I could see the effect taking over day by day. Drivers holding steering with right hand while the left hand holds cellphone. Pedestrians crossing streets with eyes on their phones which are connected to power bank. Dear trainers, the app has vibrate function so that you don't always have to keep an eye on screen. Stay safe ok. We don't want to give a bad name to our childhood game.

Anyway my topic today is to share what I understand about the game. I don't have much knowledge so please correct me if I'm wrong for I'm just a noobie.

Pokémon Center

Heads up, in some screenshots below my character and name may appear to be a male coz don't know why GPS failed to detect location when my GPS is working fine with other apps so I had to play using hubby's account. Bear in mind you can't change your display name more than once.

Before you start, you need to have Data Plan and GPS for the game to work. Both of these functions drain out battery fast so prepare a full power bank. Here are a few basic stuff to get you started. It's kinda like my version of Pokémon Go for Dummy. 

STEP 1

Install Pokémon Go from App Store or Play Store

 STEP 2

Gotta catch 'em all!

 The Pokemon story...

Choose your avatar

Catch your first Pokémon.

To make your life easier, wait till you click on a wild Pokemon and tap the slider on top right to turn augmented reality (AR) mode off. It's easier to catch without the live view.

 STEP 3 

Go out and level up!

Items

For medicine you will be given Potion, Super Potion and Hyper Potion for level 5 and above. Revive is used when your Pokemon has fainted.

By default you will be provided basic Pokéball. Great Ball might come by as you level up. Ultra Ball (best capture rate) can be collected at Pokestops when you reached level 20. Razz Berry makes it easier to catch on your next throw.


You will also be given Incense (personal lure to attract Pokémon that lasts 30mins), Lure (public lure to be placed on PokéStop that lasts 30mins).


Egg Incubator with infinity usage will also be given by default. As you level up, 3-day Egg Incubator will be give but I have already used up mine.

Petals represent that the pokestop has Lure while the gas around trainer is Incense. My house has occasional sightings of Dragonite which is supposed to be rare and powerful thanks to some hardcore trainers in my area.

 

 PokéStop

PokeStop is a place to collect items that can be found mostly at shrines, temples, mosques, statues, monuments etc. When the tower is circular blue means you can spin to get items.

When the tower turns purple it means you have to wait another 5 minutes. 

When tower is a small cube means you are too faraway. Normally your range will be within 100m but due to flaws you sometimes need to be as close as 10m from the spot.

Team

Before battling in a gym, you need to pick a team: Mystic (blue), Valor (red) or Instinct (yellow). From my observation majority are Valor and Mystic.

Gym

Virtual workout here lol. You need to be at least level 5 to be able to train in a gym.

Prestige is how a gym’s progress is measured. Prestige is earned when Pokémon train at the gym. 

Increase a gym’s Prestige to advance the Gym to higher levels. No wonder I can't claim some gym even after I had won. Now I know it's due to high Prestige.

Pokédex

After capturing a new Pokemon, it will be registered into your Pokedex. It is to keep track what type of Pokemon you have. The original list has a total of 151 Pokemon.

Pokemon Inventory

This function shows you how many Pokemon you have regardless of the same type. By default, you are given 250 storage space. To clear your space you can transfer some Pokemon to the Professor to be converted to candy.

Candy

Candy is used to evolve your Pokemon and power up by increasing combat points. Every Pokemon has their own candy receptive to that one kind. Each evolution needs different amount of candy. For example Pidgey → 25 Pidgey candy → Pidgeotto →  50 Pidgey candy → Pidgeot. To collect candy of a particular Pokemon, transfer Pokemon of the same type to the Professor. Hatching an egg can give you up to 35 candy.

Stardust

Stardust can be collected by capturing wild Pokemon and hatching eggs. Unlike Candy which is used to power up and evolve a Pokemon specific to its evolution line, Stardust can be used to power up any captured Pokémon. You can get Stardust by hatching egg or catching Pokemon.

Combat Power (CP)

A Pokemon's attack strength is measured by Combat Points. Each Pokemon is assigned CP at capture which indicates how well that Pokemon will perform in battle. Not all of the same Pokemon type have the same CP. As you gain XP and become a higher level trainer, the CP of the Pokémon you capture will generally be higher. Some common one like Rattata, Pidgey and Weedle will always have low CP.

Hit Point (HP)

A Pokemon's health is measured in Hit Point. All Pokémon start out with full HP at capture, but HP can be depleted during battle.

Experience (XP)

Your advancement is measured in Experience Points. Increase your XP to advance to higher trainer levels.


You can double up your XP using Lucky Egg while evolving your Pokemon provided your Pokemon has not registered into Pokedex yet which is why hubby urged me not to simply catch an evolved Pokemon with low CP when I see one.

Catching

Wild Pokemon will appear when you are near a PokeStop. All you have to do is click onto a wild Pokemon and flick  Pokeball using index finger towards the Pokémon. You can also curve your Pokeball by swirling it before flicking for extra 10 points. Wait for the target ring to shrink to smallest diameter for greater chance.

The target ring that appears around a wild Pokemon defines the chances of catching it; green (75%), orange (50%) and red (25%). In case of any high CP and red ring, use Razz Berry and Great Ball or Ultra Ball.

My first Dragonite about 800 CP was caught during low level and I've wasted nearly a hundred balls. As your level goes higher it gets easier and wild Pokemon with high CP like this cutie might appear to you.

Hatching Egg

Eggs can be acquired when you click a PokeStop. Inventory can hold up to 9 eggs. 

Use Egg Incubator to hatch an egg. 

The ∞ icon means unlimited use. You are rewarded with 3-use incubators every 5 to 10 levels. 

Distance needed to walk to hatch an egg varies in 2km, 5km and 10km. The further the distance the rarer your Pokemon will be...I wonder if it's true. Don't try to cheat by getting on a car because speed above 20km/h will not be counted. You can try on a bicycle or bus tho.

When you see "Oh?" click it and the egg will hatch. 

 Credits to the stated website.

Evolve

Some base Pokemon can evolve 1 or 2 stage and some rare ones can't evolve at all. There are a few aspects to consider when you want to evolve like CP, HP, candy and stardust. Kinda complicated and requires strategy.

For example you want to evolve a Magikarp. Transfer low CP Magikarp to obtain Magikarp candy. Your base form Magikarp will give you 3 candy and a transfer will earn you an extra one. Don't transfer everything. Remember to leave two; one in base form for your Pokedex collection and another one to evolve.

Once you have collected enough candy bookmark a Magikarp to get ready. Usually I like pick a high CP and low required stardust to evolve. You have to collect stardust by training in a gym. Candy and stardust can also be obtained from hatching an egg.

Training

Training in gym gives you XP and defending a gym gives you daily reward of Stardust and PokéCoins. Pokecoins can be used to purchase items however you can only collect Defender bonus once every 21 hours.

If you encounter defender of the same team s yours in the gym, you can only choose 1 Pokemon to conquer all levels. Some can go up to Level 10 which means you have to train with 10 Pokemon.


If you encounter a different team you can choose 6 different Pokemon to train. Once you have won, quickly claim your place by clicking the icon on the bottom left. Your claimed place might not last long so use Revive to heal and restore HP after someone defeats your Pokemon.

Sometimes you don't have to fight a battle. I would wait for a battle to be over to simply place a random Pokemon just to get Pokecoins. Once the gym turns white meaning unoccupied, quickly place any Pokemon.Open Shop panel and press Shield icon at upper right to collect daily defender bonus.

Base Values

There are three hidden stats that affect how strong your Pokemon is in gym battles beyond the Pokemon's CP rating; Attack, Defense and Stamina. Stamina affects HP which you can see but the Attack and Defense stats are otherwise hidden. Each Pokemon has its own set of hidden values that affect its potential for attack, defense and stamina called Individual Values (IV) and range from 0 to 15.

IVs are what make each Pokemon unique and why your friend's Pokemon of the same type is way better than yours even though you're both the same level.

Base Attack = 2 * ((Atk * SpAtk)^0.5 + Spd^0.5))
Base Defense = 2 * ((Def * SpDef)^0.5 + Spd^0.5))
Base Stamina = 2 * HP

CP Multiplier (CPM)

There's a formula that calculates out your Pokémon's CP and how much CP it should gain every power up using Pokémon level, species, and IV.

Every level also has a corresponding constant CPM value. When you first catch a Pokemon, it will have a base CP value that corresponds to that level. As it levels up from powering up, the CP will continue to match the correct values for each level.

CPM = base CP + additional CP

You can click HERE for a list of CPM by level. Don't ask me, I have no idea bout this.

Individual Values (IV)

Each Pokemon has its own set of hidden values that affect its potential for attack, defense and stamina called Individual Values (IV) and range from 0 to 15.Pokémon also have additional stats called Individual Values or IVs much like in the games. These stats are random for each individual specimen and are integer values that range from 0-15 and are added directly on to the Pokémon's base stats. Hatched Pokémon appear to have higher IVs on average.
Using CP_Multiplier (a constant value based on Pokémon level explained below), we get a Pokémon's core stats:

• Attack = (Base Attack + Individual Attack) * CP_Multiplier
• Defense = (Base Defense + Individual Defense) * CP_Multiplier
• Stamina = (Base Stamina + Individual Stamina) * CP_Multiplier

Stamina here is shown to the player in the form of HP!

You can try to determine what your Pokemon's IVs are by using Pokemon Go IV Calculator.




That's all my amateur understanding of how Pokémon Go works. What else have I missed? Feel free to share in the comment if you have more tips and I will update this post. Thank you and have fun catch em' all!